What is it all about?
Prakash Jha mixes the elements of the greatest epic in the world the ‘Mahabharata’ with the mighty superior on screen drama ‘The God Father’ and gives us a studiously sincere film in which the human drama increasingly gets lost in the political twist and turns though its lead by a convincing cast where Ranbir Kapoor holds the key and it lacks the involving sweep of Jha’s previous political yarns like ‘Apaharan’ (2005) and ‘Gangaajal’ (2003).
But still it’s a recommended watch for its strong and superior quality acting by the principle cast.
The Story……of course
Bhaskar Sanyal (Naseruddin Shah), the fire-brand leftist leader, is feared for his single-handed ability to challenge the most powerful of leaders. Until one private mistake of his hurtled him into a self-imposed exile.
Cut to the present day. Prithvi (Arjun Rampal) is the heir to a powerful political legacy and impatient to seize the top position. But his cousin, Veerendra (Manoj Bajpayee), proves his biggest political opponent. He's a man who believes he was born to rule and who will now stop at absolutely nothing to claw his way back to the top.
Cornered by family and political colleagues, Veerendra plays a new game: He picks up Sooraj (Ajay Devgn), a youngster with anger in his heart and leadership on his mind. Sooraj doesn't know the secret behind his identity, which, of course, is revealed much, much later.
Prithvi's brother Samar (Ranbir Kapoor) is an 'outsider', with no political aspirations, but he gets sucked into the battle-ravaged arena of family rivalry. Only to turn into a master of the craft of political warfare. Indu (Katrina Kaif), daughter of a wealthy industrialist, is also caught in this web. Last but not the least, there's Brij Gopal (Nana Patekar), who plays the role of mentor and guide to Prithvi and Samar as the battle gets bloodier by the day.
What to look out for?
The movie has some great pluses where it impressively moves with intensity in the opening reels with fine assistance from its music score.
Each and every performance is noteworthy but Ranbir Kapoor holds the screen excellently and is destined to go places, he is well supported by Manoj Bajpai, Ajay Devgn who always has something special for Jha and of course Arjun Rampal who is very effective indeed and is a welcome surprise. Nana adds maturity to his role, Katrina is a revelation, the girl just transforms herself from the glam doll to desi mode with ease and improves her Hindi dictation as well. Rest of the cast that includes Dayashanker Pandey, Chetan Pandit, Darshan Jariwala, Shruti Seth, Kiran Karmarkar and Vinay Apte and Nikhila Trikha, as Arjun and Ranbir's mother add valuable support.
Sachin Kumar Krishnan’s textured photography, stressing the interiors of Madhya Pradesh convincingly conjures up the mood. Art by Jayant Deshmukh and costuming by Priyanka Mundada looks equally natural. Editing by Santosh Mandal is sharp.
Jha shot takings are brilliant, and helms the film like a master.
What Not?
Completely fictional with very loose resemblance to characters from Mahabharata like Ajay is Karna, Manoj Bajpai Duryodhan, Nana as Lord Krishna and Nikhila Tirkha as Kunti, the absorbing first half suddenly post interval moves away from contempt parallels and starts to take on the gangster lane. With conspiracy and everything happening for state elections, issues are sidelined and personal enmity and rivalry takes over where the characters are fighting to settle their personal scores… making it difficult for the audience to draw identifications.
The climax is ridiculous where the script writers allowing the main characters who are shown as smart, cunning politicians taking guns to settle scores.
Jha paints ‘Raajneeti’ on a much bigger canvas then his previous films and assembles a mammoth cast and that’s really commendable but the characters get lost in the plot-heavy predictable script.
The length is also a drawback...
A senior actor like Naseer is wasted.
Conclusion: The movie has tremendous curiosity attached to it, thanks to its promotions and the actors excel while the writers don’t. Watch it for Ranbir, his growth as an actor and performances by other principal cast as well.
Rating ***
What is it all about?
Master helmer Mani Ratnam again proves his technical brilliance in this modern take of ‘Ramayana’ and dares to be different.
No make up for Aishwarya; Abhishek in different colour shades on his face, the movie is shot in difficult and different locations and is a visual treat.
With this film, Mani with Big Pictures ventures into the entire Indian screen with its Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions.
Unlike most mainstream filmmakers, Mani Ratnam doesn't try to include something for everyone, ‘Raavan’ is for those who wants to see something ‘hatke’ and it has no similarities to Subhash Ghai’s ‘Khalnayak’ or ‘Hero’ as rumored earlier.
This modern take of ‘Ramayana’ is more of debate on the evil in you, held on stage made in a jungle and it deliver handsome things over here and also polishes the Bachchan couple as powerhouse performers.
