Rajneeti Review: Rajneeti (রাজনীতি) is a Bengali political-thriller series directed by Sourav Chakraborty and stars Kaushik Ganguly, Ditipriya Roy, Arjun Chakrabarty, Koneenica Banerjee and Aniruddha Gupta, alongside others. Screenplay and dialogues are by Utsav Mukherjee and Rudradeep Chanda and co-written by Sourav Chakraborty. The cinematography is by Subhadeep Dey, and the series is edited by Amitava Dasgupta. Rajneeti has 7 episodes, each with a runtime of around 30 minutes.
Rajeneeti follows Rashi, the daughter of political bigshot Rathin Banerjee, who gets into a horrible accident and loses all her memories. When she comes to, she tries to regain her life back, but something just doesn’t sit right. As she slowly starts to regain her memories bit by bit, she finds herself in the midst of a political power struggle that might just destroy everything in its path.
– Rajneeti Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
Rajneeti starts off with Rashi’s accident, and, as with most political thrillers, we learn that there is a deeper controversy at play in all this. We learn this quite early on in the series, but we don’t really get to know where the creators want to take this show in the first episodes, which is somewhat new!
The real horror of this story is the gaslighting that Rashi goes through at the hands of everyone around her. It’s actually scary to see the lengths people will go to in order to get something out of a relationship and to gain something for themselves. Rashi’s plight is honestly very scary, to have your memory taken away from you and then to live according to what others tell you to be your life’s truth.
We uncover the truth with Rashi, it’s her struggle that grounds us in the story and makes us take notice. As we see everyone doing the vilest and most convoluted stuff, it’s Rashi who comes out to be the hope of the show as she struggles to find the truth and preserve her sanity. Interestingly, Sounak comes out as the knight in shining armour, but is he truly on Rashi’s side, or is he also on the side of the forces that want to cause her harm?
There are two stories happening together in this series – the political backstory and Rashi’s own struggle to find the truth. They run in tandem, and there are moments that are quite eyebrow-raising. There are several twists and turns throughout the series that will make you question yourself and what is happening. The twists and turns are quite shocking and strike the balance of believability and insanity.
The series keeps you guessing for a better part of the runtime, with information trickling out slowly. It takes its time to bring out the truth around to us, and when everything becomes clear in the end, it’s quite a juicy turnaround. It’s not every day that you see believable twists that actually make sense when everything ends, more so when it actually makes you wish for a second season or a few more episodes!
Apart from the rather good storyline, kudos must be given to Ditipriya Roy and Koneenica Banerjee for playing two characters who bring out the most watchable twists in the story. Roy’s Rashi is the truth seeker, while Banerjee’s Mallika is someone whom we never thought would turn out the way that they did. The cat and dog chase, the secrets, and the eventual backstab make this series a fun watch that will also bring up questions about people’s motivations and where their loyalties lie.
Everyone in Rajneeti has some secret, and these secrets are brought out at the most opportune moments, making the ending twist explosive. Although you might somewhat expect it, it’s still a shocking revelation when it comes about and one that might just make you audibly gasp. Of course, there are better thrillers out there; but Hoichoi’s Rajneeti is quite a fun watch, especially for a Bengali series. We don’t get too many good ones that are based on real life and aren’t just thrillers for the sake of them.
The undercurrents of caste and class discrimination are also not lost on the viewers. Although they don’t become the focal point of the show, which is very much a rivalry for power, they remind us that what we see on the surface is not always what is there underneath it. Rathin Banerjee continues to tell his voters that he and his party would never differentiate between Hindus and Muslims, but when push comes to shove, his true colours come out fairly quickly.
Rajneeti Review: Final Thoughts
Rajneeti is a surprisingly good, grounded and thrilling watch that will make you wonder who is telling the truth. It features good performances from all of its actors and does a fine job telling us a story of the mess that is politics and political families. It’s not the best show on politics out there, but it’s definitely worth the watch if you’re in the mood for something twisty.
Rajneeti is streaming on Hoichoi.
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