Raajneeti BD Review – UK Version

The Movie
One of the biggest hits of the year. The movie is based on a subject every Indian can relate to or connect to in some form or other whether they are interested in Raajneeti or not. On top of that the movie is deliberaletly made in the lines of the great epic Mahabharata. So how does it fare in my opinion?

The movie in the first 45 mins was looking quite promising with the story gradually building up, engaging but after that it became quite predicatable and flat. After 45 mions it became more of a story which was just going forward in set piece model and you could see what's coming next. One big criticism from me is the movie diverted from Raajneeti to mere large scale feud between the family members of two powerful siblings under the slowly vanishing theme of the term 'Raajneeti' The script and the story just gave up after some time and I couldn't connect. One of the reason for that is because of the directors intent to align it to Mahabharata which is again based on the feud between two powerful siblings and their progeny. The difference is that Mahabharata always kept the bigger picture in the story and Raajneeti fell short of that trying to derive from it whereas politics is much more dynamic now than it is shown. At time it was looking like these two families represent India as a whole.

I noticed many flaws and don't want to discuss it here as it is BD forum.

However, it was a decent watch and was something different. Some other highlights and lowlights are
+ Points

• Amazing background score
• Nice songs but you may need to listen to them quite a few times to appreciate the songs. Wayne Sharpe has done a wonderful job.
• Excellent cinematography - really liked it
• Although limityed but special effects were great. No scenes with cars doing mid air gymnastics (typical Indian movies do that most often). The car bomb scenes were really well done .
• Good acting from most of the cast - Ranbir and Nana patekar was really good. It was great to Nana Patekar not doing the crazy fellow act and he blended into the character really well. Ranbir is improving in every film.

- Points

• Katrina still can't act. She got a very different role this time and she tried but she was looking very out of place compared to others (not by looks but acting).
• Ajay Devgan in his usual form and no improvisation. It appears that he can be lifted out from one movie to another movie with th esame stone face he uses for his serious movies. Once I liked Ajay but he is becoming monotonous day by day. He needs to bring variation.
• Manoj Bajpai was good but he could have been much better. I expected more from him.

Blu-Ray Review
After seeing some screenshots, a lot of arguement here and clarification from Chandna, I was really loking forward to actually seeing the BD myself. This is my observation.

Picture Quality
+ Points

1. Filmic picture quality
2. Nice warm color temp as intended by the director and it looks great. Prakash should have used such color temp in Apaharan as well.
3. Black levels in 80-90% scenes were perfect
4. Saturation is quite vibrant in most scenes.
5. Detail is good but at times it was lost due to picture softness and apparent DNR (more on that later)
6. Nice and clean image

- Points

1. DNR or Source issue? – Many scenes appear semi waxy and soft and I am not sure if the source was like that. I must say that it looks much better than the screenshots. I know for sure that Chandna and his team did not apply any DNR during authoring. It could be the source. I also recall that Sanjay mentioned something bad about the source. Some scenes looked absolutely sharp and detailed but many scenes appeared soft and waxy. The same range closeups at times were spot on and you can see the facial texture clearly but in another scene it appeared flat with the same character.
   Would like to hear Chandna's thought on this.I must say that this issue did not bother me as much while watching the film.
2. The thing that bothered me most is false contouring in many scenes. It is not of a high degree but I couldn't help myself but notice it. If you look closely, you could see false contour around the outline of shoulder, arms,faces etc. This was very distracting for me. This normally comes from Edge enhancement, color banding or lens defect. I also know that Chandna didn't apply any EE as they don't have the feature in the software they use. My question is is that a lens issue or source issue?
3. Some daylight scenes look bit bright with slightly raised black level. I think DEI recreates the source faithfully without any processing so this must have remained the same as with the source.
4. Some scenes have less color saturation compared to the rest of the movie. Not many but a few.

I do not have a PC based BD player otherwise I could have posted some screenshots with the issues I mentioned.

Audio Quality
The DTS MA track is a treat for the ears. This is one of the finest Audio tracks from a Bollywood BD. Dialogues were spot on and directional. The use of LFE is fabulous and it is not overpowering. It creates a wonderful base for the soundstage and you get the feeling of being in a sound capsule where each and every sound is distinctly heard. The track is loud like most bollywood movies but restrained to a good balance. Rears are used throughout the film and it creates an immersive environment. The LFE is fantastic.

My only gripe is that rears are slightly louder than they should be. At times it takes over the fronts (since they are close to your ears) which I felt was not right. It is a small gripe but I really enjoyed the Audio on the BD. Excellent. Great job from Chandna and his team.

Conclusion:
To me, the PQ is very good but not reference level. The two issues I mentioned takes away few points from what what could have a been a reference level BD in PQ terms. I have seen mixed views from people who have seen the BD.

As for the Audio, it is nealry flawless apart from a minor niggle on slightly louder rears. If you have a proper 5.1 AV setup, this is going to be your one of you reference BD for AQ.

Peace

Ani

My Rating
Movie: 3.75
Video: 3.75
Audio: 4.5
[b]Overall Quality Score: 3.75

Review done with
Display : Infocus IN82 Full HD DC3 DLP Projector
Screen: 90”
BD Player: Sony S350
Av Amp: Denon AVR 1911 7.1 AV Receiver
Speakers: Q Acoustics 1010i 5.1 Surround

I would give the PQ a 2.75 - 3.0. The waxy and false contouring issue has made this BD look more like upscaled SD.

Nice review. Unfortunately we in India are yet to see this blu-ray. I would like to add that what I saw of Rajneeti in the theaters (2K digital), looked atrocious. Not the movie, but the picture quality that is.

PS: All this talk of the 'look' being the director's vision, pleeeeease. It is impossible to comprehend why any director would wish for his film to look like a poor quality VCD.

Saw this today.

Movie was average, better than the usual bollywood fare but impotent mix of Godfather scenes and Mahabarata story that focused far far too much on plot mechanics than character.

As for the BD, picture quality was reasonable and for anyone wondering, I did a direct comparison with the dvd and it beats it hands down (despite some flaws).

Audio quality was fine once I bumped down my LFE by 10 decibels, way too loud on my usual calibrated setting. Once I made the adjustment, the sound was very well defined.