Depicting an archetypal conflict between rival political families and parties, based on the Mahabharata, the film starred an ensemble cast of Ajay Devgn, Nana Patekar, Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpayee, Sarah Thompson and Naseeruddin Shah.

It was originally produced by Prakash Jha Productions and distributed by UTV Motion Pictures and Walkwater Media.

It became a major commercial success, grossing over ₹145.5 crore (US$17 million) worldwide, emerging as one of the fourth highest-grossing Indian films of 2010.

For the upcoming midterm polls, Prithvi rejects the nomination of local leader Sooraj Kumar, who is chosen by the common people.

Unknown to all, Sooraj is Bharti's abandoned son, who was found and brought up by the Pratap family's driver Ram Charittra and his wife.

In order to regain his power and be the chief-ministerial candidate in the state assembly election, Veerendra has Chandra Pratap assassinated and Prithvi is arrested.

Samar kills Babulal, an old party associate of Bhanu Pratap, after uncovering that Sooraj and Veerendra had murdered his father.

Veerendra and Sooraj plan to assassinate Samar by planting a bomb in his car, but it is Prithvi and Sarah who perish in the explosion.

He compared Jha's earlier films Gangaajal (2003) and Apaharan (2005) and remarked that they are "finely focused works" in comparison to Raajneeti.

"[8] 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".

[9] Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN rated it 3.5/5 and said, "In the end, Raajneeti is thrilling and gripping for the most part, even though it does lose steam in its final act.

"[10] Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave a 1.5 out of 5 star rating explaining that it is "essentially Sarkar Raj (2008) minus Amitabh Bachchan, is a hyperactive drama given to much yelling and little thought.

The screenplay is weak, manipulative and every possible kind of lazy, with an omniscient narrator who vanishes after a while, a slew of unbelievably one-note characters, clunky dialogue that often lapses into something from period cinema, and bloody deaths thrown in every few scenes to kickstart the drama in this exhausting 3-hour film.

"[11] Rachel Saltz of The New York Times said, "Raajneeti, with its large cast of characters and wealth of subplots, is often a mess, but an interesting one."

"[4] Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times found that while it aimed "for something trenchant about thwarted destiny and ugly ambition in modern Indian democracy", it "mostly winds up with a convoluted and tonally awkward Godfather rehash, with nary a character worth rooting for" and that "Kapoor's performance is stony rather than calculating...."[12] Frank Lovece of Film Journal International said, "More pulpy than political, this Godfather-ripoff Hindi electoral drama is a candidate for oblivion in U.S. theatres.

It ranked as the tenth highest grossing Bollywood film of all time until it was surpassed by the Salman Khan-starrer Kick (2014).

He specified that Raajneeti "became the third Bollywood film this year to lead all limited releases in its first weekend," following My Name is Khan and Kites.