Star cast: Suriya, Vivek Oberoi, Priyamani, Radhika Apte, Sudeep.
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Plot: The sequel to Rakht Charitra begins where the first part ended. This one talks about the enmity between Suriya and Vivek.
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What’s Bad: The routine revenge drama; the burden of the flop first part which this sequel has to carry.
Verdict: Rakht Charitra 2 is a very ordinary action fare.
Loo break: Several.
Cinergy, Vistaar Religare and Cloud Nine Movies’ Rakht Charitra 2 (A) is a sequel to Rakht Charitra. Ravi Pratap (Vivek Oberoi), who had been taken by popular political leader Shivaji Rao (Shatrughan Sinha) under his wings, keeps on rising to power. But then, he meets his biggest obstacle, his nemesis, Surya Reddy (Suriya). From then on, it is Ravi Pratap pitted against Surya.
Surya is the son of Narasimha Deva Reddy (Raju Krishnamurthy) who was responsible for the murders of Ravi Pratap’s father and brother. To avenge the killings of his father and brother, Ravi Pratap had murdered Narasimha. After his father’s murder, Surya, who shunned violence, had planned to resettle his mother, sister and brother in Bangalore where he and his wife, Bhawani (Priyamani), had just begun to live. But before he could have them leave Anandpur, Surya had witnessed the deaths of his mother, sister and brother in a bomb explosion even while he and Bhawani had had a narrow escape. The bomb ex- plosion was assumed to be the handiwork of Ravi Pratap.
Driven against the wall, the non-violent Surya had sworn revenge against Ravi Pratap. The sequel’s story begins with Surya attempting to murder Ravi Pratap but failing in his attempt. This angers Ravi Pratap who now vows to kill Surya. Meanwhile, Surya is on the run but soon surrenders to the police.Ravi Pratap decides to kill him but he doesn’t have the support of his mentor, Shivaji Rao, as the latter does not want to risk his political career by getting involved, albeit indirectly, in a murder.
Blinded by vendetta, Ravi Pratap decides to kill Surya while he is in prison, but fails. Here, Surya asks wife Bhawani to contest elections against Ravi Pratap. Fearing defeat, Ravi Pratap plots to have Bhawani killed before the elections.
Does Ravi Pratap eliminate Bhawani? Does he also kill Surya? Or is Surya successful in avenging the annihilation of his entire family, by eliminating Ravi Pratap?
Somewhere in between, it is also revealed that the bomb explosion, which had killed Surya’s family members, had been planned without Ravi Pratap’s knowledge. This means that Surya thirsting for Ravi Pratap’s blood was because of a misunderstanding.
Script and Screenplay
Although the sequel’s story begins with Surya’s attempt to murder Ravi Pratap, the sequel itself shows long excerpts (of a total running time of half an hour) from the first part (Rakht Charitra) before coming to its main plot. This makes for boring viewing, more so because the first part was a dismal flop.
Even the cat-and-mouse game played by Ravi Pratap and Surya fails to excite or involve the audience much, because it looks like a routine revenge drama. Probably, the only novelty here is that the action is very raw and gruesome. While a section of the masses may approve of such violence, the majority of the masses would find it quite unpalatable. As for the womenfolk and the family audiences, they’d shun such bloody and gory scenes with a vengeance.
Of course, the sequel is not replete with violent scenes like the first part was, because it (sequel) has narrative scenes too, but even then, there is an overdose of crude violence. Since the film runs on just one track, monotony sets in pretty fast. Prashant Pandey’s story and Ram Gopal Varma and his (Pandey’s) screenplay aren’t half as arresting as they ought to have been.
Even the climax is tame.Surya is shown to be out of jail quite abruptly. The emotional quotient in the drama doesn’t quite touch the viewer’s heart. What do appeal are the dialogues (Prashant Pandey) at places.
Performances
Suriya shines in his debut attempt on the Hindi screen. He has the persona and the talent in abundance and, with better Hindi diction, he can easily fit into Hindi films. He has a superb physique and acts excellently, whether in dramatic or emotional scenes. He is brilliant in action scenes too. Vivek Oberoi does full justice to his role. His expressions are very right. Priyamani and Radhika Apte get limited scopes and both perform ably. Shatrughan Sinha is alright. Sudeep does a fair job. Zarina Wahab, Anupam Shyam, Vishwajit Pradhan and the others lend fair support.
Direction
Ram Gopal Varma’s direction is good but, like the script, his narration would also appeal to only a limited section of the audience. Javed-Ejaz’s action is raw. Cinematography (by Amol Rathod) is nice. Music is nothing more than functional. Background score is effective and goes with the mood of the film. Tech- nical and other aspects are of a good standard.
Verdict
On the whole, Rakht Charitra 2 is an ordinary fare, and, given that the first part bombed at the box-office, this sequel would hardly be given a chance by the audience, especially those frequenting multiplexes. It has some chance in single-screen cinemas and small centres.
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