Rann Review (2010)

With Ram Gopal Varma facing a lot of flak about his earlier movies, some considered this movie to be his make or break movie. Of course, much was expected from a person who has given us movies like 'Shiva', 'Satya' and 'Bhoot'. Read this quick review to find out whether RGV won in this "Rann'.

Cast:

* Amitabh Bachchan as Vijay Harshwardhan Malik
* Sudeep as Jai Malik
* Ritesh Deshmukh as Purab Shastri
* Paresh Rawal as Mohan Pandey
* Mohnish Behl as Amrish Kakkar
* Rajat Kapoor as Naveen Shankalya
* Rajpal Yadav as Anand Prakash Trivedi
* Gul Panag as Nandita Sharma
* Suchitra Krishnamurthy as Nalini Kashyap
* Neetu Chandra as Yasmin Hussain

Crew:

Producer : Sheetal Vinod Talwar, Madhu Mantena
Executive Producer / Co-Producer : Gautam Vaze
Director : Ram Gopal Varma
Story / Writer : Rohit Banawlikar

Plot

Rann is basically a story of several people who are at war, with themselves, with others, with their morals and their ethics. It is the story of what is described as the last bastion of moral broad and newscasting, Vijay Harshavardhan Malik, and the story of Jai Malik, his son who has definitely seen better times but now sees his darling papa's news channel losing the ever important TRPs.

It is also the story of the battle of the new journalist Purab Shashtri, who has joined Malik's tv channel because he still believes that the channel is what can save the world.

It all takes a murky turn when the younger Malik meets one of their competitors, once an employee, whose channel is fast moving in the TRP race. Facing a closedown, and baying for personal vengeance, Jai Malik takes a step that would change the world of Indian Broadcasting forever.

Review

There are very few movies that will actually keep you glued to the screen, even keep you from eating the popcorn. Rann is one of them. The movie can be considered to be one of RGV's finest works, because the first five minutes are sheer boredom, and one would think that this would be one of RGV's movies which are not going anywhere.

But within the first twelve or so minutes, right after Amitabh breaks onto the screen, the movie runs at such a fast pace that you end up being dizzy when the screen screams the Interval - damn, you need one.

RGV has tried to experiment with his directorial aspects and above all, he has won the fight of a director - to present the audience with a story, in a novel way. And he succeeds in that, supported by a cast that gives the most gritting performances in recent times.

Some might not accept the climax, some might, after all, the climax is too much for the Friday evening Indian audience. They still would have the 'aisa thodi na hota hein' aspect to the entire climax, but I think that the climax was one of the most realistic climaxes in recent times. In fact, by the end of it all, I was waiting for the Senior Malik to commit suicide on mainstream television - and don't tell me that it has not happened.