Raajneeti – Disappointing

One of the most awaited films this year, due mostly to the director and the stellar star cast, Raajneeti carried a lot of expectations on its shoulders.  But here we are let down first and foremost by the director himself.  Prakash Jha deals with too many characters in this film and in the end it turned out to be a disadvantage for him and the film. I felt a few characters should have been developed more. Ranbir Kapoor’s and Manoj Bajpai’s character were among the very well written ones. Ajay Devgn’s character too had “dome” motive in the start, but in the second half even his actions were not well justified. Katrina Kaif was hardly even there in the first half.

The major problem of Raajneeti is the scripting; Jha gave more preference to how to bring in Mahabharata in the film than to concentrating on the current politics, which should have been the main plot. The elements and characters of Mahabharata should have been add-ons. He was concentrating more on the character of Dhrithrashtra who was a less important character in Mahabharata, at least if we are only using elements of Mahabharata in a different story to tell. And Raajneeti wasn’t staying so true to Mahabharata that it should have characters like Dhrithrashtra when there are only 2 Pandavas and Dhrithrashtra has only one son.

The film turns into an unintentional comedy because of all these extra doses of Mahabharata going on and a few more scenes of poor writing. Katrina Kaif saying “I love you” to Arjun Rampal and when Ranbir/Arjun’s mother tries to tell Ajay Devgn that she is his real mother are laughable moments. And in a film which is supposed to connect with the youth, who uses words like ‘jaisth’ (meaning eldest) in the dialogs -  “Tum mere jaisth putra ho.”

It also turns illogical sometimes, when you see a mother going to meet someone when she has just lost her son and hasn’t even performed the antim sanskar. The film really misses the word EMOTION. Everyone here including brother, sister, mother, father was more interested in politics than their personal relationship. It is true in politics, people are more concerned about winning and losing, but even a mother? I can’t take that. Katrina Kaif was married to Arjun Rampal because he was standing up for the post of chief minister. I don’t see why a father of a girl will sell her daughter to a person and give over 50 crores rupees as dowry; especially when her daughter is Katrina Kaif. And Katrina Kaif did not turn the match down, which again was unjustified. The script really needed more effort and even though the duration of the film was around 170 mins, it still was incomplete. Although after seeing how the things going in the film and emotional moments turning into hilarious scenes, I was happy it was left incomplete. It would haven difficult to take more.

The high points in the film were the characters who were all shown with some negativity except for the ladies in the film. Why such partiality Mr. Jha? But whether it was a Pandava or a Kaurava, they all had some negativity in them and were using wrong means to win the election. The highlight of these characters was the character of ‘Krishna’ (played by Nana Patekar). It was good to see Jha taking up the risk and showing the negative side of Krishna too.

The casting too deserves special points, though not the acting. The casting deserves special points as the actors were chosen in such a way that they can easily be related to real politicians. But though some non-actors did try their best to act, they still did not come up with convincing performances. Ranbir Kapoor and Nana Patekar played their parts very well. Manoj Bajpai was good too, but after seeing him perform in Shool and Satya, it must not have been difficult for him. For most part of the film, he was only shouting. Ajay Devgn wasn’t making much of an effort in his acting in this film. The character suited him and he could have played it even while sleeping.

Though we see a good amount of effort been put up in this film, the film still demanded a lot more. It looked like Prakash Jha got strained and gave up after sometime and completed it just for the sake of the efforts he put into it. The film could have been much better, but sadly it disappoints.

Ishqiya – A fun watch.

Cast – Naseeruddin Shah, Arshad Warsi, Vidya Balan

Direction – Abhishek Chaubey

Like other Vishal Bhardwaj films, Ishqiya too is a very bold film. No surprise, as it is directed by Abhishek Chaubey who used to assist Vishal Bhardwaj in his earlier films. Set in the rural areas of UP, near the border of UP- Nepal, it hardly shows any good thing about UP. Instead UP is shown as a state where most of the criminal and terrorist activities take place like manufacturing guns and selling them.

