Rann movie review

Lets get it out of the way: I’m an RGV admirer but I must say he could have done a better job the writer permitting. I give it a 3/5 and now the review…

The Context

The explosion of Media outlets in India over the last decade is all too well known and the kind of exaggerations, mannerisms, rhetoric and over the top presentation of news under the title “Infotainment” is now a part of folklore. The titles portion of Rann introduces this context brilliantly with zillions of news channels and the associated cacophony. And the movie takes off instantly – typical of RGV. On first look this looks an attractive proposition to make a movie as many Indians would relate to it. RGV’s characters are taken straight from media houses – Amitabh Bachan as a honest upright head of a news channel – India 24*7 – suffering low TRPs as he is bound by his principle that news has to be unbiased. His son, played by Sudeep, is a mixed proposition. He is not impressed by his father’s disregard for TRPs and wants to run the “Business” profitably but probably legally as well. Ritesh Deshmukh is a new recruit at India 24*7 who treats AB as his guru and his motivation for becoming a journalist. Mohnish Behl is the former employee of India 24*7 who resigns and sets up Headlines 24*7 as he believes news is all about presentation. As if these aren’t enough RGV throws in Paresh Rawal, a PM aspirant, who comes straight out of the politicians’ drawer with black spectacles and tilak smeared on his forehead (obvious reference) and Rajat Kapoor as a manipulating industrialist who wants to dictate Govt policies to replace his brother as #1 industrialist in India (obvious reference again). Neetu Chandra and Gul Panang don’t have much to do with the former wearing clothes and stretching her body very strategically. Rajpal Yadav is the resident joker at India 24*7. Thrown into the mix is a corrupt COO of India 24*7 who leaks info to Headlines 24*7. And there are those routine RGV characters who don’t utter a word but just keep looking scarily at the camera – when it pans to them that is.

The Narration

RGV is called as a treatment director as he gets the viewer engaged with unconventional camera angles and sometimes jarring background score. This also means that the story/dialog writer has a lot of work offloaded and unsurprisingly he doesn’t do a stellar job of writing Rann. There are some pretty trite dialogs but there are others which come in handy specially the one about means and ends in media. The movie lacks pace and momentum in the first half, but RGV does really well in the second and the narrative keeps the viewer engaged as things are not so predictable. The ringing of mobile phones during Paresh Rawal’s swering in ceremony is well executed. Amit Roy as the Director of Photography does wonderfully but cant help saying that it becomes too much watching faces at such close angles and through pinholes, legs of tables or at a tilt of -30 degrees. There are some sequences where the viewer has to infer things like a pressure cooker whistle etc which I couldn’t understand. And finally to wind it off there is Amitabh’s monologue at the end which for me was the best portion of the film though some call it too lengthy.

The performances

No doubt that Amitabh carries the film on his shoulder’s err facial expressions. His expression on watching Ritesh at Sudeep’s dead body was pinpoint accurate. And as mentioned earlier his monologue at the end is vintage acting and movie making. Sudeep has good presence in the first half. He is the revelation in the film, acting with finesse as man caught in between his father’s principles and his mistakes. This guy can act unlike some of the earlier RGV muses. Ritesh is cast in a role he doesn’t find very often in. As a principled journalist whose idol is Amitabh, Ritesh does very well and has great presence in the second half. He does extremely fine with his expressions in the absence of (sometimes meaningful) dialogs. Paresh Rawal – as a seasoned actor – does well in the role of a politician delivering rhetorical speeches which evoke sheepish smiles. Rajpal Yadav as a dhamaka news presenter, does the acts of our media anchors perfectly, shouting over the top and naming his shows mimicking the nonsense dished out by most of the news channels. Rajat Kapoor is also adequate in role. The rest of the cast are add-ons and mostly do the needful.

The gripes
The COO of India 24*7 is introduced by Ritesh to Gul Panang as a CEO. Oops, we don’t generally have such bloopers in RGV movies. There are somethings which RGV lets viewer to infer but there are other places where the narrative slows down dramatically. I can understand his intention of making an intense drama but the pace-rather lack of it- is slightly annoying in the first half. Apart from a horrible comic sequence between Amitabh and Rajpal Yadav, the 2nd half is good. This is not the RGV of Satya or Company or even for that matter Sarkar. With a slew of films like Phoonk2 and Company2 which are all sequels, I wonder if he could be better. All said and done, the film bears his stamp and it is still a very watchable film.