Let me explain what I mean. The word rajneeti is composed of two words: raj (exercise of government, administration, rule, sway, sovereignty) and neeti (moral philosophy, ethics). Thus rajneeti is a composite that indicates the notion of rule of law to govern a polity. The word Raj also has imperial connotations, whether in the mythological past (e.g. Ram Raj) or in the historical past (e.g. British Raj). It continues to have currency in contemporary democratic India, never losing its regal or elite inflections. Thus terms such as Zamindar Raj or Congress Raj are used colloquially to describe the activities of ‘high’ leadership, the dominance of a single party or simply the dominance of power through sheer force of tradition or charisma. The actors in this arena of rajneeti traditionally belong to the elites, the real world descendants of the Kauravas and Pandavas. In the film Rajneeti, the main characters are elites such as these. That the film is set in a small town in central India rather than in New Delhi should not be seen as obscuring the depiction of high politics. For the themes of political succession and inheritance, sibling love, cousin rivalry, overseas education, foreign girlfriends, and wily king makers are present here as much as they are in the capital. They aspire to capture power, whether the naked power of money and donations or more democratic institutions of party leadership, tickets to contest elections and ministerial portfolios. Their political activity therefore requires wealth, strategy, wily machinations and a complex triangulation of means, ends and the use of violence. Krishna’s advice to Arjuna on the battlefield is in fact a philosophical meditation on this topic. Ultimately as he notes, and as Brij Gopal (Patekar) recounts in the film: there are no good or bad decisions in politics, there are only correct ones that help you achieve the desired end.