Rajneeti- a story with botched up morals

The first half of Rajneeti was infinitely gripping. I must confess that the popcorn in my lap shriveled and the cola turned flat, so absorbed was I in the intrigues of the characters on screen. The cinematography was good, editing swift and the pace fast. The story is a modern version of Mahabharata set in the Hindi heartland with two political families engulfed in a battle for power. Some characters like Dhritarashtra and Pandu, Shakuni, Kunti, Duryodhan and Karna were easy to figure out. But the other brothers were not so obvious. Mahabharata soon lost out to Mario Puzo’s Godfather and there was Ranbir as Al Pacino with his firang girlfriend and a reluctant participant in the murky world of political mafiadom.
By interval there was a lot of unnecessary violence, cold blooded murders and some steamy sex scenes that were definitely not for UA viewing. But that wasn’t what bothered me. The second half dragged a bit and there was that famous scene when Kunti comes to ask karna to go home when the audience actually began to laugh. She had switched to some archaic hindi! What was the script writer thinking? The whole gravity of the scene disappeared thanks to that blooper. Anyway, as the movie neared its end I eagerly waited for the resolution of the problem in the story. Every character had shades of grey except for katrina’s character. They were all committing murder, mayhem and treachery left right and centre in the name of politics. Were they all going to get away? As the last surviving hero wiped off the blood stains, dawned his suit and calmly went back to his life in the US I realized that was what was happening. I don’t expect a good vs evil ending but I expect a film to have some scruples, to set some goals or standards if you will. But Rajneeti hides its moral vacuity with a lot of powerful acting and slick production. In the last scene, Nana Patekar as Shakuni cum Krishna rolled into one (how is that possible?) orders Ranbir to kill his unarmed brothers point blank because 'it is the only way he can make sure they never come back to challenge him.' It made me sick. Is this the interpretation of Geeta that Prakash Jha understands?
And one last thing. Sonia Gandhi’s cronies may have censored any number of scenes from the film but they couldn’t erase the fact that comes across in every scene: Politicians are the scum of the earth and they can go to any lengths to stay in power. I’m sure she isn’t too happy about it.