Rakta Charitra

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rakta Charitra
Rakta Charitra poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster of Hindi version
Directed byRam Gopal Varma
Screenplay byPrashant Pandey
Produced byMadhu Mantena
Chinna Vasudeva Reddy
Sheetal Vinod Talwar
StarringVivek Oberoi
Sudeep
Radhika Apte
Shatrughan Sinha
Kota Srinivasa Rao
Abhimanyu Singh
Sushant Singh
Narrated byAmitabh Bachchan (Hindi)
Ram Gopal Varma (Telugu)
Cinematography
Edited byNipun Gupta
Music bySukhwinder Singh
Bapi–Tutul
Dharam Sandeep
Imran-Vikram
Distributed byVistaar Religare Film Fund
Release date
  • 22 October 2010 (2010-10-22)
Running time
123min (Hindi)
CountryIndia
LanguagesTelugu
Hindi

Rakta Charitra (transl. History of blood) is a 2010 Indian political action thriller film based on the life of Paritala Ravindra. The film was directed by Ram Gopal Varma and written by Prashant Pandey. Shot simultaneously in Telugu and Hindi with the latter titled Rakht Charitra, the film stars Vivek Oberoi as Pratap Ravi, while Radhika Apte, Sudeep, Shatrughan Sinha, Abhimanyu Singh, Kota Srinivasa Rao and Sushant Singh play supporting roles. Oberoi makes his debut in Telugu cinema through this film.

The film was nominated for Stardust Readers Choice Award for Best Direction — Action/Thriller.[1] Sequel to the film, Rakta Charitra 2 (2010) was released later that year.

Plot[]

Narasimha Reddy, a local politician, is a powerful man in the area. His close associate Veera Bhadra (Rajendra Gupta), is his trustworthy ally for his political work, to the extent that Narasimha Reddy gives him the freedom to contest Jilla Parishad polls with his men. Veera Bhadra champions the causes of the poor and oppressed, and they look up to him like their leader. Nagamuni Reddy (Kota Srinivasa Rao), who is the local MLA of the district and close to Narasimha Reddy, becomes jealous of the budding trust between Veera Bhadra and Narasimha Reddy, and starts poisoning Narasimha Reddy against Veera Bhadra. Narasimha summons Veera Bhadra and asks him not to contest the polls with his contestants, but rather support Nagamuni Reddy's. Veera Bhadra lashes out at Narasimha Reddy for being unfair to the underprivileged communities and storms out. Nagamuni Reddy calls for Manda (Ashish Vidyarthi), a close follower of Veerabhadra, and manipulates him into killing Veerabhadra, giving him the assurance that if he does it, people will suspect the policies of Veera Bhadra as his own follower killed him and he will be the next in line as the leader of the poor people, else take his life. Manda reluctantly agrees to it. Veerabhadra and his wife (Zarina Wahab) travel in a bus with 40 people to a wedding. Manda and Nagamani's men stop the bus, kill Veerabhadra's guards, and tell him to step out of the bus or else he will be killed along with the other innocents on the bus. Veera Bhadra comes out, looking at Manda, and dares him to kill. Nagamani's henchman Durga shoots at Veerabhadra, making it look like Manda shot at him; prompting Manda about the deal he made with Nagamani, he tells him to kill him in front of everyone. Manda takes a boulder and crushes Veerabhadra's skull, and kills him.

This results in an agitation led by Shankar, who wants to avenge his father's murder by killing all the men of Nagamani and Narasimha Reddy. Enter Nagamuni's son Bukka Reddy (Abhimanyu Singh), described as a ruthless man who enjoys raping women and killing men in brutal ways. He starts killing Shankar's men in gory ways: drilling a hole into their skull, chopping off their heads with a sugarcane chopper, burning them alive and feeding them to ravenous rats.

Pratap Ravi (Vivek Oberoi), who is in college in the city of Anantapur, gets the news of his father's murder and rushes to the village. Nagamani Reddy orders the local police inspector to kill Shankar in a fake encounter. When Pratap Ravi goes to the police station to ask about his brother, the inspector shows him Shankar's dead body and mocks him. Infuriated with his brother's murder, Pratap Ravi and Veerabhadra's men kill all the police officers and the inspector.

Pratap Ravi hides in the jungle with his father's associates and vows to kill Narsimha Reddy, Nagamuni Reddy and Manda one by one, instilling fear of death in each one of them. He starts by busting into the house of Narasimha Reddy, killing his guards and finally killing him with a scythe in front of his wife as she looks on in horror. Next is Manda; as he roams in the market, Pratap's men follow him, and before he can defend himself, they chop his hand off. Manda begs for his life, but Pratap stabs him in front of everyone. They plan to kill Nagamuni Reddy, but they are cautious as there is heavy police security in his house. As Nagamani Reddy is sitting on his lawn conversing with a police officer, he is shot at by Pratap, who is dressed as the cop, and his men, dressed as cops as well, kill most of the policemen.

