Rajneeti: Part 1 is a political thriller that chronicles the story of two childhood friends. One is the chief minister of the state (Sanjeeb Sarma) and the other is the editor-in-chief (Tapan Das) of a leading new channel. The chief minister (CM) is declared the most popular CM of the country in a poll and this forces the owner of the news channel to pressurize his editor-in-chief to somehow get an exclusive interview from the CM for his channel. While the CM had never given any interviews before, he is forced to change his stance when he learns that the editor-in-chief is his best friend from childhood and his friend’s future depends on this interview. However, unknown to the CM and his staff, the editor-in-chief has set his own plan into motion that will change the lives of many on that fateful night when the CM takes the stage to give his first live TV interview to his state.
In addition to the central plot above Rajneeti: Part 1 has a critical subplot involving the kidnap and murder of a powerful local businessman and the following investigation into the death of the last surviving kidnapper. While the news channel prepares for the interview, the police are hot on the heels of the people who had killed the last surviving kidnapper and tried to stop the authorities from uncovering an inconvenient truth. If that was not enough, there is also a brief love story blossoming between Zubeen Garg who plays a fearless journalist for the news channel, and Barsha Rani Bishaya who plays an anchor for the same news channel.
Constantly engaging and relentless narrative: –
Rajneeti: Part 1 is relentless from start to finish. It reminded me of the popular Assamese mobile theaters and how two stages are used parallelly to perform plays in an almost cinematic manner complete with drama, thrill, action, romance, and even song and dance routines. The film has the same episodic nature and quality to it and each of the episodes is propelled by a lot of energy, gusto, and pace and also backed by theatrical but powerful performances. There is a finality to each of these portions. There is an overwhelming desire to entertain and hold onto the attention of the audience in every scene so that they don’t get bored. The narrative is always surging ahead at full throttle. Numerous things are happening parallelly and it all culminates in a grand finale that lasts a large chunk of the 2nd half. The finale provides enough gratifications to leave the audience exasperated and drained.
Interesting, well-defined and efficient characters: –
The best kind of character in a film is the ones that push the narrative forward. That is exactly what the characters in this film do. Each one of the major characters has a clearly defined task to do and they do it convincingly in the greater scheme of things. What is common between the characters is the fact that each and every one of them pushes the narrative forward and doesn’t wait for the narrative to initiate its forward surge. This ensures that there is always something happening on screen and the audiences are ceaselessly entertained throughout the film owing to the organic nature and unpredictability of the characters.
Powerful performances from the veterans: –
Tapan Das plays the editor-in-chief while Sanjeeb Sarma plays the CM. They play out the 2nd half of the film between themselves. The emphasis is on the past of Sanjeeb Sarma and it is using his past that the director peels off layer after layer from the story helping us understand where the story is headed. The encounters between the two veteran actors are wonderful to watch. Sparks fly between the two as they try to get the better of each other. However, one creative choice that I didn’t like was not having Tapan Das conduct the interview himself. Seeing the two actors pitted against each other would have been a much better and more interesting proposition. It would have also upped the believability of the narrative as for someone who has had such a long past with the CM to disarm him would have looked more believable.
Zubeen plays “himself” with utmost sincerity: –
Interestingly, Zubeen Garg takes a backseat in this film. He is present throughout but his presence never gets too pronounced or overpowering. As far as his performance is concerned, he again plays himself with utmost sincerity. He speaks, behaves, and emotes in a manner that is befitting of the persona and the public image that he carries. Even his voice modulations through the dialogues are exactly the same as what we hear from him during interviews and public appearances. So, whether you like his performance or not will depend on whether you like him as a public figure and how he conducts himself in public or not as his character here is a replica of his public self. Barsha Rani Bishaya is her usual self. She tries to be as comfortable as possible in a role that doesn’t seem to be in her comfort zone. She does come into her own towards the end of the film.
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Entertainment! Entertainment! Entertainment! :-
The entertainment quotient of the film is very high. It is easily one of its fortes. I was captivated by its storytelling tropes, thrills, constantly surging narrative, and the flurry of punches that it was able to deliver with its storytelling no matter how over-the-top or unrealistic, they might be. Yes, the makers do take a lot of creative liberties. Logic, believability and realism go for a toss whenever it is necessary to shun the same to have something that would have a more pronounced dramatic impact. The performances get over-the-top as we go along but it never becomes much of an issue since the actors are able to hold onto our attention with their respective essays. On the contrary, the over-the-top nature of the presentation only adds to the fun of the film and gives us an old-world feel of watching a theatrical drama during the festive season. At just a notch over 2 hours, the film’s runtime is perfect. It gets enough time to set up its meaty story and give it a satisfactory ending but at the same time doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Final words: –
Rajneeti: Part 1 was the first part of an apparently larger story. However, the film does finish the portion of the story that it sets off to tell and doesn’t leave the audience on a cliffhanger. This is something that I loved about the film. It also sets up the next film and leaves some very important questions unanswered that will be answered in the next film raising interest in that film. I had an enjoyable experience with this film and will definitely be interested to see what the makers can come up with in their next installment.
Rating: 3/5 (3 out of 5 Star)
Views expressed in this article are that of the reviewer and do not in any way reflect EastMojo’s position.
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