The narrative of the film is based on multiple story lines coming together in the end. We see two thieves played by Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi trying to escape their boss after stealing money. They take asylum in Vidya Balan’s home, she is a widow after her husband died in a fire explosion in their house. Both Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi fall in love with Vidya Balan. But their boss finds them and to add to their problems, the money too is stolen. Vidya Balan then proposes a plan where they can steal money from a rich person by kidnapping him. And both of them are left with no option but to accept the plan because of their problem and love for Vidya Balan. Once they agree to the plan, the entire thing showed prior to it becomes a MacGuffin. What is a MacGuffin? –

A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin) is “a plot element that catches the viewers’ attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction.”
Sometimes, the specific nature of the MacGuffin is not important to the plot such that anything that serves as a motivation serves its purpose. The MacGuffin can sometimes be ambiguous, completely undefined, generic or left open to interpretation.
The MacGuffin is common in films, especially thrillers. Commonly, though not always, the MacGuffin is the central focus of the film in the first act, and later declines in importance as the struggles and motivations of characters play out. Sometimes the MacGuffin is even forgotten by the end of the film.

It is very much similar to Psycho directed by Alfred Hitchcock where a girl steals money and tries to run away from the boss, but that is hardly something to do with the basic plot of the film. Similarly in Ishqiya, the two thieves running with the money has hardly anything to do with basic plot.

The problem in Ishqiya is that the plot of the film was very paper thin and is based on one word – ‘TWIST’. The entire film is constructed around that very word. Of course, I can’t reveal the twist here as it would spoil the film for those who haven’t seen it yet. Although a few smart things, like the old woman with a fire torch and every room having a cylinder, that are very significant in the end were added in the film, but overall the plot wasn’t very well handled and I felt the director should have made more effort in developing the plot if twist was the word Abhishek Chaubey had in his mind.

Set in a rural background like Omkara, Ishqiya is yet another very bold film from Vishal Bharadwaj’s camp. Though it isn’t directed by Vishal Bharadwaj, Abhishek Chaubey ensures that just like Vishal Bharadwaj, even Ishqiya doesn’t make any compromise in the language or the scenes to make it a family watch commercial film. However, this time unlike Omkara, the cusswords are added to the film for the purpose of comedy rather than them actually suiting the film and the situations. In Omkara, the abusive words sounded apt according to the situations, but here in Ishqiya, we see them just to add the shock value to the film. It was slightly disappointing to see that happen. But the film had some genuinely good funny moments apart from the abusive humor which they relied on a lot.

One good metaphor in the film was a nude statue of a girl hanging in the car and swinging to the beats of Ibn-e-Batuta while Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi were driving the car, which probably meant that these two are going to fall in the trap laid by a girl.

The characters of Ishqiya are the biggest positive point of the film. Infact Ishqiya is a character driven film rather than a plot driven one. The characters are very well written and every actor did justice to their characters. Arshad Warsi was providing some good comic reliefs while Naseeruddin Shah was mesmerizing to say the least. It was great to see him showing his romantic side even in this age. Vidya Balan like Kareena Kapoor played the role of a fair looking girl in a village, only this time she wasn’t ‘MASOOM’ like Kareena Kapoor. For why I said ‘Masoom’ in capital letters, watch the film.  Aprt from the lead three, the other actors like Jijaji of Naseeruddin Shah, Kakkad and the boy (don’t remember the name of his character) were very good.

The music and the songs of the film are the finest I have heard in a long long time. Dil to Baccha Hai is the best of all of them and very aptly placed in the film. The lyrics of that song are awesome. Ibn-e-Batuta, failed to create the same level of excitement in the film as it creates when seen without any video. “Badi dheere Jali Raina” is awesome and melodious. “Ab mujhe Intezaar Kahaan” is one of the finest ghazals I have heard. Rekha Bharadwaj has a great voice and should sing more often.

Overall, Ishqiya is a fun film to watch, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more had the plot was more strong and the cusswords were used in a better way and not just to add humor. Still, I must say Ishqiya is an exciting film and a must watch.

MACGUFFIN INFO SOURCE – Wikipedia.