Rakht Charitra (2010)

Welcome to BLOOD BANK. Blood of all types - O, A, B, AB Positive and Negative. Loads of Blood Flooded on the Silver Screen. And before you Scream: Khoon! Khoon! Khoon!!! (woah! that sounds like a 70's and 80's Hindi film - wherein a servant comes to the room and sees his Memsahab murdered with a knife and half a liter of blood on her).. But, here its tons and tons of Blood splashed everywhere! And RGV calls this 'Bloody' film of his - RAKHTA CHARITRA!Its Gang War in Telugu Desam! Reality Screams on Screen! Indian cinema's infant terrible may just have peaked in his perennial quest to portray the worst in man. The real rivalry between the Andhra Pradesh gangsters Paritala Ravi and Madela Cheruvu Suri is brought with blood galore on the rusty regions of Anandpur to Celluloid. Its Ravi's journey from a soft-spoken man to a jungle-bound rebel bent on avenging the deaths of his father and brother. And the revenge from both the parties is also politically captured by Shivaji Rao (a take off character from the politician NTR). And what's more, its Blood some more! The film has an Interval and another long Interval (for a period of 3 weeks) before you get to see the continuation of the Bloody Film! Rakta Charitra Part II to HIT the screens on November 19th.Now, I mentioned HIT the screens. Because, its for sure, that the film is a HIT. This film is technically brilliant with the Script, Screenplay and the Background score. Direction of RGV with his camera moments doing the magic, its the acting capabilities of Vivek Oberoi and Abhimanyu Singh that gets lots of applauds and could be in the nomination lists of awards too! Shot Gun is impressive as a Politician and his get up is brilliant! Radhika Apte gets little scope and she gets attention! Hey, did you ask for Surya, the Tamil actor? Wait..N Watch for his performance will be highlighted in the II series. And the Kannada actor Sudeep gets No Phoonk this time! He looks more or less like an Extra in the film.But Yes.. This film is definitely not for the Classes. But for the Masses. And for the Gory and Strong Hearted Ruthless and Stone Hearted Masses, as they would love to see the killings, murders, torture and cruelty on screen. I guess, RGV was a 'Butcher' in his previous birth as he gets his actors enact the brutal killings that a Butcher does with his animal in the slaughter market! (Men being hacked to death, maimed by bloodied sickles, bodies hammered with bullets, body parts strewn around). And this film is strictly avoidable to the Ladies and Children. Meant only for ADULTS and MEN only! Now that is something a PORN film can be! With so much PAIN and CHARITRA-HEEN (as women are assaulted and raped in broad daylight). It can be a Ooh, Aah and more 'Ouch' for everyone watching this PAINFUL film!

Welcome to the world of superviolence .........courtesy the greatest exponent of it ,Ram Gopal verma........As the name suggests , this film is not for sissys ,kids or vegetarians........ ........And Ram Gopal Verma himself has gone on record to say that ,as far as this film is concerned ,women should stay at home.......That explains why the theater was 2/3 rd empty.....on the second day itself....Because the audience has been cut down to only males ,that too the non- veg eating ,blood and gore loving types......And what a feast for them !!Rivers of blood flow ,enough to make a vampire overnourished for weeks.......Women are abducted , literally in broad daylight ,and raped like whores.......Boulders are smashed on peoples heads ,and other innovative methods of killing people like boring holes through their skulls are invented......The place seems to be alive with rifles ,knives ,pistols ,koytas,and other such weapons.......And masterminding all the mayhem is Nagamani Reddy ( played by Abhimanyu Singh ) ,the villain of the film......His performance is the stellar performance of the film ,what holds the film together...............For he plays with with absolute perfection , the role of a sadistic ,savage ,absolute brutal despot of a small town ,with animal- like instincts ,that too the carnivore type............The small town is Anantpur in Andra Pradesh , and the film is based on a true enemity.........Which means that such a person really existed !!And who's his enemy ??......Vivek Oberoi ,who else ,who also has to murder and kill in equal measure........And he does that with determination and skill........a good acting performance from him too........ Shatrughan Sinha does a brave effort to fit into the mighty shoes of N T Rama Rao.........but only a Telgu can tell if he succeeds........And what a Telgu can enlighten us is also about the real-life happenings in Anantpur in the past........since they were considered worth making a film on them......Verdict--not bad , if barbaric violence is your cup of tea......

After an impressive yet underrated 'Rann', Ram Gopal Verma is back again with 'Rakhta Charitra'. Having heard that it was based on the rivalry between Paritala Ravindra and Maddela Cheruvu Suryanarayana and given that the director has a knack for crime films (examples include classics like 'Satya' and 'Company'), expectations were reasonably high. While 'Rakhta Charitra' does not overall disappoint, it could have been better.The film is stylishly shot. However, there were a few instances when I felt the camera-work was too erratic. We know how Verma loves his camera but sometimes he needs to take it easy. The background score too should have been toned down in a few sequences because it brings a melodramatic feel. Ram Gopal Verma's voice-over is quite terrible. While his voice does add some irony to the story, he should have left the task to someone else. There is one song which should have been better left out.The scenes of violence are well-executed but sometimes it appears as though they overshadow the story. Verma could have developed the story a little more and added a little more personal moments between or within the characters in order to involve the viewer. There are a couple of scenes that are overdone and unintentionally funny but otherwise the atmosphere and tension is well contained.The casting is excellent. Vivek Oberoi effortlessly pulls off the role of Ravi Pratap. Of course he's played similar characters earlier in 'Company' and 'Shootout at Lokhandwala' and here he does nothing short of a great job. Abhimanyu Singh is equally good as the ruthless menacing Bukka. It's good to see Shatrughan Sinha back in films (this time as the fiery Sivaji Rao). The supporting cast that includes Zarina Wahab, Radhika Apte, Sushmita Mukherjee, Sushant Singh, Ashish Vidyarthi and Ashwini Kalsekar, is superb.Even though 'Rakhta Charitra' may not be up there with Verma's earlier films like 'Company' or 'Satya', it is an interesting film that is gripping and well-paced. It's good to see Verma going stronger after 'Rann' and hope he keeps up and offers good cinema. I look forward to the sequel.

