Starring: Ajay Devgan, Nana Patekar, Ranbir Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Katrina Kaif, Manoj Bajpai and Naseeruddin Shah
Director: Prakash Jha
Rating: 
It is said that the epic saga of Mahabharata contains all the stories that exist in this world, be it lies, deceit, lust for power, revenge. In short all those that can make a solid impact. Prakash Jha taking a cue from this has set his big canvass film Rajneeti against an Indian political backdrop. But then at the same time he has merged dollops of The Godfatherwithin it. Nonetheless, the end product makes a compelling watch.
Cousins Veerendra Pratap Singh (Manoj Bajpayee) and Prithvi Pratap Singh (Arjun Rampal) are heirs of a powerful political party. But when Prithvi is appointed to take the lead, an angry Veerendra teams up with the backward class leader Sooraj (Ajay Devgan) to plot against Prithvi and evict him from the party. Prithvi’s younger brother Samar (Ranbir Kapoor) who is studying abroad and has no political aspirations gets sucked into the political rivalry between the families. Under the mentoring of senior party and family member Brij Gopal (Nana Patekar), Samar takes charge of the conniving affairs of state to start their own political party, gather funds and get Prithvi contest against Veerendra. What unfolds next as the battle shifts ground to the elections forms the rest of the film.
Like mentioned above, as the film mixes in elements from the Mahabharat, Veerendra’s character is a modern day Duryodhan where as Sooraj is Karan, a valiant soldier but on the wrong side. Brij Gopal played by Nana Patekar is like Krishna, the passive participant of the war who takes Ranbir Kapoor’s Arjun like character to victory with his guidance.
The film is a valiant effort by the master story teller, the multi-time National Award winner filmmaker, Prakash Jha who is at his home ground while making films of political drama genre. Here he is as ably aided by script writer Anjum Rajabali weaving just the right story and screenplay packing in all the treachery and deceit involved with Indian politics. What makes Rajneeti an engaging watch is also the fact that the makers have succeeded in narrating the story like a thriller format.
Jha doesn’t waste time in showing lip synced songs and incorporates them well in the narrative playing them in the background. Camerawork by Sachin Kumar Krishnan is simply superb. The way he has captured those vast mass shots deserves a bow. Although the running time of the film is close to three hours, it doesn’t matter much while watching the film and the credit for it goes to the editor Santosh Mandal. The sound design carries a good impact as well.
Absolutely brilliant performances by every single actor of the mammoth cast, also including those with smaller parts. As expected Naseeruddin Shah, Nana Patekar and Ajay Devgan are at their best. Arjun and Ranbir manage to match up to them as well and deliver a power packed punch. Katrina impresses with her uninhibited act. Sara Thompson as Ranbir’s foreigner girlfriend also leaves an impact in her relatively smaller part. But a performance that may win some awards for sure has been delivered by Manoj Bajpai. He is menacingly good. Shruti Seth, Vinay Apte, Kiran Karmarkar, Chetan Pandit and Nikhila Trikha lend able support.
Rajneeti is an important film in today’s times. It is not to be missed by connoisseurs of good cinemas well as those who forever complain that Hindi cinema offers nothing different.
- Sampurn Wire
Rajneeti is very hit film.All chracters are performed amazing roll in it but we like ranbir kapoor very much in this film.he is looking so smart in glasses
It is a normal routine Rajneetic story .. where there is no ‘Neeti’ at all. But the brilliant thing about this movie is each n every character justified their role to it’s full, may be more. This movie brought out the best/matured performances ever from Ranbir and Katrina.
This movie is a combination of Director’s brilliance, Actors performance and the entire team’s dedication.
This is the movie one shouldn’t miss at any affordable price …
I liked Manoj Bajpai’s role and acting in the movie.
I am disappointed because there was no full song…..
