Rann (film)

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Rann
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRam Gopal Varma
Screenplay byRam Gopal Varma
Story byRohit Banawlikar
Aman Singh
Based onYellow journalism
Produced byMadhu Mantena
Sheetal Vinod Talwar
Starring
CinematographyAmit Roy
Amol Rathod (second unit)
Edited byNipun Gupta
Music byScore:
Amar Mohile
Songs:
Dharmaraj Bhatt
Jayesh Gandhi
Bapi-Tutul
Sanjeev Kohli
Imran-Vikram
Amar Mohile
Distributed byPVR Pictures
Vistaar Religare Film Fund
Big Bang Films Production
WSG Pictures
Release date
  • January 29, 2010 (2010-01-29)
Running time
137 minutes
CountriesIndia
Canada
LanguageHindi
Budget₹30 Crore
Box office₹13.7 Crore Crore

Rann (transl. Battle) is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language political thriller film written and directed by Ram Gopal Varma. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Sudeep, Riteish Deshmukh, Paresh Rawal, and Gul Panag.[1] The film was premiered at Toronto International Film Festival.[2][3] The film explores the reality of sensational nature of news and mass media and political nexus.

A strategy mobile video game based on the film was also released by Indiagames as a promotional tie-in.[4]

Plot[edit]

The plot opens with news about a bomb blast in Muzaffarnagar. Vijay Harshvardhan Malik (Amitabh Bachchan) is a reputed and ethical journalist, whose news channel India 24x7 is under severe financial decline owing to Malik’s staunch ideals. Amrish Kakkar (Mohnish Bahl), an ex-employee of India 24x7, runs the top-rated news channel Headlines 24 which thrives primarily on aesthetics. Jay Sudeep, Malik’s son who returned from America after completing his MBA, runs his father’s channel albeit being in discordance with his ethics. Jay sets out to launch some new shows, much to the chagrin of his father and their new employee, a bright and budding journalist Purab Shastri (Riteish Deshmukh).

Things take a turn when Nalini Kashyap (Suchitra Krishnamoorthi), the COO of India 24x7, is discovered to be a mole who has been leaking information to Kakkar in exchange for money, thus giving Headlines 24 a head start for launching shows which were originally conceptualised by Malik and Jay. The latter ends up having a meltdown as he had borrowed 300 million rupees from the market in order to launch his new shows. Unable to pay off his investors, and with India 24x7 failing miserably with TRPs, Jay’s brother-in-law, Naveen Shankalya (Rajat Kapoor), proposes a treaty with a corrupt politician Mohan Pandey (Paresh Rawal), who orchestrated the Muzaffarnagar bomb blast. Naveen joins forces with Pandey in order to modify all industrial policies when he comes to power, therefore becoming the country’s biggest industrialist.

Pandey plans a conspiracy, wherein the current Prime Minister Digvijay Hooda’s (K. K. Raina) confidante Atul Kumar Dubey (Debashish Mitra) and another man allegedly named Khanna (Anuj Tikku) are held under duress by Pandey, whilst being directed by Jay on tape, discussing the aftermath of the bomb blast, and subsequently framing Hooda for using the incident as a pretext to generate fear amongst the public and get a bill passed. Jay, having underestimated the severity of the consequences and driven by the incentives that will enable complete control over the media monopoly, shows the video tape to his father and convinces him to “expose” Hooda immediately. Malik, being the most honest and influential media personality, succumbs to his son’s haste and takes this fabricated news to the public. This results in a government overthrow, and Hooda is forced to resign due to the false allegations of his involvement in the bomb blast. Many media outlets distort the footage of Hooda’s responses to tailor it to the false news. Dubey and Khanna are assassinated by Pandey to ensure there are no loose ends, whilst Khanna’s identity and whereabouts are still under a lot of speculation from everyone else. In the following elections, Pandey happens to be the frontrunner for Prime Minister.

Purab, however, senses foul play as he had witnessed Khanna at Malik’s birthday party as well as procuring some photographs to prove so, thus he begins to question the legitimacy of his mentor’s ethics when Malik appears to be oblivious to Khanna’s identity. His suspicions increase as his attention is drawn towards the substantial benefits the channel is reaping despite plummeting financially shortly before the fake news made the headlines.

An interview with Pandey, wherein Purab attempts to expose his criminal history, gets scrapped by Jay, who threatens to terminate Purab and subsequently replaces him with another colleague, Anand Prakash Trivedi (Rajpal Yadav), to interview Pandey. Purab, now realising that Jay is benefitting from Pandey’s support, decides to go undercover under the alias “Khanna” to incite a reaction from him. Jay, distressed about the text message from Khanna’s impostor, leads Purab to Khanna’s residence, where Purab breaks in and uncovers Khanna’s identity. He discovers that Khanna is Jay’s college mate from America.

