Raktha Charitra Movie Reviews

Director Ram Gopal Varma is very much interested in sensationalism. Even before the release of the film, for that matter even when the film is on sets, he created a big hype about the film Rakta Charitra and made everyone believe that it is the life history of Paritala Ravi, one of the strong politician of Telugu Desam, who was murdered. But in reality, the film is nothing, but a revenge drama and as was told it is a fictitious story based on real life incidents. But for the cold-blooded violence, the film has nothing to offer on a whole.

Story: Veerabhadraiah (Rajendra Gupta) is a strong politician of Anandapuram and Narasimha Reddy (Kitty) is his close associate, who belonged to a backward community. Unable to digest his close proximity with Veerabhadraiah, Nagamani Reddy (Kota Srinivasa Rao) creates rift between them. Then Nagamani uses Manda (Ashish Vidyarthi) as a weapon to kill Narasimha Reddy. Narasimha’s younger son Pratap Ravi (Vivek Oberoi) pursues studies in city. He falls in love with Nandini (Radhika Apte) and they both wanted to get married. At this juncture, Pratap comes to know about the murder of his father and reaches the village. How he takes revenge upon the people, who killed his father forms the remaining movie.

Performance: Vivek Oberoi has a tailor-made role of protagonist. The director has etched his character with precision and his body language and little cruelty in facial expressions in the first half is excellent. He suits to the core for the revenge drama. As a whole, Vivek has given a decent performance all through the film. Even in the second half, his attire as a political leader is also impressive. However, it is Abhimanyu Singh, who steals the entire show. His facial expressions, body language, dreadful eyes, impressive physique are superb and he attracts the audiences with his stunning performance. More than Vivek Oberoi, it is Abhimanyu, who catches the eye of audiences. Kota Srinivasa Rao was at his usual best as a cunning politico. Shatrughan Sinha's character resembles NTR (senior) and his gestures and performance have the shades of NTR. Other artistes including Radhika Apte, Zareena Wahab (Pratap’s mother), Rajendra Gupta, Asish Vidyarthi have done their job perfectly.

Technical: Dialogues by Nageswara Rao fail to deliver the adequate punch. The director and the writer cleverly avoided the Rayalaseema slang in dialogues and avoided giving the film a flavour of Seema. The dialogues are good occasionally. As the film is based on violence, there is no comedy track in the movie and is very raw. Likewise, the film has no romantic songs though the director kept a love thread in the first half between Vivek and Radhika Apte. There are a few songs that come in the background to elevate the scenes. But one needs to raise a compliment on the background score by Dharam-Sandeep. The re-recording is fantastic as the director has chosen to use Mrityunjaya Mantra, some rhythmic poems praising Lord Siva, during the scenes that mark violence. The lighting used for the picturisation of the entire film is impressive and Amul Rathod needs kudos for explaining the mindset of RGV. Bhanodaya’s editing capabilities are equally good. RGV has closely studied the factional violence in Seema and scripted the story in an impressive manner. The story is gripping and the screenplay too is quite impressive as he could narrate the scenes in a perfect sequence. The basic drawback in the film is the voice over by RGV. He should have given a visual treat and the narration turns a little boring with his voice.

Remarks: The film is okay if you are interested in realistic violence? If you can enjoy killing people in cold blood without any mercy, then ‘Rakta Charitra’ is a film to watch. RGV depicted the film as a complete revenge drama and there are no traces of faction or factional violence. The first half is allotted for revenge drama and the second half transforms into a political drama. Watch the film only if you are interested to watch bloodshed on the screen and it is a strict ‘No’ for women and children.

Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Abhimanyu Singh, Shatrughan Sinha, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Radhika Apte, Zareena Wahab, Sushant Singh, Tanikella Bharani, Subhalekha Sudhakar, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Rajendra Gupta, Asish Vidyarthi, Kitty and others

Credits: Dialogues – Nageshwar Rao, Background score – Dharam-Sandeep, Cinematography – Amol Rathod, Editing – Bhanodaya were also good, Producers - Madhu Mantena, Sheetal Vinod Talwar, Chinna Vasudeva Reddy and Rajkumar, Story, screenplay and direction – Ram Gopal Varma.