Rann
Hindi (U/A) Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Paresh Rawal and others Director: Ram Gopal Varma
Press — the fourth pillar of democracy — has the power to make or mar any issue. That is why the media is known as an agenda setter and citizens also believe what they see and hear from the media. But in today’s cut-throat competition, even the media is compelled to compromise its ethics. How two top news channels strive to dominate each other and how a corrupt politician takes the help of the media to lead the nation, is what we see in “Rann”.
Vijay Harshvardhan Malik (Amitabh Bachchan) is a highly respected journalist. He heads a news channel India 24X7 that relies only on news. However, his rival Ambreesh Kakkad (Mohnish Behl)enjoys higher TRP thanks to his “news ko masala banake becho”concept.
The media baron’s son Jay (Sudeep) tries to win the TRP war by stooping to an all new low. Jay, with the help of corrupt politician Mohan Pandey (Paresh Rawal) plans a fake sting operation against the prime minister and cons his father to break the news. Young journalist Purab Shastri (Riteish Deshmukh) then investigates to unravel the mystery behind Pandey’s rise. During the process he comes to know the nexus between Pandey and Jay.
Rann suffers from a poor script and lack of research. “When in doubt, leave it out”, is what journalists learn in their early days of the profession. But, a veteran scribe like Vijay airs an anonymously done sting operation, which involves the prime minister, without checking its authenticity.
Amitabh Bachchan does justice to his role as media baron. Riteish, Paresh and Sudeep also shine.
