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Star cast: Vivek Oberoi, Radhika Apte, Abhimanyu Singh, Shatrughan Sinha.
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What’s Good: Background music; performances of the actors.
What’s Bad: The overdose of action, violence, blood and gore.
Verdict: Rakht Charitra will bleed at the box-office.
Loo break: Plenty, because the pace is so slow and the violence is too much.
Cinergy, Vistaar Religare and Cloud Nine Movies’ Rakht Charitra (A) is an action film about power, politics and crime and how they are all inter-related.
Vir Bhadra (Rajendra Gupta) is politician Narasimha Deva Reddy’s (Raja Krishnamurthy) trusted lieutenant but Naagmani Reddy (Kota Srinivasa Rao) creates such a wedge between them that Vir Bhadra is forced to leave Narasimha Deva Reddy’s party. Not just that, Naagmani Reddy forces Narasimha to order the execution of Vir Bhadra when the latter forms his own political party to challenge the authoritarianism of Narasimha in Andhra village. Manda (Ashish Vidyarthi), who is close to Vir Bhadra is blackmailed into murdering Vir Bhadra, with the help of Narasimha’s own man, Durga (Chetanya Adib). Shankar (Sushant Singh) swears revenge and goes on a killing spree before he is murdered by Narasimha’s goons.
Now, it is the turn of Vir Bhadra’s other son and Shankar’s brother, Pratap Ravi (Vivek Oberoi), to declare war on the killers of his father and brother. He vows to kill Narasimha Deva Reddy, Naagmani Reddy and Manda one by one. Meanwhile, Bukka Reddy (Abhimanyu Singh), the lecherous son of Naagmani Reddy, spreads terror in the village, picking up girls at random, raping them and killing anyone who dares to speak against him.
Even as Pratap Ravi is busy in his mission to avenge the deaths in his family, film star-turned-politician Shivaji (Shatrughan Sinha) takes him under his wings and, after winning elections, makes him a minister. He then asks Pratap Ravi, who had all along been a goonda, to wipe out goondaism from the village, which Pratap Ravi does.
However, now enters Surya (Suriya) in Pratap Ravi’s life and it is a clash of the two giants. This clash is the subject matter of the sequel to Rakht Charitra, which has already been made and which is scheduled for release after a month.
Prashant Pandey’s story is inspired by two bigwigs of Andhra Pradesh – Parithala Ravi (played by Vivek Oberoi) and his opponent, Maddalcheruvu Suri (enacted by Suriya in the sequel). The drama has so much violence that the only law that seems to be governing Anandpur is the law of the jungle. People are murdered – and barbariously at that – with such regularity and so cold-bloodedly that it would seem, that was the main profession of all the main characters in the film. While that may be fine, the writers and director have not been able to convince today’s audience about the almost complete absence of law and order machinery in the village. An eye for an eye, and a murder for a murder is all fine – but how can every single character in the drama think alike. And if they do think in such a similar fashion, there is no difference between the heroes of the drama (Pratap Ravi, Shankar, Vir Bhadra) and the villains (Narasimha, Naagmani, Manda, Bukka Reddy). What shocks the audience even more is when even the ladies of the house almost start propagating the virtues of revenge and murders and rejoice in the fact that their family members are killing people in the name of revenge. Pratap Ravi’s mother is happy, rather than sad, when her son kills Narasimha. She says as much to his girlfriend, Nandini (Radhika Apte), and believe it or not, Nandini actually gets married to Pratap Ravi after knowing fully well that he comes from a family which revels in murders. Since the writers have not bothered to go into the love story of Pratap Ravi and Nandini, the latter’s stance to marry the former looks rather weird.
For a long part of the drama, the police is shown to be on the side of Narasimha’s men but suddenly, out of the blue, comes along police officer Ashwini (Ashwini Kalsekar) who seems to be principled. However, even she is unable to do much because her seniors are corrupt. When she does get a chance to punish Bukka Reddy, he murders her. Due to all this, there is just no exhilaration experienced by the audience. Why, the viewer doesn’t feel as elated as he should, even when Pratap Ravi avenges the murders of his father and brother by killing the opponents one by one, or even when he wins the elections and is gifted a palatial house for himself and his family to stay in. This is because of three reasons: one, even Pratap Ravi appears to be a villain after a point of time; two, the countless murders get on his nerves and irritate him rather than elevating his mood; thirdly, the whole action drama has been presented in such a simplistic way that it would appear, killing is no different from waking up in the morning after a good night’s sleep.
Actually, the screenplay (penned by Ram Gopal Varma and Prashant Pandey) is only about plotting, planning and executing murders and little else. This sets off monotony for the audience. Shivaji taking Pratap Ravi under his wings seems to be a convenient twist in the tale because before this, Pratap Ravi has hardly been shown to be a man of the masses. Rather, Shivaji’s supporters are so many that it looks funny that he should need the help of Pratap Ravi to win elections. Also, the climax looks abrupt if only because it speaks about the beginning of the sequel. Therefore, the audience does not experience the high it should as the ending is not ‘conclusive’ in that sense of the term. Even before the climax begins, Pratap Ravi announcing his decision to let Babu electrician (Om Prakash) kill Bukka Reddy is hardly heartwarming, which it ought to have been. Also, the whole drama is so long and boring that the impact of the thrill element is reduced. Dialogues (Prashant Pandey) are effective.
Vivek Oberoi does well. Having said that, it must be added that his acting mostly comprises killing people as there is hardly anything else in the film. As his wife, Radhika Apte gets very limited scope. She has an expressive face and acts ably. Abhimanyu Singh performs his maniacal act effectively. Shatrughan Sinha is nice. Sushant Singh is good in a brief role. Zarina Wahab excels. Rajendra Gupta shines. Raja Krishnamurthy is okay. Kota Srinivasa Rao is excellent. Ashwini Kalsekar has her moments. Ashish Vidyarthi acts with aplomb. Anupam Shyam (as Omkar), Subrat Dutta (as AK), Chetanya Adib, Sushmita Mukherjee, Vishwajit Pradhan, Om Prakash, Sudeep, Darshan Jariwala, Sukhwinder Singh, Tanikella Bharani (as Ram Murthy), Shailendra Shrivastav (as policeman) and Shubhalekha Sudhakar lend excellent support.
Ram Gopal Varma’s direction is effective but his script and narrative style would appeal only to those who love bloodshed and violence on screen. Ladies and family audiences would not approve of the excessive blood-and-gore scenes. Music (Sukhwinder Singh, Imran-Vikram and Bapi-Tutul) is functional. The background songs, which are played at several places, add to the mood of the drama just as the background score (Dharam-Sandeep), with Sanskrit shlokas, does. Amol Rathod’s cinematography is excellent. Javed-Eijaz’s action is as raw as raw can be. The crudity and overdose of violence will be too much for the audience to digest. Editing (Nipun Ashok Gupta) is okay.
On the whole, Rakht Charitra is too violent and crude to be entertaining. Except for pockets in some circuits like U.P., Bihar and C.P.C.I. Rajasthan, it will not find acceptance or appreciation. Collections in multiplexes will be poor. Losing!
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