Producer & Director: Vimal Kumar
*ing: Govinda, Raveena Tandon, Kader Khan, Aroona Irani, Satish Kaushik, Mohan Joshi, Shakti Kapoor, and Divya Dutta.
Music: Anand Milind

Released on : May 21, 1999

Reviewed by: Aniket Joshi
aniket@indolink.com

out of 
Rajaji is another Govinda comedy, directed by Vimal Kumar. Rajaji is not as good the recently released Anari No. 1. However there are moments in Rajaji which are hilarious, for example the scene where Govinda is getting ready to go to work while waiting at the bus stop. But there are other parts in the film where you wish you had a remote control in your hand. The story resembles many new and old flicks, but it's Govinda's performance that helps you at least stay awake during the movie.

Raja (Govinda) is the son of a village sarpanch (Kader Khan), who always taunts him for being a good for nothing bum. Raja is always saved by his mother (Aroona Irani) and his mama Shaadilal (Satish Kaushik) who refer to Raja as Raja ji. Raja is very lazy and just wants to become rich without doing any work. So he comes to Mumbai along with Shaadilal. Raja decides that the only way to become rich in a hurry is to marry a millionaire's daughter. Raja comes across Payal (Raveena Tandon) and mistakes her for crore-pati Dhanpatrai's (Shakti Kapoor) daughter and wishes to marry her. Little did Raja know that Payal is actually the daughter of a gardner (Mohan Joshi) who works for Dhanpatrai.

Payal falls for Raja and marriage takes place. It isn't long before Raja finds out who Payal really is and leaves her. Surprisingly Payal's father wins a lottery and they become millionaires for real this time. Raja realizes his mistake and goes back to Payal but she rejects him. How Raja manages to win back Payal is the rest of the film.

Govinda is the sole reason to sit through the movie. His accent is somewhat similar to the one he had for Chote Miyan in BMCM, but it's not as effective. Satish Kaushik gives a decent performance, but sometimes he's really annoying. Raveena doesn't have anything do except prance around and look gorgeous, which she excels at by the way, in case you haven't noticed. The dialogues penned by Kader Khan are witty as usual. "Tere Pyar Ne" is picturised differently than how most songs are picturised in Govinda films these days, and it's shot rather well. The song itself is hummable not to forget.

What Rajaji lacks is good direction and screenplay. Some scenes are meant to be funny but you find them to be boring or annoying instead. Vimal Kumar has tried to make the film too funny and the result isn't good. Rajaji can only be recommended as a time-pass fillum and nothing more.