I was expecting all these songs in the movie:
Ishq barse boondan boondan…
Mora piya…
Bhigi si bhagi si…
Not impressed with the movie. The ‘inspiration’ from Mahabharata is too literal. But I absolutely enjoyed Nana’s performance. But it ends there. Ajay’s character was flat; Ranbir’s character starts from being an innocent bystander to an evil mastermind-thoroughly unconvincing. Katrina is bearable.
The movie has no pace. The climactic sequence is the crappiest ever- moneyed politicians taking part in a SWAT like assassination. The ‘Bhagwad Gita’ scene should have crafted in a better way. Its the holiest Hindu book after all.
My opinion about Rajneeti, as plebian movie-goer in a short summation is that it is a palette straight cut out of the mahabharata,superbly presented though.The characters in the movie symbolises the historical iconic characters from THE never aging epic.Manoj as Duryodhan,Ajay D as Karan,Ranbir a modern day Arjun and Nana the subtle and diplomatic Krishna.Katrinas character Indu can be safely be compared to Dhraupadi, except that she is a “Dochali” not so much a “Paanchali”, but close to it.The surprise package for me was Arjun Rampal.Though i cant put my finger on which character i can compare him to from the Mahabhrata, but whatever said and done the man made his presence felt in the movie AND HOW!!.To hold his own amongst an assemblage of powerful actors is commendable.Arjun has come of age and iam proud of the fact that he his not just a poster boy whose face is his only fortune.Coming back to the movie.I felt that there were glitches gallore.The way the important characters in the movie were bumped off at the bat of an eye lid and so nonchalantly at that is so so juvenile.Just imagine, big political leaders are assasinated in the movie and there is no sign of an inquiry or a probe forget investigation!.Prakash Jha works should not border along jejune juvenilia.However,The long and short of it that our man here has used THE MAHABHARATA AS A PROP and has crafted it into a BRILLIANT PLOT!!!
pathetic movie extreme violence
rajneeti movie is superb. But, i am really disappointed with Ranbir Kapoor. He didn’t perform well. His expressions are same in whole movie. On the place of him, there should be Abhishek Bachchan. But. I am really enjoyed the acting of Manoj Bajpayee. He has given his best performance in his film history. Ajay Devgan’ s acting was really heart touching. There is no any actor in Indian cinema who can challenge to Ajay in tragedy role. He shows his pain in his eyes. These two character Ajay and Manoj Bajpayee are the heart of this movie.
Nana Patekar was also good but his character had no more space in this movie. He doesn’t look good in side-role. Katrina really impressed with her performance in each scene of the movie. Specially, she imagines as Priyanka and soniya Gandhi. Her style was same to them. Other all character were so nice. Thanks to Prakash Jha but he should not ignore to Ajay Devgan.
brilliant movie can’t wait for rajneeti 2
4 kr ajit i think u should not be disappointed by RK peformance he was superb in movie
raajneeti,ajay devgn and prakash jha. Simply a pathetic and bad movie ,also this sort of movie was never expected from devgn-jha team. In the movie there was ‘raaj’ of assasinations and no ‘neeti’. Ajay has done nothing new,he was just like ‘kachche dhaage’ and ‘zakhm’. Rest actors were good but, mr. Manoj bajpayee has done extreme performance dear, electrifying get up and super dialogue punch ‘karaaraa jawaab milega,karaaraa jawaab milega’ obviously after a long time there is a true actor in front of mr. Ajay devgn, in his age column. well above all except ajay,manoj,katrina,arjun and, ofcourse ‘mora piya mohse bolat naahi….’ there is nothing in the movie. Climax was the greatest disaster in the movie.seems jha has gone mad alike ghai,bhansali and our favourite dev anand saahab…hhh.
Rajneeti is super-duper hit film.my best friend and best actor ajay bhaiya {ajay devgan}. but i liked arjun raampal and manoj bajpai’s role and acting in the movie. I was expecting all these songs in the movie. Mora piya…’…!
It is not a super hit film,because of some disappointing actions.