The Story…of course
The take on Ramayana has Dev (Vikram) as Ram an encounter specialist happily married to with Ragini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) as Sita a spunky classical dancer who is as unconventional as him. Vikram gets transferred to Lal Maati, a small town in India (which part a question mark). A town where the world of law is not the police, but Beera (Abhishek Bachchan) as Ravan a tribal who has, over the years, shifted the power equation of the place from the ruling to the have-nots of the area.
Dev knows that the key to bringing order to any place is not to vanquish the big fish; in this case - Beera. In one stroke Dev manages to rip open Beera's world and set in motion a change of event which will claim lives. Beera, injured but enraged, hits back, starting a battle that draws Dev, Beera and Ragini into the jungle. The forest becomes the battleground. The battle between good and evil, between Dev and Beera, between Ram and Raavan.
What to look out for?
The movie starts with Beera taking a dive in the river, policeman getting killed burnt and Beera playing drums and kidnapping Ragini within seconds, cinematographer Santosh Sivan gets in to the mode and delivers what Mani ordered.
This first half Mani wants to show us the madness of this character Beera which may sound weird to some as he laughs, makes faces and smoothly tries in building the negative, hating shades of his character where the southern edge to the picture is clearly evident.
The movie tries to balance character with visual spectacle.
Visually the movie is a treat. Shooting the film at tough locales was not easy and Santosh Sivan with V. Manikandan had done an exceptional job in ‘Raavan.’.
Rahman’s music is more rhythmic then melodious but adds tempo to the proceedings.
The dialogues between Aish and Abhishek especially during the climax speak love and nothing else and are well written.
Abhishek’s role in ‘Raavan’ is more of madness then the intellect of Guru or the innocence of Lallan Singh in ‘Yuva’ but his performance is powerful as it relies mainly on the madness.
Aishwarya is top class in her role and she delivers it with panache. Vikram as Ram is excellent in whatever scope he gets. Nikhil Dwivedi impresses a lot. Ravi Kishen is superb, Negi adds valuable support and Priyamani is top rate.
The second half manages to create sympathy towards Raavan and that’s Mani and Renzil’s biggest achievement as the writer and the helmer wanted this to be.
Post interval portions triggers the debate on good and evil where the women is torn between and that’s where the movie rises from common intellect.
Smartly edited by Sreekar Prasad, the action sequence are awesome choreographed by Shyam Kaushal especially the bridge fight between Abhishek and Vikram.
Production values are mind-blowing
What Not?
Govinda is filthy; the comparison to characters from Ramayana may not be digestible to some as Govinda is shown as an alcoholic and his character is inspired from Hanuman.
The movie may become enemy of its own intelligence in the Hindi speaking belt as here Raavan is considered to be evil.
The story moves only in the second half, though a lot is heard about Beera’s unlawful practices but the viewer is hardly made privy to them otherwise the emotional impact would have been much better.
Conclusion: ‘Raavan’ is for those who wanna different taste of Bollywood, this visual treat may not be at par with Mani’s previous flicks but it certainly has its stamp marked over it backed by excellent performance and technicalities the movie is recommended for a big screen watch.
Rating ***
What is it all about?
Rata riti hota hai……… Rata meri jaan rata rat a rat, rattling hai mahan rata rat ta rat. Change the world by shouting and breaking the audience parda in the ears that’s what Mehul Kumar the erstwhile entertainer feels. Now he wants his daughter to carry the message of change which our dear Nana did superbly in 1994.
The problem is, during 1994 the character of Nana was identifiable in that era of yell-o-yore when Nana ruled with his unique strength of adding his zing, color, flavor to those slogan cinemas like Krantiveer, Tiranga, Yeshwant etc. But this sequel Krantiveer hams and hams right from start till the end. Nana was playful, comic, and serious but this wannabe Bollywood kumari is unbelievably only serious.
The Story……Of course
Roshni (Jahan Bloch) has inherited not only the courage and sting of her legendary father (Nana Patekar) but also the spirited lingo and the indomitable style.
Like him, she too wants to rid the nation of its corpus of corrupt, over-the-hill netas who have no idea - and no desire - of clean governance. She joins a TV channel and becomes a firebrand investigative journalist who is hell bent on exposing any and every scam. And now you don’t need to be an Einstein to guess what happens next.
What to look out for?
The movie is able to strike one message that youngsters should come forward and take charge of this suffering country otherwise sadly; the movie is mediocre in every department.
What Not?
The girl is yelling right from the word go and we don’t know why is she so serious while reading the news also. The treatment is old fashioned that won’t go with today’s audience who wants things to be in undertone. The drama, the sting operations, the sleazy politicians, the item song, the greedy head honcho, the mandir masjjd and the transfer of footage from the 26/11 attacks fail to make any impact.
Conclusion: Go if you must.
Rating *
