Raajneeti

Mayank Shekhar of Hindustan Times rated it 3/5 and criticized saying, "There's a reason Mahabharata was a television series. Shyam Benegal could brilliantly adapt it around India’s corporate boardroom, only for his contained minimalism (Kalyug (1981)). What you sense here instead then is an over-dramatic, over-written screenplay: an over-boiled egg." He said that the sub-plots of various characters have an awkward conclusions. He compared Jha's earlier films Gangaajal (2003) and Apaharan (2005) and remarked that they are "finely focused works" in comparison to Raajneeti. Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India rated it 4/5 and said, "The film basically anchors its plot in two classic tales — The Mahabharata and The Godfather (1972) — to create an engrossing diatribe on India's political system where democracy may prevail, but not in its purest form." Anupama Chopra of NDTV rated it 3/5 and said "Jha creates a real sense of the machinations and sordid deals that fuel politics but then hobbles it with outlandish twists and some decidedly 'filmy' moments".