Raajneeti : Movie Review

Confused I am after watching this movie. It has everything, a good movie requires. Perfect cast, acts, storyline and even the typical bollywood cliches [which I always love by the way]. But the way things are mixed up, made it torturous for me, only second half.

Director Prakash Jha's Raajneeti starts off really well. Such a gripping screenplay that leaves audience stuck on their seats with its constant on-goings on screen. Each character gets well defined introductions. Each of them acts brilliantly. I personally don't like the subject of politics, in real life and also in movies. But I got totally hooked as the movie further went on.



But suddenly all that high - resulted in hangover like one gets very next morning after getting high at club. Second half gets too much tried and tasted formulated. And typical cliches.. Now, there is nothing bad in using cliches, after all , we are Bollywood, and proud to be one. But the way all the cliches - heroines parting way but getting pregnant, predicted shoot outs or bomb blasts or even, marriage to get money from 'ladki'walla. Everything is there, but somehow placed so badly that got arrrrghhhh from me. Seems, movie gets diverted from its fabulously carved path in first half. Some very serious flaws there.

At length of nearly 3 hours, no songs means a big disappointment for me. Okay, agree its a drama there shall never be any song. But ah, great songs were there in OST. :( and oh, one song used as shortened version - Ishq barse.. which was at unnecessary point. Another annoying thing was smooches. Arre yaar, its a movie abt politics, why there is a need to show smooches every now and then? First two are ok, story's demand, but then it was unnecessary.

Performances are brilliant that I must admit. Making a multi starrer is no easy job. Here, all of them have performed well. Though I found Ajay Devgn repeating his Yuva role [he was good there than this btw]. Its Arjun Rampal who surprised me with his really good performance. Whats more ! Prakash has got even Katrina to act. She does well. But its Ranbir who rocks this party with his brilliant performance throughout the movie. Still, on a personal note, I do not like to see him in such a role. He is way better in sweet boy roles.

Overall, it disappointed me with its unforgiven length and badly executed second half. A really well base was laid in first half, but second half killed it. Though there are sparks in second half too, but by then I got so bored by the flaws that even and item number could not have saved me. And to top that, finally movie ending with heroine getting pregnant ! HELP good God !

On a side-note : why they have such a misleading poster? Naseer's role was of just 5 minutes. While Katrina was in Saaree for just 10 minutes. Were they trying to sell this movie as story of Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi?? !! Bad Bad.

11 comments:

  1. Well, as you know from our twitter discussion, I disagree with you about the second half but I agree that, if nothing else, the film is worth seeing for the performances especially Ranbir and Arjun. Cheers!

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  2. we share similar taste on films. Now, I am more hesitant to watch because of that reason!

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  3. I've been wanting to watch this one and was planning to catch it this weekend but that looks impossible now :(

    I agree with you, cliches are actually only entertaining and moving when played right and it can take some skill to do that...

    And why is it that whenever a half of a film is bad, it's always (or very nearly always) the second half?? It's not just you and it's not just this film, that nearly always seems to be the case... Can u think of a reasonable explanation?

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  4. Christy
    Ah yes, Arjun Rampal has such a powerful performance in this one. Indeed it was a treat to watch both actors acting flawlessly - Ranbir and Arjun. And that's why NICKI, you must watch this. You will be helpless to decide who's looking better - Ranbir in superb suits or Arjun in fantastic India wardrobe.

    MsBlogger
    No, No. please. All, go see and decide for yourself. I shall not be decision maker for all. Many many of the blogger/twitter friends of mine have actually liked this. You should read Christy's review at her blog. May be you end up watching this and liking it. Its just me who doesnot like Politics, so may be I end up hating the second half.

    Oh yes, most of the time the movie fails just because of bad second half. Just don't know why.. but may be, default problem of writers. Has this thing happen to you anytime-that you start writing a blogpost with fabulous ideas and start of really well, and you get lost in between 2nd or 3rd para???


    ah, only movie I saw where second half was so better than first half - Magadheera!! You must watch it.

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  5. Oh no, I didn't mean I wasn't going to go see it because you said it was bad, I trust your judgement but it's just that it isn't playing near me so I can't go see it.

    I'll check out Christy's blog and I'm pretty interested in politics so I may end up liking it more than you did.

    I guess your right, it does happena nd I guess it's natural to get a bit of a can't-be-bothered attitude after a while but what confuses me is that it doesn't really happen in books, they tend to be good throughout or terrible throughout. Then again, I've started writing books and quit half way.

    Who's in Magadheera? I've heard the name but don't know much about it...

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  6. Yours is the second bad review for this film (check out Amrita's interesting take on Indiequill) that I've seen in blogland! I was really looking forward to seeing Ranbir do a grown-up role and hopefully a character with shades of gray. Movies about politics and movies without songs are always good in my book, but movies with senseless violence are not! Guess I'll wait for the DVD to come out, since I am not disposed to make the long trek to the nearest Indian theatre.

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  7. MsBlogger
    oh, magadheera is a telugu superhit, starring Chiranjeevi's son Ramcharan. Epic it is. Here's my take.

    bollyviewer
    without songs movie is okay, but how long can it get then?
    well, Ranbir is fab in this. But you yourself will think, Ranbir the good guy is better. :)

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  8. I totally agree about the misleading promos - I kept waiting for Naseer to come back and I still can't believe they made him one of the focal points of the marketing when his character vanishes in five minutes. But yeah, I have the hots for the Rampal in this.

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  9. Oh no! I'm sorry you didn't like it! I agree that the promotions were a bit misleading but I really enjoyed the film.

    I thought that the one sour note in the second half was Katrina's decision to sleep with her husband. I felt like it came out of nowhere. Other than that, the second half was just as good as the first, I thought. :)

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  10. I've never tried any South Indians films but I'll see if I can get my hands on this one! I've been wanting to watch Bomirillu (Sorry if I spelt that wrong) seen as it has Genelia and Siddharth and I'll add this to my list of SI films I want to check out if I can ever find them :P

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  11. Amrita
    Welcome hai ji to my blog. Yes, I thought posters were misleading, coz till now i haven't seen any theatrical trailer. Just saw on your blog, and voila ! it looks totally different from the film itself !!
    True about Rampal. He was damn good !

    Filmi Girl
    The whole Kat Rampal chapter was half baked. How on earth such a forward girl can obey his dad's wish to marry someone else but her love. Sarah was a not so required character too.

    MsBlogger
    If you can't get the DVDs, other sources are there, hah. Know what i mean.

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