To be straight, the movie is A Big No for all the kids and even for the grown-ups having weak hearts. The extremely brutal killings shown freely in the film can really leave some disturbing marks on the innocent psyche of the kids. So the first rule of watching RAKTA CHARITRA is that you should not take your kids along to the theaters (and may be the ladies too).The second revelation about this first part of RGVs sequel is that it is evidently not everyone's cup of tea in the literal sense. The viewers, who wish to have a good time and fun in the cinema, may find it unentertaining, meaningless, bloody and too hard hitting. But movie freaks, who are well familiar with the brand RGV and love to see some cunning, strong and realistic kind of cinema told with a fresh narrative, are sure going to love it in one manner or the other.Returning to the movie itself, it is apparently made on the true story of famous gangster turned politician Paritala Ravi of Andhra Pradesh. Here I would like to add that if everything shown in the film is really true and is not glorified to a large extent, then it is really scary to know that it all actually happened in a city full of living human beings.Apart from the storyline you may also complain about the similar RGV kind of camera angles, lightings and confrontations scenes in the film, reminding you the ones seen earlier in his SATYA, COMPANY, SARKAR, SARKAR-RAJ and many other underworld movies coming from the RGV factory. And for many the film might be a documentary focusing only on all the hardcore murders coming one after another on the screen without any basic storyline behind them. But still RAKTA CHARITRA works in a particular way for all the RGV fans and for the viewers who are game for something experimental tried by the gutsy director of Indian Film Industry.Frankly what worked for me in RC is the attitude with which it is made fearlessly by the one & only RGV. The man dares to do what he feels like and with his every new film tries to make his own set of rules about film business. For instance, he simply doesn't care if his project gets deliberately avoided by groups of college going boys and girls, love couples, and families especially having small kids, even if this takes away a major part of his collections at the box office. He makes what he wishes to make and that too in a style which cannot even be thought by many other glossy film-makers of Bollywood churning out chocolate movies with big stars every year. Mahesh Bhatt was the one man who used to take up such kind of subjects earlier but then he too always decorated his projects with controversial scenes, loud emotional dramas and hit songs. Today, RGV moves way ahead in that direction with RAKTA CHARITRA and delivers a film which might be unbearable for many having his name written over every frame of the reels till the end.Using hidden talented actors such as Abhimanyu Singh, Ashwini Kalsekar, Zarina Wahab and Rajendra Gupta, RGV transforms them into believable lively characters with his remarkable vision and skill. Now who could have thought to cast Shatrughan Sinha with a look without his famous moustache? And who could have thought of making a complete film of 4 hours and then releasing it in two parts at a gap of one month?Only RGV showed these guts but honestly his sequel idea also looks like inspired from Quentin Tarantino's KILL BILL series of movies. Tarantino's world famous classic is also a pure revenge action thriller which was initially made with a duration of 4 hours to do full justice with the script. With this extra length, Tarantino also decided to release it in two parts, but at a gap of 6 months. RGV seems to be following the same idea but the master moves one step ahead than Tarantino when he right away shows the trailer of his IInd part in the end of RAKTA CHARITRA and that too along with the date of its release written of the screen in red. (This he earlier vaguely tried in his AGYAAT too).So, as a final verdict, I would like to recommend RC to the viewers who wish to see execution more than the content and don't mind blood thrown all over the screen right from the start. Its strictly for the movie freaks who get excited watching the slow motion sequences of terror accompanied by a haunting background score. And for the ones who get pumped up watching the real action on screen with the voice of "Rakta Charitra – Rakta Charitra" being played in the background constantly. Moreover, I would like you to watch RAKTA CHARITRA for three names alone and they are Abhimanyu Singh, Shatrughan Sinha and Vivek Oberoi in this particular order. The three excel themselves in the movie undoubtedly, but the surprise element is delivered by Abhimanyu Singh as Bhukha, who will get hatred in return for his role from every single viewer of the movie unconditionally. And that truly would be the real reward for his superb performance filled with terror.Summing up, with RAKTA CHARITRA, RGV redefines the word REVENGE in BOLLYWOOD and makes all previous movies made on this topic look like dwarfs. It will not get appreciation from all but if you are real movie lover, then you got to see this pure example of a director's bloody vision of an old story. In clear words, its an RGV movie all the way with his famous attitude of "I WILL DO WHAT I WANT – If you don't like it then don't watch it".