With 'Rann' Ram Gopal Verma proves he's finally back on track. Unfortunately, his reputation thanks to his previous dozen of abysmal film may be the reason why 'Rann' received so little recognition. Telling the story of the corrupt Indian media, the film is insightful and poignant as it shows how the ratings system (TRP) works in India and displays the influence of media on the common population. It feels like a Madhur Bhandarkar film but with better writing and execution. The tension builds subtly and the director maintains it right until the end. The execution is solid with razor sharp editing, a terrific score and fine cinematography (for the most parts). The only thing I disliked about the cinematography is that sometimes the hand-held shaky camera movement was a little overdone. Most of the songs are thankfully set in the background but the satirical lyrics are hilarious and contribute to the scenes. The writing is mostly good but the sequence where Purab is lures Jay as Khanna feels a little awkward. The final monologue delivered by Amitabh Bachchan is a little too long and reaches the point of becoming preachy and spoonfeeding the viewer. Verma has assembled a great cast. Riteish Deshmukh has done a competent job. Amitabh Bachchan is adequate. He has played similar roles before but does a good job nonetheless. He doesn't dominate the film as he leaves enough space for his fellow cast members to perform. Gul Panag and Neetu Chandra's roles may not be much of a challenge but they hold their own with strong screen presence. Rajat Kapoor is commendable. Paresh Rawal plays the clichéd corrupt politician as a caricature. Mohnish Behl makes quite a comeback with an understated performance. Suchitra Krishnamurty is impressive.One can only hope Ram Gopal Verma keeps up with making films of this quality instead of turning back to the likes of his previous crap again. With 'Rann' he is definitely heading the right direction and this already gives us hope that the once great filmmaker may have come back.

RGVs teaming with BigB always had led to highly anticipated movies and with Rann the same goes. So Post 26/11 when RGV got embroiled along with Ritesh, Rann was definite movie to watch out his vengeance. The product works, only at a few places - sad!Media is the crux of the movie, and the problem is a shallow depiction of it. Its evident that the writer did not do his homework properly but concentrated on fabricating a story around the industry. ¤ Big B:: In my opinion, the character is a straight lift from Mahabharata - Dhritarashtra, for the love of his son. The over-the-top idealistic portrayal was not warranted. It wasn't a full BigB outing and also it wasn't like his role was indispensable. The emotional charged lines in the grand finale attempt to cover up for the short-comings.¤ Ritesh:: The publicity machine portrayed his character to be derived from Howard Roark and honestly thats conning. Or maybe the character did not get screen time to crystallise into The Fountainhead. ¤ Sudeep:: A Duryodhana in disguise who know how to manipulate his Paa. His accent needed to be improvised and mimes Raghuvaran to the T. Also touching the face frequently does not qualify for acting. ¤ Paresh Rawal:: Its good to see Paresh joining hands back with RGV after a long gap. His character does have meat in it and I wouldn't be surprised if it was based on a couple of real-life conniving politicians. ¤ Mohnish Behl:: Now he is the one who steals the thunder practically right under everybody's noses. Fantastic performance and truly goes to show what he is capable of if truly tapped his potential. ¤ Rajat Kapoor:: Well, it is the usual "suave" character he portrays practically in every other movie.¤ Rajpal Yadav:: A realistic character and as usual he goes a bit over- the-top the moment camera starts whirring. But hey, he says one memorable line which pretty much sums up the industry "hum humari filmon ko NEWS kehte hain!".Finally coming to the ladies, if I dare say the truth - you were all conned by RGV. Background score is very loud, a la 1980's B-grade masala flick. Songs are pathetic, the composition or the lyrics - cannot decide which is the worst. What happened to the glorious days when RGV teamed up with R D Burman, Rahman, Vishal Bharadwaj, Gulzar etc. Rann goes to show the level "The Factory" is stooping to.

I had never expected much of this film before going to watch it, and well when I did watch it, It turned out to be worse than I would have thought. The acting performances are pathetic except for Amitabh and Paresh Rawal. The music is the worst my ears have ever experienced. The subject is good though, but the script isn't strong enough. I cant think of how people have given it so high ratings. If you like movies like: Blue, Kabakth Ishq etc etc. you may like it. Do yourself a favor and give it a miss, maybe watch it when on your TVs, but I recommend giving it a miss even if you can watch it for free. There are a lot of newcomers in this movie who do nothing but overreact, the songs are irritating and really annoy you, same for the background music.Requirements to watch this movie: Low IQ and some tablets of aspirin.Please don't waste time on this pathetic excuse for a movie. I rate it 3 out of 10, 2 stars each for the performances by Amitabh Bachchan and Paresh Rawal and one for the subject.

