Rajneeti (2010)

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Bollywood fans have been craving for good cinema since quite a while and Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti seems to quench their thirst well. There is no doubt that the movie lacks Bollywood masala, glamorous clothes, dances numbers and romance, which Indian cinema thrives on but there’s something in this film which sets it apart from the rest!

Rajneeti is a complicated story about politics, democracy and elections in India. It’s a story that shows how some people have control on the lives and destinies of millions. It’s a story about how political ambitions make a person extremely bitter and violent. It’s a story about how the young generation becomes wildly involved in politics after the death of the family’s head. It’s a story about how an ultimate outsider to politics, Samar Pratap (Ranbir Kapoor) comes from abroad for his uncle’s birthday and gets involved into the battle-ravaged ground of family rivalry and becomes the mastermind behind the entire political warfare. It’s a story about how his life changes from a peaceful one to one that contains a lot of aggression! It’s a story of the woman who loves him and lost him and the one he loved and lost! It’s a story of a simple man’s fall into the moral hell, politics. To cut it short, it’s a story of the ugly side of Indian democracy, politics and beyond.

Rajneeti is a great attempt by Prakash Jha to shed light on the many social problems that prevail in the Indian society and he tries his best to expose them through this film. It also shows how politics is driven by corruption, greed and most of all revenge. Nothing more can be said about the plot because that would confuse you even further.

Ranbir Kapoor can easily be called the lead of Rajneeti even though there are many other actors with equally important roles. I never doubted Ranbir’s potential but this role was just performed to excellence. The way he has acted his role with such intensity shows that these young actors are not just eye candy and they can actually do serious parts. His acting in Rajneeti could easily give the best actors of Bollywood a run for their money. Throughout the film, his emotions were intense, his dialogues strong, his actions just perfect and can I also please add his looks were absolutely killing?

Surprisingly, Katrina too fit in the role perfectly, even though I never thought she would be able to do justice to such a serious performance. Considering Rajneeti is her first mature role, she has done a great job and the way she portrays her emotions leaves you in tears and shows that she has matured as an actress. Arjun Rampal has also shown great acting skills and portrayed the role of a violent politician perfectly while Ajay Devgan is just another actor in the film and it’s clearly not even near one of his best performances. The supporting cast has done an excellent job too.

The songs were beautiful especially ‘More Piya’, ‘Bheegi Si’ and ‘Ishq Barse’ and anyone can get addicted to them easily. Direction was beautifully done, the script was very well written and the dialogues were extremely strong, which breathed life into different roles. Coming to the technical side of Rajneeti, the camera work was brilliant, the art direction was superb and the background score was just ideal.

However, Rajneeti does come with a few flaws. To begin with, it takes a bit too much time to settle down the plot and narration and you need to watch it with a lot of concentration otherwise it will only make your head spin! 40 minutes into the movie and all that has been shown is politics. Those who want to see Ranbir and Katrina spark on the screen will be extremely disappointed as there are hardly five scenes of them together. I also believe that there were a few (read: very few) parts where the movie seemed stretched and a little more editing would have made it is flawless but this does not mean that one could get bored during the movie!

All in all, it’s one of those movies that make you enjoy every part of the film and the popcorn as your eye balls pop out at literally every scene and at times you even jump in your chair out of shock with what just happened. It makes you feel the money and time was well spent as you walk out of the cinema.

Whether Rajneeti makes millions on the box office or not is still a question considering a hefty budget of 20.91 million was spent on it and recovering such huge amounts is not that easy, but it’s one movie you shouldn’t miss this summer. It shows how Indian cinema is much more than sugar coated stories and happy endings – Hafsah Sarfraz

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 2010, Genre – Drama/Action, Country – India, Language – Hindi, Producer – Prakash Jha, Director – Prakash Jha, Music Director – Wayne Sharpe, Pritam Chakraborty, Aadesh Shrivastava, Shantanu Moitra, Cast - Ajay Devgn, Nana Patekar, Ranbir Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Arjun Rampal, Katrina Kaif, Manoj Bajpai, Sarah Thompson, Darshan Jariwala, Shruti Seth, Nikhila Tirkha, Chetan Pandit, Vinay Apte, Kiran Karmarkar, Daya Shankar Pandey, Jahangir Khan, Ravi Khemu

Rekha in Umrao Jaan (1981)

This film is based on the Urdu novel Umrao Jaan Ada by Mirza Mohammad Hadi ‘Ruswa’, published in 1899, which presents the story of Umrao Jaan, a courtesan of Lucknow and Kanpur, as supposedly true. It is set at the last moment of Lucknow’s glory: the 1857 uprisings occur in the novel when Umrao Jaan is at the height of her power. The novel’s popularity has continued to the present, although the story of Umrao Jaan is probably better known now from this film version, which has been adapted considerably to fit the requirements of the Hindi film. These include a focus on Umrao’s romance and her transformation into a beautiful woman, and the film creates nostalgia for a lost world, adding the visual pleasures of cinema.

