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Rakht Charitra

Ram Gopal Varma's Rakht Charitra is a multi lingual film that has been based on true events. The film has been conceived in two parts though the Tamizh version was merely the second part. The second part infact sums up most of what was shown in the first part in its initial minutes. (Note that the film was called Rakta Charitra in Telugu and Ratha Sarithiram in Tamizh.)
I doubt if the film has a so called powerful plot. It is just another story of power and revenge and of course the treatment makes use of enough and more gore for the sake of justifying the title! The film is filled with scenes that have been quite neatly written but it is the weird vision of Ram Gopal Varma that makes Rakht Charitra one interesting watch.
The film has RGV's stamp all over it with the loud background score, and stunning use of slow motion. There is an irritating voice over to the film as well which narrates almost everything that we see for the sake of maybe the 'Dummies' who are watching the film. The weird camera angles that is often associated with Varma is present in this film also but the way the characters behave and act violence in the film is no less weird. The use of eyes of characters and minimal dialogues indeed acts as a great strength for the film. It is always the actions of the actors that carry the film here.
The film has an excellent cast and is filled with actors who manage to give brilliant screen presence and apt performance. Vivek Oberoi as Pratap Ravi, Abhimanyu Singh as Bukka Reddy, Kota Srinivasa Rao as Nagamuni Reddy are nothing but exceptional brilliance of casting. Abhimanyu Singh would make you hate him for life with his bloody acts done with such extreme class. In the second part there is a further addition to the list of excellence in cast with Surya playing his angry son role with immense perfection. Surya's eyes speak so much more than the Hindi is strange to. (I found it rather disturbing that Surya hasn't managed to give his own voice in one of the flashback scenes. I wonder what the reason would have been!) There is also Sudeep who does an impressive cop act but he deserved a little more prominence with that character of his.
I don't know if many people would enough watching this film and some part of the writing is too plain simple. The film is driven by cinematic moments and may falter with logic at parts as well. But even then, Prashant Pandey has managed to write a film that offers enough scope for performance for some of its players and a challenging ground for visualization to the director and cinematographer.
There is style, power and plenty of blood in Rakht Charitra. There are some powerful emotional moments with splendid performances as well. Maybe Ram Gopal Varma had made some uninspiring movies before this and after, but these two films work well though they are far from his best works like Satya and Shiva.

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