Rakta Charitra


Rakta Charitra 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 an ensemble cast including Vivek Oberoi, Suriya, Sudeep, Radhika Apte, Shatrughan Sinha, Abhimanyu Singh, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Ashish Vidyarthi, Zarina Wahab, Kitty, Vishwajeet Pradhan and Sushant Singh. The film marks Oberoi's acting debut in Telugu cinema. The sequel to the film Rakta Charitra 2 was released later that year. The film was released in Tamil as Raththa Sarithiram in March 2011, with some scenes being simultaneously reshot in Tamil to suit Tamil nativity
Despite of its controversies for portrayal of extreme violence and political content, the film met with huge critical acclaim, with critics praising the screenplay, story, direction, cinematography, dialogues, and realistic approach. However, due to extreme violence, the film's some scenes are removed and some dialogues are muted. The film was a box-office failure at that time, but Oberoi's portrayal of Paritala Ravi was deemed one of the best performances in his filmography by critics and audiences. This marks the third collaboration of Ram Gopal Varma with Vivek Oberoi after "Company" and "Road," both of which were decent hits, though "Company" was more successful.

Plot

Narasimha Reddy, a local politician, is a powerful man in the area. His close associate, Gajula Veerabhadra, is his trustworthy ally for his political work, to the extent that Narasimha Reddy gives him the freedom to contest Zilla Parishad polls with men from his caste. Veerabhadra champions the causes of the poor and oppressed castes, and they look up to him as their leader.
Nagamani Reddy, the local MLA of the district and close to Narasimha Reddy, becomes jealous of the budding trust between Veerabhadra and Narasimha Reddy and starts poisoning Narasimha Reddy against Veerabhadra. Narasimha Reddy summons Veerabhadra and asks him not to contest the polls with his contestants but rather to support Nagamani Reddy. Veerabhadra lashes out at Narasimha Reddy for being unfair to the underprivileged communities and storms out. Nagamani Reddy calls for Mandha, Veerabhadra's right-hand man, and blackmails him into killing Veerabhadra, giving him the assurance that if he does it, people will suspect the policies of Veerabhadra as his own follower killed him, and he will be the next in line as the leader of the poor people; otherwise, take his life. Mandha reluctantly agrees to it. Veerabhadra and his wife, Gajula Jayalakshmi, travel by bus with 40 people to a wedding. Mandha and Nagamani Reddy's men stop the bus, kill Veerabhadra's guards, and tell him to step out of the bus to die alone or be killed along with the other innocents on the bus. Veerabhadra comes out to find Mandha who blames him of stealing the election fund. Veerabhadra dares him to kill. Nagamani Reddy's henchman, Durga, shoots at Veerabhadra, making it look like Mandha shot at him. Prompting Mandha to kill him in front of everyone as agreed. Manda then kills Veerabhadra by crushing his skull with a boulder. This results in an agitation led by Thota Shankar Ravi, who suspects Nagamani Reddy and Narasimha Reddy behind his father's murder and swears to kill all their men.
Enter Nagamani Reddy's son, Bukka Reddy, a ruthless man who enjoys raping women and killing men in brutal ways. In response to Shankar's killings, he starts killing Shankar's men in gory ways: drilling a hole into their skulls, chopping off their heads with a sugarcane chopper, burning them alive, and feeding them to ravenous rats.
Pratap Ravi, 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.
Bukka Reddy goes to Pratap Ravi's house and try to kill Jayalakshmi, but she was saved by Inspector Ashwini Sinha. Pratap Ravi hides in the jungle along with his father's associates, Jayalakshmi, and his wife Nandhini. He vows to kill Narsimha Reddy, Nagamani Reddy, and Mandha 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 Mandha; as he roams in the market, Pratap Ravi's men follow him, and before he can defend himself, they chop his hand off. Manda begs for his life, but Pratap Ravi stabs him in front of everyone. They plan to kill Nagamani Reddy, but they are cautious as there is heavy police security at his house. As Nagamani Reddy is sitting on his lawn conversing with a police officer, he is shot at by Pratap Ravi, who is dressed as the cop, and his men, dressed as cops as well, kill most of the policemen. While Ashwini Sinha and her police officers try to pick Nagamani Reddy's body, Bukka Reddy, infuriated in his father's death, slaps Ashwini Sinha and warns her not to touch Nagamani Reddy's body, making her humiliated and leave the place. At this time, DCP Dasari Mohan Prasad agrees to Help Ashwini Sinha.
The story progresses as tollywood superstar and chief minister Konda Shivaji Rao targets Anantapur for contesting elections. The day he enters Anantapur for the rally, Bukka Reddy's men throw bombs, making Shivaji Rao get back inside the car and return. 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 to join his party and a ticket for contesting elections. On the other hand, Bukka Reddy makes his brother Puru Reddy contest elections and tries to sabotage the voting process by stealing the ballots. Pratap Ravi 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 Ravi's help to avenge his sister's death. Bukka Reddy had raped his 16-year-old sister, because of which she immolated herself, and Bukka Reddy had then broken Babu Qadri's leg when he questions Bukka Reddy. Pratap Ravi assures him of his vengeance but asks him to forget everything for some time.
As Bukka Reddy's men fail to rig the election process, Pratap Ravi wins by a majority. Immediately, Bukka Reddy is arrested after he kills Ashwini Sinha. Puru Reddy gets him out on bail through Sirji's influence. Bukka Reddy, 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 Ravi learns about his hideout and devises a plan to execute him. He immediately gathers his men and calls Babu Qadri, who had sought Pratap Ravi's help in avenging his sister, to lead the execution of Bukka Reddy. He calls for Bukka Reddy's servant and bribes him with 500,000 to aid in the execution. Babu Qadri and Pratap Ravi's men rush into the apartment, killing all of Bukka Reddy's men and then brutally killing Bukka Reddy with an axe. However, Pratap Ravi spears Puru Reddy when he begs for mercy.
After getting rid of all his enemies and avenging his father's death, Pratap Ravi, becomes a powerful politician in the area ruling with an iron hands until his convoy gets bombed by an unexpected foe which nearly kills him, Who is none other than Narasimha Reddy's son Suryanarayana Reddy.

Cast

Vivek Oberoi's performance in the role of Paritala Ravi drew widespread praise, while Abhimanyu Singh's devious turn as Bukka Reddy, modeled on the real-life Obul Reddy, was regarded as one of the terrifying villainous acts captured on celluloid in a long time. Renuka Rao of DNA India gave the movie 4 stars on 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." Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the movie 4 stars on a scale of 5, saying "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." 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." 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." 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." Anupama Chopra of NDTV gave the movie 2.5 stars on a scale of 5 stars. Shubhra Gupta of Indian Express gave the movie 2.5 stars out of 5 and wrote "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."