Godfather meets Desi politics
I managed to dodge Karthik calling karthik, Houseful, Badmash Company, Kites etc… I thought I’d finally managed to separate the good movies from bad. Then I saw Raajneeti. Enough said. The only reason I sat on the edge of my seat with weary anticipation watching this bizarre political drama unfold on the screen was because my friend was threatening to sneeze on me.
In case you have seen Godfather based on Mario Puzo’s book (or read it) and in your childhood have had the Mahabaratha drilled into your head you may read ahead. Otherwise I’ll have to screech spoiler alert.
Obviously Godfather and Mahabharatha are the two tales that inspired Prkash Jha .I don’t know what he intended to tell us with his story. All I could gather from the story is –
1. That Indian politicians are the equivalent of the Italian Mafia ( Is this Mr. PJ’s way of telling our country that this in fact has happened considering we know who is our de facto PM?)
2. Behind every successful woman is a man. (Men)
3. Indian men have no balls. (Why else would RK not take up the position of the CM? And why did Congress have to use Ms. S.G in the fore front during elections?)
4. Prakash Jha likes having lots of characters on the screen and when he realized that there were just too many of them he had to start killing them. Whether the killings were justified are to be ascertained by the audience.
Coming to Character Assassination:
Ranbir Kapoor: Michael Corleone/Arjun: You can’t help comparing him to Al Pacino. For me it was a simple case of watching Al instead of RK. If you managed to notice it, RK has tried to mimic Al. Was RK good? Definitely.
Arjun Rampal: Sonny Corleone: He can ACT! He really can act. Most convincing character in the movie. I liked him the best.
Ajay Devgan: Karan: He was good. Considering the fact that he is a brilliant actor he wasn’t used the right way in this movie.
Nana Pathekar: Krishna: In the epic Krishna had reasons to play politics. In the movie I did not understand the reasons for most of his actions. Then again this is Indian politics we are talking about. It is therefore not surprising that people act without considering the consequences nor the necessity of the act done. Ah well. Indian politics does not have much to do with the Brain does it? (I wonder if that is what PJ intended to tell the audience, because if it is then he did an awesome job of that.)
Manoj Bajpai: Duryodhana: He did not get to win the gamble, he did not get to send the Pandavas on Van vas. He did not even enjoy the prospect of imagining himself enjoy his gains. He wasn’t allowed to have his other 99 brothers join him in the political war. ( My point here being that Godfather is the central theme of the movie. Mahabharatha is only a minor inspiration.)
Katrina Kaif: Draupadi: RK, who according the movie has been staying in the US to do his Ph.D returns to India sans accent, where as Ms. Kaif who has stayed in India all along has a thick accent. ( I am betting he used her for herSonia Gandhi like appeal and not for her acting and dialogue delivery skills.)
Sarah Thompson: Kay Adams: Meh… Again not convincing.
Bottom line – the females in the movie are all terrible actors, the male actors on the other hand fared much better.
My complaint: There were “supposed” to be some awesome dialogues. I did not hear any. Except manage to notice that the English curse words were beeped out but the Hindi words were not.
P.S: PJ dude we needed some originality. I guess your capacity to not think things through is very original almost every frame in your movie proved it.
In case you have seen Godfather based on Mario Puzo’s book (or read it) and in your childhood have had the Mahabaratha drilled into your head you may read ahead. Otherwise I’ll have to screech spoiler alert.
Obviously Godfather and Mahabharatha are the two tales that inspired Prkash Jha .I don’t know what he intended to tell us with his story. All I could gather from the story is –
1. That Indian politicians are the equivalent of the Italian Mafia ( Is this Mr. PJ’s way of telling our country that this in fact has happened considering we know who is our de facto PM?)
2. Behind every successful woman is a man. (Men)
3. Indian men have no balls. (Why else would RK not take up the position of the CM? And why did Congress have to use Ms. S.G in the fore front during elections?)
4. Prakash Jha likes having lots of characters on the screen and when he realized that there were just too many of them he had to start killing them. Whether the killings were justified are to be ascertained by the audience.
Coming to Character Assassination:
Ranbir Kapoor: Michael Corleone/Arjun: You can’t help comparing him to Al Pacino. For me it was a simple case of watching Al instead of RK. If you managed to notice it, RK has tried to mimic Al. Was RK good? Definitely.
Arjun Rampal: Sonny Corleone: He can ACT! He really can act. Most convincing character in the movie. I liked him the best.
Ajay Devgan: Karan: He was good. Considering the fact that he is a brilliant actor he wasn’t used the right way in this movie.
Nana Pathekar: Krishna: In the epic Krishna had reasons to play politics. In the movie I did not understand the reasons for most of his actions. Then again this is Indian politics we are talking about. It is therefore not surprising that people act without considering the consequences nor the necessity of the act done. Ah well. Indian politics does not have much to do with the Brain does it? (I wonder if that is what PJ intended to tell the audience, because if it is then he did an awesome job of that.)
Manoj Bajpai: Duryodhana: He did not get to win the gamble, he did not get to send the Pandavas on Van vas. He did not even enjoy the prospect of imagining himself enjoy his gains. He wasn’t allowed to have his other 99 brothers join him in the political war. ( My point here being that Godfather is the central theme of the movie. Mahabharatha is only a minor inspiration.)
Katrina Kaif: Draupadi: RK, who according the movie has been staying in the US to do his Ph.D returns to India sans accent, where as Ms. Kaif who has stayed in India all along has a thick accent. ( I am betting he used her for her
Sarah Thompson: Kay Adams: Meh… Again not convincing.
Bottom line – the females in the movie are all terrible actors, the male actors on the other hand fared much better.
My complaint: There were “supposed” to be some awesome dialogues. I did not hear any. Except manage to notice that the English curse words were beeped out but the Hindi words were not.
P.S: PJ dude we needed some originality. I guess your capacity to not think things through is very original almost every frame in your movie proved it.
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