I saw 'Rajneeti' yesterday. Even though I am sure it won't appeal to most people my age, I loved the movie, especially the rather feminist ending. It doesn't leave you feeling soft and warm, but it does make you realize what goes into all those elections that we read about. My dad thinks 'Rajneeti' is like the 'Godfather', but I beg to differ.

I saw 'Rajneeti' yesterday. Even though I am sure it won't appeal to most people my age, I loved the movie, especially the rather feminist ending. It doesn't leave you feeling soft and warm, but it does make you realize what goes into all those elections that we read about.

My dad thinks 'Rajneeti' is like the 'Godfather', but I beg to differ.

I have never seen 'The Godfather', but after hearing its premise I think some analogies may be drawn between the two movies in question. But a better analogy can be drawn with somthing closer home- The Mahabharata. Here is why-

1) The movie begins with an unmarried girl from a political family giving birth to a baby boy, who is abandoned in a boat by Brij Gopal (Nana Patekar). The boy grows up to become Dalit leader Suraj (Ajay Devgan) who is also the adoptive son of the political family's driver. He is taken under the wing of Veerendra Pratap (Manoj Bajpai) after Veerendra's father denies him succession. This is a lot like when Draupadi's son (fathered by the Sun God) was abandoned and later taken under the wing of the Kauravas.

2) The rivalry between Manoj Bajpai and Arjun Rampal begins after Manoj's father has a heart attack and his declares Arjun his successor. This heart attack does in Rajneeti what Duryodhan's father's blindness did in Mahabharata. In fact, Manoj Bajpai's character seems inspired by Duryodhan.

4) In the end, after things get murkier between the two rival parties, Bharati goes to her long lost son Suraj and asks him to return to his 'family'. Draupadi had made a similar appeal in Mahabharata.

I don't know the Mahabharata like the back of my hand, but if I had, I would probably have been able to draw more similarities.

The truth is that epics are called epics for a reason and even in the age of multiplexes and 3D, they can form the basis for great movies.