Rann is Unidimensional and Amitabh is its saving Grace!!!!

All dark and grim maketh not a Godfather.That sums up Rann,the latest offering from the Ram Gopal Varma stable.Backed by a great cast, Rann very simply is Madhur Bhandarkar's Corporate refashioned and made to look chic with the twist that only a Ramgopal Varma could provide. Vijay Harshwardhan, played by the legendary Amitabh Bachan, is the owner of a news channel, India TV that prefers truth over TRPs and tends to continue so even as a competing news channel run by an ex employee of India TV,played by Mohnish Behl, rumored to be inspired by the Prannoy Roy-Rajdeep Sardesai split, races forward to notch up all worldly indicators of success, albeit through unfair means. Intending to salvage the channel, Jai Harshvardhan, the America returned son of Vijay, essayed by Sudeep, is manipulated into becoming an accomplice to a political conspiracy orchestrated by a sinister Paresh Rawal in return for better channel viewership. In the backdrop, the  rival channel notches up a few games up its sleeve that attempt to tarnish the image of India TV and eating  into the pie, while  a righteous young journalist played by Ritesh Deshmukh who reveres the patriarch at India TV and goes all out as a one man army to uncover the conspiracy and save Vijay Harshwardhan who apparently is being used as a pawn in this political quagmire and succeeds in helping the channel uphold its original vision and mission.
The only thing that is common between Ramgopal Varma's Sarkar, Sarkar Raj and Rann , apart from the obvious towering presence of Big B is a dark background and a webcameraish approach to the film, so much so, you wish you could pull the remote out of Ramu's hands and adjust the hue on the screen.
The movie drags itself through the first half,establishing the credentials of the news channel and there is little of Big B that is heard, who limits himself to reading the news through the entire 1.5 hrs. Its only during  the second half that the movie almost falls into track and comes close to driving a point or two home.However,  the movie fails to offer a convincing view of the media and dissapoints one too many making you feel as if you were travelling in a Volkswagen of the 1920s on a bumpy road. The script simply refuses to kickstart and takes a convoluted approach to make a simple statement.
The script and sets of the movie affirm that Rann is a product of inadequate research and unidimensional perception. Not once, are you lead to believe that people in the respective competitors offices are engaged in serious work. While some are busy making a parody of sorts,others are busy selling secrets to rival channels or walking around hither-thiter without much to offer.If that were not enough,the background score and soundtrack has you asking for Sandeep Chowta who was once a regular in the Ramgopal Varma camp and  a reckoning force that had you glued to the seats,just for the beauty of the scores. The jarring tunes composed by a dozen music directors, do not gel well with the flow of the story and rather complement the tone of the camerawork by Amit Roy that is erratic and made to appear dark and amateurish,to give the so called "Sarkar" effect.
However, inspite of these follies, the talented among the cast,put in their best efforts to work around a sketchy character description except for possibly Amitabh Bachchan who has received the best scripted role amongst the lot. Given the potential and success of Paresh Rawal in the past in the garb of negativity, Ram Gopal Varma does not exploit it adequately and it so appears that he gave Paresh a free hand to work out the details of his character. But, the directors actor that Paresh Rawal is, he has put in his best efforts and yet the superficial character description fails to justify his effort. Mohnish Behl, for his part as the owner of a competing channel is sincire and believable.Ramu's muse since Phoonk, Sudeep demonstrates potential for growth and demonstrates the transition from an obedient son to an avaricious businessman with some conviction.Ritesh Deshmukh as the young and sincire journalist has you striking a chord at certain points,while the rest of the cast including Suchitra Krishnamurthy, Neetu Chandra,Gul Panag and Rajat Kapoor along with extras appear more like last minute additions to fill up the spot,and hence have limited breadth and scope to perform.

But, Rann is  salvaged by the effort of one man alone, Amitabh Bachchan, who rises up to the challenge of a poor script and How!!. Every frame that captures him dressed in impeccable suits has you rooting for him and empathizing with his character and vulnerability. The frequent flux across the states of mind of Vijay Harshvardhan are protrayed effectively through his silence that conveys volumes,until the last 30 minutes that is by far the best segment of the movie. Clearly, Ram Gopal Varma is a huge fan of Amitabh Bachchan  has reserved the best part of his script and lines for the last,to let the Angry Young Man rise and speak. The  emotional turmoil and confessional speech articulated by Bachchan ,especially the line wherein he voices " Media ek Lakshya tha aur Paisa ek Madhyam par ab Paisa ek Lakshya aur Media ek Madhyam sirf Madhyam, ban gaya hai" pulls some strings and leaves your throat choking, delivered in a manner that is so very Bachchan.

With not much to talk about, and Bachchan being its only saving grace, the movie scales 3 POINTS out of 5 for Amitabh's class act and is recommended only if you want to enjoy the last thirty minutes of the movie which gives you enough reason for Big B to be considered the true Sarkar of modern Hindi cinema.