Raktha Charitra Movie Review First on Net

Behind the Movie Raktha Charitra: Ramgopal Varma, the care of address for controversies is coming back into Tollywood after a decade and that too with a subject based on real life characters in Rayalaseema Factionism. Too many doubts and too many tensions; Varma and his movie has got more than the required publicity and here arrives the first part of Raktha Charitra in theatres today. Let us see, what is this movie all about?

In the Movie Raktha Charitra: Movie starts in Anandapuram where in local leader Narasimha Reddy (Kitty) has a strong follower in Veerabhadraiah (Rajendra Gupta), the man from lower caste/downtrodden community. During the Zilla Parishad elections in state, Veerabhadraiah starts to emerge as a strong and real leader in his local community in Anandapuram which isn’t liked by Nagamani Reddy (Kota Srinivas Rao), the close associate to Narasimha Reddy.

In order not to see Veerabhadraiah in equal political status; Narasimha Reddy and Nagamani Reddy brutally murder Veerabhadraiah with the help of his close follower Manda (Ashish Vidyarthi). Unable to bear the death of his father, Veerabhadraiah’s elder son Shankar (Sushanth) forms a Guerrilla troop to kill Narasimha Reddy and Nagamani Reddy and there by preserve the noble ideals of his father.

Veerabhadraiah’s younger son Prathap (Vivek Oberoi) studying in the city is in love with Nandini (Radhika Apte) and he is away from these local politics. On other side, Bukka Reddy (Abhimanyu Sekhar Singh), the only son of Nagamani Reddy is the big villain in Anandapuram who just enjoys raping the girls and cleaning his opponents with bloodshed. 

Situations turn such a way that, with the murders of Narasimha Reddy and Shankar; Prathap lands himself into this revenge taking process. Prathap succeeds in killing Manda and Nagamani Reddy but misses Bukka Reddy every time. 

This is exactly the time when Number One Hero in Andhra Pradesh Shivaji Rao (Shatrugan Sinha) starts his own political party (Praja Desham Party) and invites Prathap to join him. Then what, Prathap becomes the MLA of Anandapuram while Shivaji Rao becomes the Chief Minister of State winning the elections. From here on Prathap becomes the brave leader in State who works at changing the Political System, sketches a plot and clears of Bukka Reddy also. Time when, entire Andhra Pradesh starts looking at Prathap as the Hero, he faces a big hurdle yet again. Who is he (Suriya)? Let us wait for ‘Raktha Charitra – Part 2’ releasing on November 19.

Values of the Movie Raktha Charitra: Ramgopal Varma has not only drawn inspiration from the characters and life of Paritala Ravi but he executed it on the screen in his own style. Story of the movie is clearly a high voltage revenge action with its major causes imbibed in Self Respect, Equal (Political) Rights for oppressed communities but Screenplay and direction wise, Varma is at his best as there are many instances where in audience start to shiver, where it lacks is the emotional depths in characters. Dialogues by Nageshwar Rao aren’t really enough for this kind of story. Background Score by Dharam - Sandeep raised the intensity in each scene. Cinematography by Amol Rathod and Editing by Bhanodaya were also good.     

Performance wise, clear winner of this movie is Abhimanyu Sekhar Singh. Abhimanyu has breathed the character of Bukka Reddy as his dreadful eyes, daring body language, perfect physique and his cruel acts on the screen will develop hatred for audience against this character. In simple, Abhimanyu stole the entire show and sometimes he even dominated hero Vivek Oberoi. Vivek as Prathap has given a settled performance which turns violent depending upon the situations. He was right choice to the role. Next, Kota Srinivas Rao has got a good and lengthy character. As usual, he is again brilliant. Of the remaining cast, Shatrugan Sinha tried his best to imitate NTR and thanks that audience recognized him while Zarina Wahab, Tanikella Bharani, Radhika Apte, Sushanth, Ashish Vidyarthi and many more Hindi actors done well with their roles.

Out of the Movie Raktha Charitra: Basic flaw is that, there is no Telugu nativity in entire movie. You feel of watching the revenge drama running somewhere in UP or Bihar. Neither the characters nor the locations nor the dialogues will offer you the feel of watching a Telugu movie. To further destroy the output is too many characters in the movie. Varma could have plotted these many characters based on the real life story of Paritala Ravi but sadly many don’t have significance in this Raktha Charitra - 1. 

In order to elevate Paritala Ravi as hero of this part, Varma has put the entire blame on the character of Bukka Reddy (may be real life character of Obul Reddy). If Varma is representing these characters as totally fictious, then there are no problems. But, ‘Raktha Charitra’ has become uneven admixture of reality to larger extent and imagination to smaller extent. 

Why and when did actually the Faction culture started germinating in Anandapuram (Anantapuram)?  If Varma feels that he has given the standard answer for this cause and effect…then not so. There is no strong point/reason in the story which will make audience believe in the revenge filled with heavy violence and bloodshed. With no strong base point, one doesn’t know why has Varma started showing the Guns, Bombs, Knives etc and start his violent picturization all of the sudden. (Why did Manda kill Veerabhadraiah that brutally without any strong reason?) Audience will clearly judge that Varma was trying to pull his movie just on overt, crude and hard hitting violence forgetting the fundamental aspects in the basic story he has visualized. In simple, ‘Raktha Charitra’ will offer the extremes of negative shades. Better keep Ladies and Children away. Other then these, Varma's voice over is used more than the needful.

First half is used for seeding the points that lead to violence filled revenge and a part of revenge; second half gives the power of politics to do whatever a leader wants to. 

Commercially, movies like ‘Raktha Charitra’ will have no life at Box Office for sure. 

Cinejosh Verdict of the Movie Raktha Charitra: An average movie for all those who identify Paritala, Obul Reddy and NTR; for others its quite boring and disastrous.   

                                                                                                    Reviewed by Srivaas