The child Ameeran (Umme Farwa) lives in Faizabad with her parents (Muzaffar Ali plays her father) and her baby brother (Shaad Ali Sahgal, Muzaffar Ali’s son, who directed Saathiya [2002] and Bunty our Babli [2005]). Her father’s enemy Dilawar Khan abducts her from her own engagement ceremony and she, along with another girl, Ram Dei, is sold in Lucknow. The chaudhuriyan (madam) (Shaukat Kaifi) of her kotha (brothel) renames her Umrao and she is trained in dancing, singing and poetry. She and her friend grow up (into Rekha and Prema Narayan). Gauhar Mirza (Naseeruddin Shah), the son of one of the tawaifs, pursues her but, once she begins to perform, a nawab, Sultan Sahib (Farouque Shaikh), falls in love with her and she with him. When the nawab and Umrao realise that they cannot marry, she runs away with Faiz Ali (Raj Babbar), a bandit. When he is killed, she sets up her own kotha in Kanpur where she meets Ram Dei, who has married a nawab and laments her own fate. Mirza comes to take her back to Lucknow, but she escapes during the 1857 uprisings. She finds herself in Faizabad, where she continues with her career.

The film showcases the talents of Rekha, one of the great divas of Hindi cinema. Although she was already an icon, this is her greatest performance and the film in which she looks the most beautiful. The film is obsessed with the exquisite aesthetics of a lost Islamicate culture. Muzaffar Ali, himself a member of one of the princely families of Lucknow, and latterly a clothes designer and music event organiser, has paid attention to every detail of these aspects to produce a visual gem. It is said that the extras are also members of princely families, who were asked to come dressed in their finest clothes and to lend items from their palaces. Since much of the film was shot on sets in Bombay, it seems more likely that the props were brought from markets such as Chor Bazaar.

The film has wonderful songs, especially Umrao’s four ghazals (a popular genre of Urdu poetry), with music by Khayyam, lyrics by Shahryar and sung by Asha Bhosle. These are ‘Justuju jiski thi’, ‘Yeh kya jagah hai doston’,’ In aankhon ki masti’ and the most popular of all, ‘Dil cheez kya hai?’. Although not classical music, they produce a similar effect and, as such, they are much loved even today.

The film is currently being remade, presumably only as a commercial venture, as any attempt to improve on it would be very risky indeed.

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 1981, Genre – Drama, Country – India, Language – Hindi, Producer – Muzafar Ali, Director – Muzafar Ali, Music Director – Khaiyyam, Cast - Farooque Shaikh, Rekha, Naseeruddin Shah, Raj Babbar, Prema Narayan, Shaukat Kaifi, Dina Pathak, Khan Ghilzai, Akbar Rashid, Gajanan Jagirdar, Rita Rani Kaul, Shaheen Sultan, Umme Farwa, Seema Sathyu

Jugal Hansraj in Masoom (1982)

This story of an illegitimate child is a real weepie, which picks up the theme of forgiveness that runs through so many Hindi movies. It is said to be based on Man, Woman and Child (1982), a film adapted from the book of the same name by Erich Segal of Love Story fame, although, in a seeming reversal of trends, this version by Gulzar seems less melodramatic than the western one.

D. K. Malhotra (Naseeruddin Shah) lives a seemingly idyllic life with his beautiful wife Indu (Shabana Azmi) and their two little girls, Twinkle (the young Urmila Matondkar, who later became a star in Rangeela) and Minni (Aradhana, a true star who, I believe, died soon after the film was made). However, it emerges that he had had an affair with Bhavna (Supriya Pathak), a desperately lonely woman, at his college reunion and a son, Rahul (the young Jugal Hansraj), was born. After Bhavna’s death, D. K. is told about Rahul, who comes to live with D. K.’s family in Delhi. Indu cannot forgive her husband, whom she now rejects, and refuses to accept Rahul. Indu uses harsh words to Rahul but occasionally moves towards him, only to draw away again. The girls welcome Rahul immediately and D. K. and Rahul develop a close relationship, although D. K. cannot bring himself to tell his son that he is his father whom he hopes one day will come to find him. Rahul finds a letter that reveals his parentage and runs away. Indu tries to accept him but cannot until the ultimate moment of the film.

The theme of forgiveness runs throughout. Even Bhavna’s ‘sin’ is forgiven by the narrative, as her affair with D. K. is explained as the action of someone deprived of all affection. The girls and Rahul are shown to be naturally forgiving and accepting of others, and are clearly the model to follow. Both the protagonists are in need of forgiveness: D. K. needs Indu to forgive him for his affair, while she needs to be forgiven for her refusal to let herself love an innocent (masoom) child because of her husband’s actions.

The pain of the two adult protagonists and Rahul is dwelt on at great length. It is occasionally verbalised, but the film uses gesture and performance, as well as song, to convey the emotions of the characters. The skill of the film-maker is to make us understand Indu’s treatment of Rahul, even while we sympathise with him. There is only one solution, namely the reunion of all the family, but the route to this is shown to be realistically difficult.

Masoom reveals a great upper-middle-class sensibility in its characters, their occupations and lifestyle. The women’s saris have an almost nostalgic value for a certain kind of elegance associated with the Delhi elite. The music is the light classical type, with haunting melodies by R. D. Burman and lyrics by Gulzar, including ‘Tujhse naaraz nahin zindagi’ (Lata Mangeshkar).

Naseeruddin Shah, one of India’s major acting talents, delivers an outstanding performance as the errant husband and devoted father, as does Shabana Azmi, who manages to portray her deep ambivalence to the child. Saeed Jaffrey, as always, provides strong support and the children are excellent.

Shekhar Kapur has made few Hindi films but all of them have been significant, including Mr India and Bandit Queen.

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 1982, Genre – Drama, Country – India, Language – Hindi, Producer – Chanda Dutt, Devi Dutt, Director – Shekhar Kapur, Music Director – R. D. Burman, Cast - Naseeruddin Shah, Saeed Jaffrey, Shabana Azmi, Supriya Pathak, Urmila Matondkar, Tanuja, Jugal Hansraj