Power Has Immense Potential To Corrupt - Learning From A Movie

'Raajneeti' is a Hindi movie. The word means politics. After the Oscar winning 'Slum Dog Millioner', this movie attempts to take us behind the 'IndYeah!' facade. It lets us have a taste for the overgrown dump of filth that is behind it. The director is an Indian - Prakash Jha.

A state Chief minister's young daughter falls madly in love with an aged communist leader. In an intense moment of passion, the old guy inpregnates the young girl and repents later for his act of sin. He decides to vanish. A son is born. The girl's father disposes the child Mahabaratha (the great Indian myth) style - let afloat a small boat in the river. The child is found by none other than the Chief Minister's driver (a Dalit - which is a socially challenged caste) who is unaware of who the child is. He is childless, appreciates the stroke of luck, and decides to raise the child as his own foster son.

Meanwhile the political mastermind in the Chief Minister manages to marry his daughter off to another powerful party leader. She bears two legitimate sons through this relationship. Her husband grabs power in a subsequent election through a coalition deal with his father-in-law.

As time passes, the decendants of both the power centers fight for power. The old Chief Minister's son feels sidelined in the coalition. The Dalit son meanwhile has become a power center and a sizable ballot bank amongst the Dalit community. He teams up with the old Chief Minister's son.

This interestingly makes the sons from the same womb fight against each other. The Dalit labeled son ends up killing his step father and his first brother to eliminate them from the contest. The youngest brother takes revenge.

The movie makers keep repeating "In Raajneeti the only object is success. Everything else does not matter". Murder, fleecing, and every other dastardly act under the sun passes for good as strategy and masterstroke. They run an unwritten filthy private constitution, which in reality operates behind the facade of the official constitution that governs the common man.

This film is about the contemporary Indian political system. It depicts how leaders here tend to form dynasties and perpetuate power. You may watch the  movie to understand the modus operandi of Indian politicians with power. It depicts how they operate behind the scenes and still manage to pass off as innocent, well meaning, charismatic leaders in the eyes of the public.

This movie is full of negative case studies of leadership and absence of integrity.