Rating: ****

It is said that the epic saga of Mahabharata contains all the stories that exist in this world, be it lies, deceit, lust for power, revenge. In short all those that can make a solid impact.
Prakash Jha taking a cue from this has set his big canvass film Rajneeti against an Indian political backdrop. But then at the same time he has merged dollops of The Godfatherwithin it. Nonetheless, the end product makes a compelling watch.
Cousins Veerendra Pratap Singh (Manoj Bajpayee) and Prithvi Pratap Singh (Arjun Rampal) are heirs of a powerful political party.
But when Prithvi is appointed to take the lead, an angry Veerendra teams up with the backward class leader Sooraj (Ajay Devgan) to plot against Prithvi and evict him from the party. Prithvi’s younger brother Samar (Ranbir Kapoor) who is studying abroad and has no political aspirations gets sucked into the political rivalry between the families.

Under the mentoring of senior party and family member Brij Gopal (Nana Patekar), Samar takes charge of the conniving affairs of state to start their own political party, gather funds and get Prithvi contest against Veerendra. What unfolds next as the battle shifts ground to the elections forms the rest of the film.