Raajneeti

[tikistitch]

No dancing, please, we're POLITICIANS.



This one really took me by surprise. You'll notice I haven't posted a keen or weird or especially funny dance? Yeah, that's because THERE ARE NONE! This movie's only bow to a production number is when two characters sort of half-heartedly spend a few minutes at a dischtheque.

The plot? Pffft. An Indian political party suffers a rift when the head has a stroke. I mean, come on.

And, I was basically riveted for three hours. I freaking love this movie! Some people have called it the Indian Godfather. That's not quite right: for one thing, Ranbir Kapoor is no Al Pacino. (In fact, the movie briefly pairs him up with Katrina Kaif, giving us two actors who have between them a sum total of two facial expressions: chemistry, they ain't got it.) And there's nobody - I mean NOBODY to root for - they're all bastards. But this has a kind of trashy, pulpy energy to it that's just impossible to resist. And these dudes are HARSH. When they're not scheming (and there's tons of scheming - Nana Patekar for one plays a wily old uncle who's a kick to watch) they bring out guns, or car bombs, or baseball bats to settle scores.

And the performances overall range from enjoyable (Patekar, and Naseeruddin Shah, who disappears waaaay too soon) to quite good (Arjun Rampal, who's cute as heck, but can come off like a particularly boring block of wood). Even Kaif, who usually bugs the hell out of me is quite decent (if you ignore her occasional attempts to "act"). The only downright unwatchable scenes for me were the ones with the American actress who plays Kapoor's American fiancee.

The most fascinating aspect to me was how politics translates to a family drama. I can relate to American mobsters passing down the leadership to their kids, but sons who expect to take over leadership because their fathers are political leaders? George W. Bush notwithstanding, we'd never stand for it, but it makes the story fun: besides the inevitable star-crossed arranged marriage, there's even a no good bastard brother here - that's a trope I haven't seen in a long time!