This is the Rajneeti...

Went to watch the much awaited movie on this Saturday- Rajneeti. The reasons being- Prakash Jha's movie, amazing star-cast, anticipation of how Katrina Kaif would portray the role of Sonia Gandhi, it being a modern day Mahabharata, expecting a good direction and story etc etc. Though the story was more or less expected- how ugly the politics can become but was interested in its execution.

The songs had already become my personal favorites, slow and melodious but discovered that a fast number which I had become fan of (thanks to the FM radio) was of Rajneeti only. Anyways. The opening and reviews of the movie has been great, which further encouraged us to go and watch it.

We missed the beginning, thanks to my laziness on Saturday, for which I should not be blamed, because I get only the weekend to rest and if...Ok, sorry for diverting from the topic. So the movie. Before getting into the movie hall I thought that Katrina Kaif is the central character and Ranbir Kapoor has a real short role, kind of guest appearance. But as the movie moved on, I realized that Katrina has an important role but not the main protagonist and Ranbir Kapoor had the longest and the most important part to play. The pace of the movie was fast and gripping. Manoj Bajpai back in form after a long hibernation and as usual acted superbly as an angry son furious over being neglected by everyone as the next natural heir to the party supremo post, including his own father. Nana Patekar as silent pillar to Arjun Rampal and Ranbir Kapoor, playing the Rajneeti. No songs were included in the movie, apart from being played here and there in the background. The scene where Arjun Rampal is blown up in the blast was terrible. For a long time there was a silence and the noise kept ringing in my ears for long. I guess that scene reminded me (us) of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination. Arjun Rampal does have a very strong voice, I must say, though he remains expressionless most of the time ever since he has started acting.

Ajay Devgan is a superb actor but I think he could have done much better than this. He seemed confused and diverted from his character when Manoj Bajpai included him in the party. As in, he entered with lot of aggression but afterwards looked as if he was caught and dragged unaware of what is happening around; the expression on his face after seeing off Nana Patekar when he named his father as the candidate from his village and I thought he would react more aggressively when his biological mother would unfold the truth that he is her son. But he was cool and calm and much more concerned about his loyalty towards Manoj Bajpai.

Another thing. The sequence when Bharati tells her truth to Ajay Devgan, it was too much of Hindi which is not used in today's time, specially this coming from an urban lady was not acceptable. This kind of Hindi is expected to be used in official communications in politics but not in personal lives. Also, apart from everything else, I was not much convinced of so many murders and too much of violence shown in the movie. Those killed were not just the side kicks of the politicians, they were the prominent members of the leading parties of the nation. Amidst all the killings and violence, the elections were still on and Ranbir Kapoor, a suave and PhD student (far away from being political) managed to float an entirely new party in just few days prior to elections, get his brother married and manage funds for the party, file for the candidatures and even bribe away few of the ministers from Manoj's Party.

But all in all, I may rate it as 3 or 3.5 out of 5. Much much better than so many recent movies and must watch types after 3 Idiots, though 3 Idiots was like 5/5.