Rann

Story:

Rann is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language political thriller film written and directed by Ram Gopal Varma. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Sudeep, Riteish Deshmukh, Paresh Rawal, and Gul Panag. The film was premiered at Toronto International Film Festival. The film explores the reality of sensational nature of news and mass media and political nexus.

PLOT

Vijay Harshvardhan Malik is a reputable journalist and the CEO of India 24×7, a struggling news channel falling behind to rival channel Headlines 24, headed by Vijay’s former employee, Amrish Kakkar, which is thriving primarily because of their focus on aesthetic journalism. Malik’s son Jay, who had recently returned to India after completing his MBA in the USA, runs the channel going against his father’s morals. Jay plans to launch new channels much to the disapproval of his father and employee, Purab Shastri, a budding journalist.

Nalini Kashyap, India 24×7’s COO, is discovered to be leaking information about launching new shows to Kakkar which were conceived by Vijay and Jay in exchange for money. Jay had borrowed ₹300 million from investors to launch new channels and with India 24×7 failing miserably is in a large sum of debt. Jay’s brother-in-law, Naveen Shankalya partners with corrupt politician, Mohan Pandey, who orchestrated a bomb blast in Muzaffarnagar, to modify all industrial policies, eventually becoming India’s biggest industrialist.

Pandey creates a conspiracy involving the Prime Minister Digvijay Hooda, his associate Atul Kumar Dubey and another man allegedly named Khanna. They are coerced by Pandey and are recorded by Jay to discuss the aftermath of the bomb blast and are pressured to falsely accuse Hooda of organising the blast to create fear amongst the public. Jay shows the footage to Vijay and convinces him to expose Hooda to the public immediately. Vijay, being honest and respected, addresses the fabricated news to the public. This leads to a coup d’état and several journalists sabotage the footage to make Hooda seem guilty. Pandey assassinates Dubey and Khanna to ensure that there are no obstacles, whilst Khanna’s identity and whereabouts are still under speculation from the public. In the elections, Pandey becomes the frontrunner to be elected as Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, Purab suspects that there is foul play involved after having noticed the increasing number of benefits the channel has received despite being in financial decline. During an interview with Pandey, Purab begins to question Pandey about his crimes but is stopped by Jay, who threatens to fire him. Purab, having realised that Jay is working with Pandey, goes undercover under the alias of Khanna. Jay, distressed about the message he received from Khanna’s impersonator, takes Purab to Khanna’s residence. Purab reveals Khanna’s true identity but is shocked to learn that Khanna is Jay’s friend from college.

Upon Nalini’s insistence, Purab reluctantly visits Kakkar, who appears to be having similar suspicions. Despite being aware of Kakkar’s intentions to overthrow his mentor’s channel, Purab ultimately submits the evidence he has with the hope that Kakkar would reveal the truth behind the scandal. Nevertheless, Kakkar is shown to be just as corrupt when he brings the evidence to Pandey after extorting a large sum of money from him, in exchange for not exposing their crimes. Purab confronts him whilst secretly recording their conversation about the conspiracy.

Purab, left without any other option, reveals the conspiracy to Malik and presents the other evidence he had collected, including Kakkar’s testimony. Malik, distraught upon realising that he is responsible for the scandal, goes on-air to expose everyone who was involved in the scandal, including his own son. During the election ceremony, Pandey is subject to outrage from the public whilst Malik’s segment is concurrently being broadcast. In the aftermath, Vijay’s daughter Priya (Simone Singh) leaves Naveen and takes their son with her. Jay, unable to bear the guilt, commits suicide by jumping off the balcony of his apartment. Kakkar hires a reputed lawyer to help him avoid legal punishment but fails, whilst Vijay resigns from his post at India 24×7 with Purab taking over as CEO as only he has the courage to expose corruption.