Rakhta Charitra 2

Message on the first screen: Characters and story are fictitious. No resemblance to reality.

Message on the second screen: Based on a True Story

A "controversial" film??

An eye for an eye and the enemies bleed. Folks are slaughtered & smashed, blood banks are robbed of their capital...Editing and a Splash sound does the job.The (badly) edited first 20 minutes or so are effectively used for Recap of RC-1 ensuring that viewing of the prequel is not a necessary criterion for watching this movie. Starting off on the car journey that began at the end of RC-1, RC-2 marks the Hindi debut of the talented Tamil actor Surya, who must kill Pratap Ravi to complete his revenge. Pratap killed Surya's father who had killed Pratap's father. The Circle of life, moved them all. Pratap is now a respectable political citizen. But success gets you high. People fail to recognise the principles & goals that pushed them to that height. This remarkable change in Pratap's character is well written & portrayed. Pratap wasn't responsible for many of the killings but Surya's quest isn't unreasonable either. The background score pitches... "Paap Punya ki kya paribhasha"(What defines good and evil?) The story has the potential to stand out very well.

But does it? You know the answer as soon as you read the question. The question arises why? Even with actors as Surya(Suryabhan Reddy), Viveik Oberoi(Pratap Ravi), Sudeep(DCP Anand Mohan) and a decent screenplay, the movie is greatly distracted by the editing work. GREATLY! The approx 2 hour runtime could have been brought down by at least half an hour by playing some of the slooowww pre-interval scenes alone, at normal speed. The only relief being that this time around, the role of the cranky old narrator's voice(I heard it was director RGV himself whose voice was modulated!) was cut down, compared to its prequel.

On the editing & camera-work, the least said, the better. It was bad this time. It was an attempt, a different one. Too much use of close-up shots of gangster stubbles and nostril-hairs, 180 or 360 degree turns, shaky handwork during intense scenes, shadow-filming... Some of them were distracting, unlike in the prequel. The camera, as usual, rotates a full 360 degree or is found slanting behind some stairs. In one particular car chase scene, the camera rotates a 180 degrees and the half minute scene is hilariously shown upside down.The loud background score succeeds in charging up the intensity of action sequences. The cinematography was convincing enough.

Viveik Oberoi had a comparatively smaller role but made the most of it. The main focus shifted to Surya Sivakumar, whose full potential lay unused and was marred by many of the slow-dragging scenes attempting to give a depth to his acting. He overcame the language barrier by speaking not more than 3-4 Hindi words(which he himself doesn't fluently follow) at a time. Abhimanyu Singh(Bukka Reddy) who stole the show in the prequel spent the two minutes of his screen space bashing up a screeching guy. Actor Sudeep(DCP Anand Mohan) who understands the power of silence in having a greater impact then contorted facial expressions or long lines of dialogues, stood out with his calm performance.Veteran Shatrugan Sinha(as actor-politician Shivaji Rao, without his trademark toothbrush moustache) suited the character perfectly but as such did not occupy too much time on screen. The focus on the characters of lady actors (Zarina Wahab, Radhika Apte, Priyamani) was more, compared to the prequel.

RGV is a director ready to experiment. He wont make fun of homosexuality in his movies or make his actors lip synch to a song. He's ready to keep trying knowing fully well that the outcome(commercial or critical) is not in anyone's hands. He's an earnest story teller who has yet a lot to learn about what works in a movie and what spoils it. He's an unabashed rebel of the Indian film industry(just like his protégé, Anurag Kashyap, who is way beyond most Indian directors), and that shows in his work.

Never lose faith in the man who made Satya. The best of RGV is yet to come. RC is not that masterpiece but is a commendable stepping stone.

5/10

(minus one for the attempt at editing and camera work, which was terrific at places, but overdone & marred the experience)

Excellent Movie. Everybody acted well in the movie. The movie was so interesting and thrilling. The movie was not boring or lagging. Excellent Movie.

Amazing acting with lots of political material on it.

Director Ram Gopal Varma continues the revenge saga that he started with the first film, which released in October.

In case you missed it, Varma begins with approximately 25 minutes of footage from the first film to bring you up to speed. In the starting sequence of the movie most people thought that Rakta Charitra 1 was playing by mistake.Clearly Varma doesn't believe in montage.

The films are loosely based on the life of Paritala Ravindra, a political leader from Andhra Pradesh. While the first part focused on the rise of Pratap, played by Vivek Oberoi, the second focuses on how his arch-enemy Surya, played by South star Suriya, takes revenge.

It's a high decibel, heavy-handed saga of killing and counter-killing without a break or even a larger point.

Though Varma does tell us at the end that the film demonstrates the futility of violence - a noble sentiment, which is not unlike preaching abstinence at the end of a porn film. Because for over two hours Varma explores the myriad ways of inflicting violence– so heads are crushed, limbs are severed, families are bombed and bullets pierce bodies without a pause.

This is Varma's gritty universe, in which all the men make cryptic pronouncements and smoke and stride in slow motion. And just in case you still don't get it, the bombastic soundtrack underlines every emotion.

Rakta Charitra 1 had an urgency that kept the narrative moving despite the clumsy voice-over and mind-numbing violence. The sequel has some powerful scenes but lacks cohesion. In places, the scenes seem stitched together quite randomly. Oberoi, who was so much more effective in the first, mostly flares his nostrils and looks grim.

But Suriya saves the film from being a total loss. His expressive eyes have a quiet strength and his presence sears the screen.

On the whole, RAKHT CHARITRA is not for the faint-hearted or the lily-liveried. 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. The film is targeted mainly at those who love to watch aggression, violence, bloodshed, brutality and massacre on the silver screen, but a chunk of the movie-going audience (ladies and kids) will choose to stay away from this scene of carnage.

Will someone please find him a better Bollywood script?

After 'Rakhta Charitra', Ram Gopal Verma attempted to follow it up with this sequel. Now 'Rakhta Charitra' certainly isn't among the director's best but it had modest execution, strong performances, the characters were interesting and it was a decent watch overall. In contrast, 'Rakhta Charitra 2' is quite a disaster.The violence here is less graphic than its predecessor but the film is quite poor. Now, as evident from his more recent films. Verma seems to enjoy playing around with the camera but what's with the upside-down or rotation shots? Another thing he really overdoes here is the slow motion which really dragged on and on, Perhaps Verma felt pressured to make it longer. The story itself isn't particularly interesting (it's more the typical revenge thriller genre) and the characters are one-dimensional. Vivek Oberoi once again breathes fire with an excellent performance as Paritala Ravi. Surya is alright. Radhika Apte has a smaller role than in the first one but here she gets more scope to perform. The rest of the cast that includes Shatrughan Sinha and Zarina Wahab are wasted.

Overall this is a poor movie that does not live up to expectations and is not even half as entertaining as its predecessors.