Film: Rakta Charitra
Rating: 3.5/5
Banner: Cinergy productions
Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Abhimanyu Singh, Shatrughan Sinha, Kota, Radhika Apte, Zareena Wahab, Sushant Singh, Tanikella, Subhalekha Sudhakar, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Rajendra Gupta, Ashish Vidyarthi, Kitty and others
Dialogues: Nageswara Rao
Music: Dharam- Sandeep
DOP: Amol Rathod
Editing: Bhanodaya, Nipun Ashok Gupta
Story, screenplay, direction: Ram Gopal Varma
Producers: Madhu Mantena, Sheetal Vinod Talwar, Chinna Vasudeva Reddy, Rajkumar
Release Date: 22nd Oct 2010
Ram Gopal Varma is back with a bang in the Telugu movie circuit with his favorite brand of violent movies. From the day it was announced, the movie has caught the attention and generated a lot of controversy. Made on the feud that existed between Paritala Ravi and Maddelacheruvu Soori, the movie was much awaited this festive season and finally it was released today.
Let’s check it out.
Story
Veerabhadraiah (Rajendra Gupta) is a trusted aide of noted MLA Narasimha Reddy in Anandapuram area. He, however, gets killed by Narasimha Reddy when Narasimha’s relative, Nagamani Reddy (Kota Srinivasa Rao) sows seeds of friction between the two for reasons of caste.
Veerabhadraiah’s elder son Shankar Ravi (Sushant) is enraged and goes into a killing spree. But he too gets killed. Shankar’s younger brother Pratap Ravi (Vivek Oberoi) who is away from all this gets to know and vows revenge on his father and brother’s killers. He brutally kills Narasimha Reddy, Nagamani Reddy and others to become a big force in Anandapuram region.
But in this process, Nagamani Reddy’s son Bukka Reddy (Abhimanyu) who is insane is unable to take this and he becomes Pratap’s main enemy. He waits for the right time to eliminate Pratap Ravi.
In the meantime Bukka Reddy irks newly turned politician Shivaji Rao (Shatrughan Sinha). Noticing the rise of Pratap as an opposite and powerful force to Bukka Reddy, Shivaji Rao (Shatrughan) decides to set up a new party and support Pratap to put an end to Bukka Reddy. How he does this and what happens after that forms the remaining part of the thrilling and spine chilling finale.
Rakta Charitra-1 is focused mainly on the rise of ‘Paritala Ravi’. Even though RGV has incorporated some fictional and commercial elements to the real story to appease the masses, most of the content is inspired and grasped from Paritala Ravindra’s life.
Performances:
Vivek Oberoi performance as Pratap Ravi is outstanding. While underplaying the role, he has used his eyes and body language to do full justice to the role and given a power packed performance. In fact, this can be easily regarded as Vivek’s best performance so far.
Abhimanyu Singh as Bukka Reddy is a complete show stealer as the villain in the movie. His menacing wicked looks and his cold blooded performance will give some spine chilling moments to the audience.
Shatrughan Sinha acting is average in the movie. It would be difficult for the audience to envision anyone else besides NTR himself in the role. However, Shatrughan Sinha has tried his best to behave like NTR did in real life and this can be seen by his prominent gestures and dialogue delivery.
Kota has come up a sterling performance. Radhika, as the wife of Ravi, is naturally appealing, Zarina is good. Tanikella is impressive and made his presence felt. Rajendra Gupta was adequate while Sushant was brief and Ashish Vidyarthi was okay. Subhalekha Sudhakar’s presence does some good to the nativity factor which is seriously lacking in the movie. Subrat Dutta was also good. Rest of the cast did their bit as required by the director and added value to the film.
Analysis:
Rakta Charitra is a fiction based on historical facts. We all know how our filmmakers glorify the ‘factional’ concept and have made similar movies in the past. Ram Gopal Varma has also tried to show this with a blend of fiction and has hit the right balance. Without taking sides, RGV has just focused just on the proceedings with true depiction of human emotions. Because the director has focus on strong characterization, the drama holds the audience’s grip
RGV has taken imagination to new levels by his extreme characterization. For example, he has shown Bukka Reddy as a determined rapist/murderer! Pratap Ravi is shown as a bad guy, but for a true reason (he is chosen to be the hero of the plot).
Despite dealing this story in a creative manner, RGV didn’t dare enough to shoot the film in real locations. However, RGV deserves praises for daringly canning some very controversial scenes on NTR (Shatrugan) and Obul Reddy (Abhimanyu) characters. This film is a must watch for those who want to get the real feel of Rayalaseema faction.
Technicalities:
Like Varma’s other movies, Rakta Charitra too is technically brilliant. The cinematography by Amol Rathod is awesome as Rathod seem to have grasped RGV technical flair. Music composed by Dharam-Sandeep is another asset to this movie. The background score too is very good. Dialogues written by Nageswara Rao are not something to write home about except for few striking punch lines here and there. Editing is crisp but the art is not up to the mark as the Bihar kind of setup doesn’t gel with the backdrop of Anantapuram.
Highlights:
1. Some of the movie’s impressive highlights include:
2. The overall concept of the movie.
3. Some symbolism shots with respect to showing a cycle in Shivaji Rao (Shatrugan Sinha)’s place (recalling TDP and NTR), usage of left had, addressing as ‘brother.’
4. Showing a dog barking after the death of Naga Mani Reddy (Kota) represents ‘kukka chaavu.’
5. Pratap Reddy’s sketch to kill Bukka Reddy is excellent.
6. Ram Moorthy (Tanikella) telling Pratap Ravi: ‘Shave beard as a politician should look clean at face although dirty at heart.’
7. Bukka Reddy’s entry scene.
Challenges:
Some of the challenges that the movie is likely to face include:
The subject is hard hitting and one needs to have some background information before seeing the film.
Criticism over Shivai Rao’s (a replica of NTR) characterization and converting it into publicity factor.
Questions with respect to ‘pedda sir’ (implying YSR) and again converting it into a publicity element.
Disappointments:
A few minus points of the movie are:
1. RGV’s overflowing voice which disturbs the movie’s mood to some point.
2. Pratap Ravi stays in forest as per the dialogue. But he stays in a dusty hill area that hardly looks like a forest.
3. Why include the Dabbunnoda song? The context is unconvincing.
4. As the story, characters and emotions are completely based on Rayalaseema faction, RGV should’ve stuck to make this film solely in Telugu only.
5. Not many people from other states are aware of Ravi-Soori clash so why would people from the Hindi belt watch this film?.
Final Word:
Ram Gopal Varma works best in violence story genre on to the screen. The film is technically brilliant and RGV gives the right definition for faction in this film. His inimitable style of storytelling and moviemaking is the biggest plus point for Rakta Charita.
Although it is a typical RGV film, the characters, however, get to speak more than what we usually see in his movies. There is rhythm in the performances of the cast and they are able to connect with the audience.
On a whole, this is a movie for the violent movie lovers especially RGV’s fans.
Review By Asma
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