Unlike the "other" greatest story, which is repeated every year on Christmas to the joy of a billion Christians worldwide, the tale of family jealousy, trickery and scheming that is the Mahabharat has never really been represented well on the big screen - until now. There was the elaborate small screen version by BR Chopra , that featured endless arrows flying at one another, and the artsy version for stage by Peter Brooks with (gasp!) a black actor. The move "Rajneeti" has taken the best of the Mahabharat, added in a dash of the Godfather, and linked it beautifully to politics as practiced in modern day India to deliver a gripping tale that is devoid of an item number or a great selection of songs.
The Mahabharat connection is fairly obvious in the movie, but it is not simply inserted where convenient - rather, one realizes how easily the story of the Mahabharat can fit on top of 21st century politics. The movie starts with a baby boy being abandoned by a mother, who then goes onto marry one of the two brothers of a political dynasty. The two brothers both have children who don't get along, each one vying for a chance to take over the entire party and rule it according to their diktat. By now, you've figured out that the two brothers are clearly modeled on Dhritrashtra and Pandu, more so when one (Pandu) gets killed and the other is paralyzed (an easier one to work than being blind). The sons of these two are fighting it out and constantly trying to outsmart the other - Prithvi and Samar (a modern day Yudhishtir and Arjun, or could it be Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi?) on one side, Veerendra on the other (a good Duryodhan). Of course, the Pandavas are nice and clean shaven, while Veerendra sports a thick moustache and generally tends to wear black.
While fighting over seats for the upcoming elections, enter Sooraj, who turns out to be the baby abandoned at birth, and hits it off with Veerendra, who gives him a place in the party, thereby representing the moment when Karna was accepted by Duryodhan but rejected by the Pandavas for not being of "high birth" (fittingly, Sooraj, played by Ajay Devgan, is a Dalit. The name "Sooraj" is also apt, since Karna was the sun's son). The modern day exile of the Pandavas is represented by ejecting them from the party, whereby they form another one, under the watchful eye of Brij Gopal (wonderfully played by Nana Patekar) - more on him later.
Veerendra tries everything within his power to prevent Prithvi and Samar from winning the election, including starving them of funds. In order to be assured of funding, Brij Gopal takes a proposal to the businessman Sakseria to marry off his daughter Indu (played by Katrina Kaif) to Samar. She is clearly fond of him, but he is apparently in love with an American woman, having met her while at college in the US. Anyway, Sakseria is more than happy to get his daughter married off, but instead proposes that she marry Prithvi, who is in line to become the CM. At this point, Samar, who is starting to take behave increasingly like Michael Corleone, begins to take the lead as the more dominant sibling. He tells his brother to go ahead with the marriage, because it will help him win the election. This is akin to Arjun, who won Draupadi's hand using his archery skills, then turning around and offering her to the other brothers (in this case, just the one). So we end up with Indu marrying Prithvi but perhaps still secretly in love with Samar. By this time, his US girlfriend has landed up in India, all concerned about the news she's been reading (apparently she has access to a TV channel that cares about politics in MP!)
I mentioned earlier that there are some distinct Godfather moments in the movie. The first is when Samar discovers an act of betrayal by Babulal, a loyal party servant, who was apparently responsible for his father's death. Babulal realizes that his number is up and begs forgiveness, falling at Samar's feet at exactly the time that his girlfriend opens the door to the room. She is dumbfounded, Samar stared blankly at her but doesn't move - Brij Gopal saves the day and closes the door. This is very similar to the last scene in the Godfather, where Michael is anointed the Don and has people kissing his hand, while Kay (Diane Keaton) watches from outside, only to have the door slowly swing shut (a beautiful scene, worth watching a hundred times!)
Once Babulal has confessed his sins, he is let off and Samar promises to protect him, but instead gives him a cell phone wired to explode when receiving an incoming call (gives a new meaning to "dhamakedaar" savings on your mobile plan!) Babulal drives off, Samar gives him a call and that's the end of that. This is the equivalent of when Michael Corleone finds out that Connie's husband was responsible for the death of his brother Sonny, and then has him strangled in the car outside (the flailing legs crashing through the windscreen).
Another very obvious Godfather analogy is when Veerendra is lured to the location where Samar is supposedly trying to rig the election using lots of computers. He dashes out of the house and drives without his bodyguards, only to realize that its a trap and Samar and his henchmen are waiting to finish him off there. Luckily Sooraj follows him and manages to drag him out of there. Think Sonny Corleone getting gunned down at the tollbooth. There are some others as well, such as the part where Brij Gopal frames someone by having his gay lover killed in the same bed, and he wakes up to find the sheets soaked in blood (this is a mix of the famous horse's head scene from Godfather I and also the senator in Godfather II who is framed with a hooker).
The classic scene in the movie, which is also the essence of the Mahabharat, is when Samar and Brij Gopal are chasing Sooraj and Veerendra who are both badly injured. Their car overturns and Sooraj is trying to get Veerendra to the hospital - he asks Samar to let them go. Samar hesitates, perhaps out of a sense of honor to not kill someone who is defenceless, but also recognizing that the two people facing him are his close relatives (the very same dilemma that faced Arjun on the battlefield). So who is the Parthasarathy here? None other than Brij Gopal (of course, what other name would suit Krishna?) He is watching all of this drama unfold, and while Samar is in two minds about what to do, tells him very plainly that if he wants to achieve his goal of taking the reins of power, then he has to finish off his opponents - regardless of the situation. So the Gitopdesh is played out in the 21st century with a young man pulling his gun and shooting down his opponents. Some might call this brutal and lament at the state of politics in the country, but the manner in which it is shown in the movie is quite elegant. You realize that sometimes the only way forward is through means that might otherwise be regarded as underhanded. Or that all fair's in love and war - and politics is just war by another name.
So that's the summary of this tale, which I would strongly recommend watching not just once but several times, and even worth getting on DVD. While it provides you with a dose of reality on the state of politics in the country, it also reminds us that the roots of this are age-old and perhaps not confined just to India, but a problem that every country has had to grapple with in its history.
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