Ram Gopal Varma Ki Rann

Ram Gopal Varma snaps out of his reverie with Rann, a film that focuses on the media and its misgivings. But the rather serious title and attempt to deconstruct the news media is underplayed as Rann proves to be essentially a good versus evil drama, with a Bollywood undertone.

Vijay Malik (Bachchan) owns a news channel, India 24×7, and is a respectable scribe whose programs inspire the masses to think. Purab (Deshmukh) his employee is one of his ardent fans, who aspires to be a journalist just like him. But a channel built on real news doesn’t get the required TRPs. A rival news channel seems to be hogging the limelight with sensational news, and soon India 24×7 is on the brink of closing shop. Vijay’s son Jai (Sudeep), devises a plan to revive the viewership, but this involves his striking a deal with a corrupt politician (Rawal) and industrialist (Rajat Kapoor). The deal works, TRPs rise and the channel is back on its feet.

Meanwhile, Purab makes an investigation of his own and discovers a whole lot of loopholes in the theory that not only has blinded the indomitable pillar of media virtue Mr Vijay himself, but also managed to topple the existing government.The insights thus lead to a drama of sorts, the climax scene of which can only be delivered by the Big B.

The movie touches the tip of the media iceberg - the politician-media nexus, sensational “Breaking News” stories, the battle for TRPs, etc. A lot of the story looks like it’s tweaked for mass appeal, but in the end you have to realise that Rann is a Bollywood drama.

Though not as hard-hitting as Satya, Rann makes a valid point. After disappointing immensely with Phoonk and Agyaat, it looks like “Aal izz well” again in the RGV camp. But the guy who gave us  Company and D is definitely capable of better and we’re waiting. Rann, however, will tide over in the meantime.

South actor Sudeep and the rest of the gang- Riteish Deshmukh, Amitabh Bachchan, Paresh Rawal and Rajat Kapoor- make sense of their characters. The others are not bad either.