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After having watched not so few imbecile, clueless Bollywood movies and successfully having avoided the rest, comes a much awaited movie with a decent storyline.

Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti is a gripping movie though without an original story. The movie borrows heavily from the Mahabharata and lifts scene after scene from the Godfather. In fact for those of us who have read the Godfather 5 times and consider it the de facto guide to cinema, can actually predict the coming scene and also quote exactly from where it was lifted – the stud head on the bed, the car blast and not the least “If anything happens to anyone in the family we will consider the treaty broken”.

Inspite of all these drawbacks, Prakash spins a sinister and gripping tale about a family in politics. It’s about the extent people go to, driven by a greed for power and a thirst for revenge. How people manipulate even their daughters to fulfill their own political ambitions.

The drama unfolds in tune with the Pandavs-versus-Kauravs conflict, cousins Prithvi Pratap Singh (Arjun Rampal) and Virendra Pratap Singh (Manoj Bajpai) seek the reins of the political party when the patriarch suffers a paralytic stroke, resorting to every deed in the book – blackmail, murder, backstabbing, and even marriage of alliance.

Ajay Devgan stars as Suraj, Karn-like figure from the mythological epic. Samar, Ranbir Kapoor (like Micheal Corleone) younger brother of Prithvi Pratap Singh, who steps into the dirty politics after the murder of his father.

Manoj Bajpai with his over the top acting has been reduced to a caricature, whereas Nana Patekar does full justice to the role of the wise counsel representing Krishna. Naserruddin Shah has absolutly no role to play in the movie appearing for a full 5 minutes. Wonder why he even took up a role which could have been done by any junior artiste.

As for Ajay Devgan, who seems fully justified in sulking and throwing tantrums. His role was never etched clearly and the amazing ‘D Company’ and the ‘Omkara’ star seems to have been shortchanged.

Ranbir Kapoor has matured as an actor and plays his role to a hilt. As the manipulative ‘Super CM’ plays out the role to a hilt. Katrina Kaif has surely moved beyond the 13 word limit per movie. Sans makeup, comes across as sensitive and a fresh breeze.

What comes as biggest surprise is Arjun Rampal who takes off from where ‘Rock on’ left. No longer young, but still the ‘angry young man’. Rampal portrays the role of the without morals CM-in-waiting to perfection going all the way. Dark, sauve and as the eternal good looking hunk, Rampal in his 40′s and no longer bowed down by the pressure to compete withe the 20′s is in his true element. If not a Rampal fan, this movie will convert you into a die-hard fan.

At 2 hours and 50 minutes, after having removed all songs including the haunting ‘Mora piya’, “Raajneeti” is still way too long and demands a great deal of patience. The movie flounders and totters in between and especially towards the end when the 2 leaders have a free-for-all in broad daylight. Hard to swallow even for the hinterlands. Yet the commendable acting by the ensemble cast keeps you spell bound.

Ignoring the fact that Prakash Jha had begged every political party in Bihar for a party ticket and then went on to loose the elections twice as a Lok Janashakti Party candidate. Also ignoring the fact that Jha was arrested for allegedly distributing money to voters, and failure to keep election accounts, he remains one of the most compelling story tellers of Bollywood.

Rajneeti is a movie which will grip you and keep you glued to your chair for the complete 2h 50min without distracting you with the hills of Suisse, snowy Poland, Jimmy Choos or designer haute couture. The storyline remains the king.

Gossip Bollywood Rating: 3.5/5 A must watch. Its been a long time since we saw a gripping movie.