Raajneeti

<p>Bharti Rai, the daughter of Ramnath Rai, a prominent politician, has an illegitimate son with a rival leftist leader, Bhaskar Sanyal. The son is abandoned by Brij Gopal, Bharti’s brother. Bharti is married to Chandra Pratap, the younger brother of Bhanu Pratap, leader of the Rashtrawadi Party. The minority state government collapses when the Rashtrawadi party withdraws its support. Bhanu Pratap suffers a stroke and hands over power to Chandra Pratap. Chandra’s elder son, Prithvi Pratap, tries to take advantage of his father’s power, which results in a clash with his cousin, Veerendra Pratap. For the upcoming midterm polls, Prithvi rejects the nomination of local leader Sooraj Kumar, who is chosen by the common people. Sooraj gets Veerendra’s support instead. Unknown to all, Sooraj is Bharti’s abandoned son, who was found and brought up by the Pratap family’s driver Ram Charittra and his wife. When Sooraj demands a candidacy in the elections, Brij Gopal shrewdly nominates his father Ram. Chandra Pratap’s younger son, Samar Pratap, returns from the . His childhood friend Indu proposes to him, but he declines. In order to regain his power and be the chief-ministerial candidate in the state assembly election, Veerendra has Chandra Pratap assassinated and Prithvi is arrested. SP Sharma, under Veerendra’s influence, presses rape charges against Prithvi. In order to bail him out, Samar promises Veerendra Prithvi’s resignation. However, Samar and Prithvi begin rallying public support. The bedridden Bhanu Pratap expels Prithvi, who forms the new party. To raise funds for the new party from Indu’s industrialist father, Samar ensures Prithvi’s marriage to Indu against her will. Meanwhile, Samar’s American girlfriend Sarah arrives in to meet him. Samar kills Babulal, an old party associate of Bhanu Pratap, after uncovering that Sooraj and Veerendra had murdered his father. Prithvi kills SP Sharma. Indu and Prithvi consummate their marriage. Sarah realizes that the two brothers are committing political murders and decides to return to the US, pregnant. Veerendra and Sooraj plan to assassinate Samar by planting a bomb in his car, but it is Prithvi and Sarah who perish in the explosion. Sooraj is revealed to be the first child of Bharti. Devastated by the loss of his brother and girlfriend, Samar retaliates by suggesting that Indu take the reins of the party. On the counting day, Samar lures Veerendra and Sooraj into a trap, and Veerendra gets shot by Samar and his men. Sooraj cannot bring himself to shoot Samar since they are brothers. Veerendra dies. Brij Gopal prompts Samar to shoot Sooraj to take revenge for the destruction of his family. Samar, not aware of his relationship with Sooraj, shoots him. The election results are declared. Party emerges with a majority, and Indu becomes the CM. Samar and Indu mend their differences. Indu is pregnant with Prithvi’s child, while Samar leaves India to look after Sarah’s mother. of rated it 3/5 and criticized saying, “There’s a reason was a . Shyam Benegal could brilliantly adapt it around India’s corporate boardroom, only for his contained minimalism ( (1981)). What you sense here instead then is an over-dramatic, over-written screenplay: an over-boiled egg.” He said that the sub-plots of various characters have an awkward conclusions. He compared Jha’s earlier films (2003) and (2005) and remarked that they are “finely focused works” in comparison to . of rated it 4/5 and said, “The film basically anchors its plot in two classic tales — The and (1972) — to create an engrossing diatribe on India’s political system where democracy may prevail, but not in its purest form.” of rated it 3/5 and said “Jha creates a real sense of the machinations and sordid deals that fuel politics but then hobbles it with outlandish twists and some decidedly ‘filmy’ moments”. of rated it 3.5/5 and said, “In the end, is thrilling and gripping for the most part, even though it does lose steam in its final act. And as far as politics goes, it doesn’t tell you very much more than you didn’t already know.” He continued, “For the superb acting, and for the exciting dramatic highs, it’s a film I recommend you do not miss.” Raja Sen of gave a 1.5 out of 5 star rating explaining that it is “essentially (2008) minus Amitabh Bachchan, is a hyperactive drama given to much yelling and little thought. The screenplay is weak, manipulative and every possible kind of lazy, with an omniscient narrator who vanishes after a while, a slew of unbelievably one-note characters, clunky dialogue that often lapses into something from period cinema, and bloody deaths thrown in every few scenes to kickstart the drama in this exhausting 3-hour film.” Rachel Saltz of said, ” , with its large cast of characters and wealth of subplots, is often a mess, but an interesting one.” She also said, “The film – full of romance, intrigue and fraternal strife – is too diffuse to score political points. Or to have much impact.” Robert Abele of the found that while it aimed “for something trenchant about thwarted destiny and ugly ambition in modern Indian democracy”, it “mostly winds up with a convoluted and tonally awkward rehash, with nary a character worth rooting for” and that “Kapoor’s performance is stony rather than calculating….” of said, “More pulpy than political, this -ripoff Hindi electoral drama is a candidate for oblivion in U.S. theatres. … It all eventually becomes so ridiculous and over-the-top violent that there is nobody, nobody, to root for.” On the website , 22% of 9 critics’ reviews are positive. grossed (US$17 million) worldwide and was declared a superhit at the box office. recorded an opening of nearly 10 crore net on its first day. It had the second highest Friday opening in India after and the highest Friday opening in the first half of the year, surpassing . It collected 34 crore at the end of the weekend and set a record for biggest weekend in the first half of the year, surpassing . It showed no major decline in business on Tuesday and collected 5.85 crore. At the end of the first week, the film collected 54.75 crore and set a record for biggest week in the first half of the year beating . sustained well in the second weekend and collected 16.25 crore. nett grossed (US$11 million) in India with a distributor share of (US$5.8 million). Overseas, the film opened to a weekend business of $2.25 million. In the U.S., played well for a limited release, noted Ray Subers of , grossing $850,244 on 124 screens its opening weekend, “which was good for first among limited releases and 11th place on the overall weekend chart.” He specified that “became the third Bollywood film this year to lead all limited releases in its first weekend,” following and . In Australia and New Zealand, surpassed the opening weekend record set by (2009). ‘ ‘ was first denied a certificate by the censor board of India for their thought that the lead character played by Katrina Kaif is inspired fully or partially by the chief and ‘s chief . Director Prakash Jha dismissed this allegation, saying his only inspiration was , an epic from ancient India. References to electronic voting machines and parts of the film suggesting that women have to compromise to get ahead in politics, crude dialogues about the Muslim community and some intimate scenes and excessive violence were removed before giving the film a censor certificate. The score was composed by Wayne Sharpe while the soundtrack was composed by Wayne Sharpe, , and . The lyrics were written by , , and . The soundtrack consists of five original songs and four remixes. It was released on 12 May 2010. The songs “Mora Piya” and “Bheegi Si Bhaagi Si” went on to be chartbusters of 2010.</p>