Rajneeti Film Review

Rajneeti is a film which is all about men killing men and women throwing themselves at men. The political machinations are good but tend to get tedious after a point.

Katrina Kaif and Sara Thompson shine by sheer acting chops among a galaxy of men who are seasoned actors. The one who disappoints is Ranbir Kapoor trying to underplay but not quite pulling it off.

The dialogue should have matched the scale of the film but falls woefully short and lapses into clichés like “yahan se raasta tumhe akele hi taiy karma hai.” The combination of Karna and Duryodhan just doesn’t work because Duryodhan is played to the gallery by Manoj Bajpai and Ajay Devgan holds back in the face of his co-star’s rank over acting. The voice over in the beginning tries to pack in too much and the viewer is left to figure out who is related to who and how and Katrina is nor explained till after the interval. Kunti’s role is badly written and terribly enacted.

The tragedy of Rajneeti is that while showing the ugliness of politics, it revels in it and becomes a far cry from Prakash Jha’s earlier political films that left one with a sense of anguish at what was unfolding on screen as it held up a mirror to India. Here Prakash Jha seems to be mocking himself for having taken it all so seriously.