Early in the 2010 Hindi film Raajneeti, directed by Prakash Jha, senior politician Brij Gopal (Nana Patekar) tells a younger aspirant Sooraj Kumar (Ajay Devgn), that there are no right or wrong actions in politics. “The only purpose of any political action is to fulfil an objective,” says Brij, “at any cost.” This ideology informs the actions of all the characters in the film, which narrates the story of a power struggle in a political family from a north Indian state. In the pursuit of state power, everything is justified — corruption in public office, manipulation of allies, friends, and relatives, and even murder. In the process, politics and state power are transformed into a criminal enterprise.
There are several other important characters, such as Chandra Prakash’s younger son, Samar Pratap (Ranbir Kapoor). Samar is doing a PhD in English literature in the US and returns home for a holiday. Brij Gopal is an advisor to Chandra Prakash’s faction of the party and brother to his wife, Bharti (Nikhila Trikha). Sooraj Kumar is her pre-marital child, adopted by the family chauffeur; he grows up to be a champion kabaddi player and aspiring leader of the Dalit community. When his claim to an election ticket is rejected by Prithvi and Chandra Prakash, Veerendra sees an opportunity and appoints him as an office bearer in the party. The internecine conflict escalates when Sooraj and Veerandra get Chandra Prakash killed.
About to go back to the US, Samar returns from the airport to take charge, like Michael Corleone. His brother Prithvi has been arrested on trumped-up charges and thrown out of the party. Samar manages to get his brother out on bail and arranges his marriage to Indu (Katrina Kaif), the daughter of a business tycoon. Indu loves Samar, but he is involved in a relationship with his fellow student, Sarah (Sarah Thompson). As Prithvi’s newly formed Jan Shakti Party seems to take a lead in the elections, Sooraj strikes again — a car bomb kills him and Sarah. Samar projects Indu as the new leader of the party, and a sentimental wave ensures that she wins the elections. Samar shoots and kills Veerendra and Sooraj in a gunfight.
For an Indian audience, as Ray points out, this would not be a problem. The audience would be intimately familiar with the complicated familial relationships in the narrative. Anyone in India watching ‘Raajneeti’ would be immediately aware that Bhanu Pratap is Dhritarashtra, Chandra Prakash is Pandu, Bharti is Kunti, and Brij Gopal is Krishna. While Prithvi and Samar are the Pandavas, Veerandra is Duryodhana, Sooraj is Karna, and Indu is Draupadi. This familiarity is a product of certain recursive cultural practices. Even someone who has not read the Mahabharata, would have experienced it through repeated tellings in domestic or public settings, viewed performances of it, or would have been made aware of it through public discourse.
In this sense, ‘Raajneeti’ reflects a deep cynicism about the nature of contemporary Indian politics. While drawing upon the moral universe of the Mahabharata, the film removes the certainty of dharma and replaces it with calculation, spectacle, and political survival. Its depiction of dynastic succession, caste mobilisation, media manipulation, and electoral violence echoes realities associated with many Indian political formations. The tragedy of the film lies not simply in the deaths of its characters, but in the normalisation of unethical politics itself. Power becomes both the means and the end, leaving democracy stripped of its moral and public purpose.
Uttaran Das Gupta is an independent writer and journalist