Upon Nalini’s insistence, Purab reluctantly pays a courtesy visit to Kakkar, who appears to be having the same suspicions. Despite being aware of Kakkar’s intent to overthrow his mentor’s channel, Purab ultimately submits the evidence he has with the hopes that Kakkar will expose the truth about the scandal. Nevertheless, Kakkar turns out to be just as corrupt when he takes this evidence to Pandey and extorts a huge sum of money from him, in exchange for not exposing their dirty game. Purab, angered by Kakkar’s hypocrisy, goes to confront him whilst secretly filming their conversation about the conspiracy in its entirety.

Purab, now left with no other option, decides to confront Malik and reveals the details of the conspiracy as well as all the evidence that he had collected, including Kakkar’s testimony. Malik, distraught upon realising that he was responsible for the governmental collapse, decides to go on-air one final time to expose all the characters who were involved in this charade, including his own son. In the midst of the swear-in ceremony, Pandey is placed under severe scrutiny and subject to public outrage as Malik’s segment is concurrently being telecasted. Malik’s daughter Priya (Simone Singh) decides to leave Naveen and takes their son Tinu with her. Jay, unable to bear the guilt, commits suicide by jumping off the balcony of his apartment. Kakkar hires a high-profile lawyer to help escape his predicament, whilst Malik, Nalini, Trivedi and many others resign from India 24x7 to start a new chapter.

Purab is subsequently chosen by Malik to run India 24x7 as only he has the courage to expose the power imbalance.

Cast[edit]

Critical reception[edit]

Taran Adarsh praised the film and its cast, especially Amitabh Bachchan.[5] Nikhat Kazmi of the Times of India gave the film four stars, calling it a "riveting experience."[6] Noyon Jyoti Parasara of AOL gave the film 3.5 out of a possible 5 and said, "Overall, 'Rann' is quite an inspirational fare. It might just teach you to own up and admit that you were wrong at point."[7] [8] [9][10][11] while other critics complained that the film is cliché.[12][13]

Music[edit]

Rann
Soundtrack album by

Amar Mohile
Dharam-Sandeep
Bapi-Tutul
Sanjeev Kohli
Jayesh Gandhi
Released2010
GenreFeature film soundtrack
Length29:06
LabelTimes Music
External audio
audio icon Official Audio Jukebox on YouTube

The film's music is by Amar Mohile, Dharam-Sandeep, Bapi-Tutul, Sanjeev Kohli and Jayesh Gandhi; the lyrics are by Prashant Pandey and Sarim Momin. The title song, "Rann Hai", was written by debut lyricist Vayu. The background score of the film was scored by Dharam-Sandeep, and the track named "Sikkon Ki Bhook" was also composed by the duo. Lyrics was by Vayu Srivastava.[14]

No.TitleLength
1."Sikkon Ki Bhook" 
2."Remote Ko Baahar Phek" 
3."Kaanch Ke Jaise" 
4."Rann Hai" 
5."Gali Gali Mein" 
6."Besharam" 
7."Mera Bharat Mahaan" 

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Rann: Complete cast and crew details". Filmicafe Media Inc. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
  2. ^ "Rann -- Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. 14 October 2010.
  3. ^ "2010 films2010". indiatoday.in. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
  4. ^ "Rann". dedomil.net. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  5. ^ Taran Adarsh (29 January 2010). "Rann". Bollywood Hungama. Archived from the original on 27 December 2008. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  6. ^ Nikhat Kazmi (28 January 2010). "Rann". Times of India. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  7. ^ Noyon Jyoti Parasara (28 January 2010). "Rann". AOL India. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  8. ^ Nikhat Kazmi (28 January 2010). "Movie Review: Rann". The Times of India.
  9. ^ "RGV replaces Jana Gana with Vande Mataram". Times of India. 7 December 2009. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  10. ^ Rajeev Masand (29 January 2010). "Rann, embarrassingly ill-researched". CNN-IBN. Archived from the original on 31 January 2010. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  11. ^ Mayank Shekhar (29 January 2010). "Mayank Shekhar's review: Rann". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 1 February 2010. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  12. ^ Gaurav Malani (27 January 2010). "Rann: Movie Review". Indiatimes Movies. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  13. ^ Anupama Chopra (29 January 2010). "Review : Rann". NDTV. Retrieved 29 January 2010.
  14. ^ https://www.saavn.com/s/song/hindi/Rann/Sikkon-Ki-Bhook-Anthem-Of-Rann/Eh4lVjJ0WX0

External links[edit]

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