Ram Gopal Sharma's Rann examines the corruption of the media and how it can be manipulated or seduced by either party into compromising or even forgoing their ethical obligations, in the name of favours, and money. And in some respect, the issues presented here aren't far fetched, and from incidents time and again, we see how the media can be used to gain an unfair upper hand, and the power that it wields to bring down positions of power when investigative journalism gets into gear. And of course, having the evergreen Amitabh Bachchan star in a leading role as Vijay Harshvardhan Malik, an ethical, no- nonsense media mogul who runs his own news channel called India 24/7, is one of the major draws of Rann.As the moral compass of the country, Vijay's editorial news programme sets the agenda, but unfortunately in the face of stiff channel competition and falling ratings, his son Jai (Sudeep) wants to take the channel into a new level through the injection of external funds. Cautious that the source of such funds would mean an erosion of ethics that his channel is renowned for, Vijay decides to allow Jai to proceed with his plans, but little does anyone know that under their noses, India 24/7's COO Nanlini (Suchitra Krishnamoorthi) is a mole in their corporation, feeding chief rivals H24, run by Amrish Kakkar (Mohnish Bahl) all the information on India 24/7's strategy, thereby letting the competition always stay a step ahead.The story by Rohit G. Banawlikar is fantastically multi-layered, with ample development given to the this industrial espionage, and how it draws Jai to the dark side of shady deal-making, which ultimately culminates in the assistance of his industrialist brother-in-law Naveen (Rajat Kapoor), and his friend, the dubious politician Mohan Pandey (Paresh Rawal), with the ambition of taking over the prime ministership of the country, through a carefully crafted scheme which draws upon threats, murder, terrorism as well as a fake undercover expose recording, delivered unknowingly and none other than Vijay himself.It is also the story of a greenhorn investigative journalist Purab (Ritesh Deshmukh), who idolizes Vijay and his pursuit of journalism excellence, and whose honor and ethics Purab wants to emulate, so much so that he decides to join India 24/7. A part of the story has Purab caught in the entire web of deceit, and the moral dilemma he faces with acknowledging the probable stain in his boss's reputation and career, an act of betrayal, the realization that his inexperience had caused a lot more damage than it should, before deciding to gamble it all in doing the right thing. There are ups and downs as we follow Purab in his journey, making him one of the more well developed characters in the film that we both root for, and be exasperated with.It's not all doom and gloom though, with well timed comic relief introduced (without going overboard) through Anand Prakash Trivedi (Rajpal Yadav), a presenter who just tries too hard, with an interview scene being one of the funniest delivered in the film. But the more memorable scene here has to be the stinging monologue that Amitabh Bachchan delivers with gravitas, a rebuke on the role of the media, and how it is so easy for those in powerful positions to collude for self interests and money, that everything, including the progress of a nation, can be sacrificed. There's no big bang finale action, but a talkie finale which hammers it in with heartfelt emotion, one that I wish our own powers that be could have a chance to listen in, and perhaps remind themselves of their back to basics responsibilities.The film quietly builds itself into a fire-cracker finale, having to witness how deep the rabbit hole goes, and just when you thought it had hit rock bottom, more events unfold to dig us further into the consequences of the conspiracy which not only impacts the individuals on a personal level, but you shudder at the thought of how the impact would be on a national scale. When it it bottoms out into an inevitable conclusion, on one hand you'd expect difficult sacrifices and decisions to be made as a resolution to the problem posed, while on the other feel sorry for those innocent caught up in the crossfire, and shrewd as RGV is, there's room for a sequel to be made as well.Should there be any gripe, those who cannot stand shaky camera movement will find it disturbing to view the film through a camera lens not mounted on a tripod, which in a way provided a sense of a documentary feel to the entire proceedings with its fair share of twists and turns. Female characters too are tokens in the film, mostly relegated to wives and girlfriends who repeatedly looked quite sorry at being bewildered at their man's problems. There was a little bit of a brushing of a couple's differences in religious backgrounds (something sensitive with the older female generation perhaps?) that despite it being mentioned and played out briefly, didn't serve up any depth in the issue, probably side- skirted and being an abandoned sub plot.If anyone would think that Bollywood makes Masala type films only, then obviously their horizons need to be broadened. Rann is an excellent political thriller that's kept tight and pacey from the get go, coupled with a charismatic cast whose delivery will keep you at the edge of your seat as the narrative unfolds. Definitely recommended stuff, and it goes into my books as an early contender for the top films of this year.