The story progresses as famed film star-turned-politician Shivaji Rao (Shatrughan Sinha) targets Anantapur for contesting elections. The day he enters Anantapur for the rally, Bukka Reddy's men throw bombs, which makes Shivaji Rao get back inside the car and go back. This insults him greatly, and he asks his secretary for the one who can stop Bukka Reddy. Immediately, his secretary mentions Pratap Ravi's name; Shivaji Rao sends for him and puts down a proposal of joining his party and ticket for contesting elections. On the other hand, Bukka Reddy makes his brother Puru Reddy contest for elections and tries to sabotage the voting process by stealing the ballots. Pratap starts his rampage by eliminating, one by one, every rival of his party. Eventually, he comes across a man named Babu Qadri, who seeks Pratap's help in avenging his sister's death. Bukka Reddy had raped his 16-year-old sister, because of which she immolated herself, and Bukka had then broken Babu Qadri's leg. Pratap assures him his vengeance but asks him to forget everything for some time.

As Bukka Reddy's men fail in rigging the election process, Pratap Ravi wins by a majority. Immediately, Bukka Reddy is arrested. Puru Reddy gets him out on bail through Sirji's influence. Bukka, inflamed with the desire to avenge his father's death, hides out in an apartment with his men, and plots to kill Pratap Ravi. Pratap comes to know about his hideout devises a plan to execute him. He immediately gathers his men and calls Babu Qadri, who had sought Pratap's help in avenging his sister, to lead the execution of Bukka Reddy. He calls for the servant of Bukka Reddy and bribes him with 500,000 to aid in the execution. Babu Qadri and Pratap's men rush into the apartment, killing all Bukka's men; then killing Bukka Reddy with an axe.

Cast[]

Critical reception[]

Vivek Oberoi's performance in the role of Paritala Ravi drew widespread praise, while Abhimanyu Singh's devious turn as Bukka Reddy, modelled on the real-life Obul Reddy, was regarded as one of the most terrifying villainous acts captured on celluloid in a long time. Renuka Rao of DNA India gave the movie 4 stars in a scale of 5, concluding that RGV has surprisingly thrown at the audience a film that could actually evoke some emotions in you. A must, must watch."[1] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the movie 4 stars in a scale of 5, saying that "On the whole, RAKHT CHARITRA is not for the faint-hearted or the lily-livered. The violence, the blood and gore depicted in the film will shock and disconcert you, which only goes to establish as to how proficiently the subject material has been treated."[2] Nikhat Kazmi of Times of India gave the movie 3 stars out of 5, stating that "Rakta Charitra holds up a brutal mirror on the muck that masquerades as democracy in India."[3] Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave the movie 3 out of 5 stars, noting that "Rakta Charitra is a bold, disturbing film that’s bursting with the kind of confidence we haven’t seen from the filmmaker recently. If the sight of blood doesn’t make you uncomfortable, chances are you’ll enjoy this film."[4] Kittu Singh of Rediff gave the movie 2.5 out of 5, writing that "Once the film is over you realise that all Rakta Charitra has been is a two-hour promotional fare for Rakta Charitra 2. Yes, there is more to come."[5] Anupama Chopra of NDTV gave the movie 2.5 stars in a scale of 5 stars.[6] Shubhra Gupta of Indian Express gave the movie 2.5 stars out of 5, and wrote that "It is an interesting story, and Oberoi, re-united with RGV after Company does a good job as Ravi. But the blood overtakes it all: Rakta Charitra is not for the faint-hearted."[7]

Accolades[]

2011 Screen Awards

Nominated[8]

2011 Stardust Awards

Nominated[9]

  • Best Film of the Year – Action / Thriller – Rakht Charitra
  • Best Director – Thriller/ Action – Ram Gopal Varma
  • Best Actor in an Ensemble Cast – Abhimayu Singh
  • Best Actress in an Ensemble Cast – Zarina Wahab
2011 Zee Cine Awards

Nominated[10]

  • Zee Cine Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role – Abhimanyu Singh

Soundtrack[]

Rakta Charitra
Soundtrack album by
Imran-Vikram, Dharam-Sandeep, Bappi-Tutul, and Sukhwinder Singh
Released2010
Recorded2010
GenreFilm soundtrack
Length32:46
LabelT-Series
Hindi tracklist
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Khaul Khaul Ke"Sandeep SinghJojo, Ujwal4:29
2."Mila Toh Marega"VayuRavindra Upadhyay, Vishvesh Parmar, Sandeep Patil3:40
3."Paisewala"Prashant PandeySukhwinder Singh3:53
4."Maar De"Shabeer AhmedJojo4:17
5."Kaaton Se"Shyamraj DuttaSuresh Wadkar4:12
6."Karma Dharma"VayuVardan Singh, Aditi Kaur3:08
7."Har Jazbe Mein"Sarim MominSukhwinder Singh4:32
8."Paisa Mix"Prashant PandeySukhwinder Singh, Sumitra Iyer4:35
Total length:32:46
Telugu tracklist
No.TitleLength

Sequel[]

A sequel titled Rakta Charitra 2 was released in December 2010 and included Tamil actor Suriya as part of the main cast.

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "Review: Rakht Charitra is replete with violence, yet blows you away!". DNA. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  2. ^ "Rakht Charitra Review". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  3. ^ "Rakta Charitra Times of India Review". Times of India. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  4. ^ "'Rakta Charitra' is bold and disturbing". IBN. Archived from the original on 25 October 2010. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  5. ^ "Rakta Charitra: RGV's overkill". Rediff. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  6. ^ "Review: Rakta Charitra". NDTV. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  7. ^ "Rakta Charitra Indian Express Review". Indian Express. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  8. ^ "Nominations for 17th Annual Star Screen Awards 2011". OneIndia. 3 January 2011. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
  9. ^ [1] Archived 25 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ "Nominations for Zee Cine Awards 2011". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 7 January 2011.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""