Rann Review (2010)

If one is looking for any breaking news with 'Rann', then please be warned that there is no such thing happening; there is no new ground that director Ram Gopal Varma treads in this movie. But what works for 'Rann' is its taunt and racy narrative. Varma knows the art of storytelling and he may have seemed to lost it with his last few films, but in 'Rann' he's got back in full form where narration is concerned. But the content is far from new. The film, as one would have already guessed, is all about news, newsmakers and newsmongers and the war about TRPs, which consumes media barons. The film raises the debate again about what is newsworthy and what is not and it is a question which is quite topical to the times that we live in, when just about everything is prefixed as "breaking news."

Varma exposes the politician businessman media nexus which exists today in his movie, which pitches an ethical media baron, Vijay Harshvardhan Malik (Amitabh Bachchan), against his rival channel owner, in the war for authentic news and TRPs. Malik owns a news channel and is an upright media baron who only believes in the truth. But his ethics stand in the way of his channel's survival. It is tottering and his son Jai (Sudeep) will have none of it as news is only business for him.

The biggest rival of their channel, India 24/7' owned by Amrish Kakkar (Mohnish Behl), believes that news can be made entertaining. Even Malik's son in law Naveen (Rajat Kapoor) has no time for Malik's brand of idealism and they join hands with an evil politician, Mohan Pandey (Paresh Rawal) to win the war of TRPs. Pandey uses the channel to launch a vicious attack on his political rival. The trio cook up news stories and use Malik's clean image to lend it credibility. Their TRPs soar, they manage to bring the government down, and make tons of money in the bargain, as well. The only honest reporter in their midst is Purab Shastri (Riteish Deshmukh), who believes that the media needs to act as a watchdog and is the fourth pillar of democracy.