‘Rakta Charitra' Review: History Told In Extremes

Film: Rakta Charitra (రక్త చరిత్ర)
Banner: Cinergy productions
Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Abhimanyu Singh, Shatrughan Sinha, Kota, Radhika Apte, Zareena Wahab, Sushant Singh, Tanikella, Subhalekha Sudhakar, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Rajendra Gupta, Ashish Vidyarthi, Kitty and others
Dialogues: Nageswara Rao
Music: Dharam- Sandeep
DOP: Amol Rathod
Editing: Bhanodaya, Nipun Ashok Gupta
Story, screenplay, direction: Ram Gopal Varma
Producers: Madhu Mantena, Sheetal Vinod Talwar, Chinna Vasudeva Reddy, Rajkumar
Release Date: 22nd Oct 2010

Ram Gopal Varma is back after a long hiatus into the Telugu circuit and he chose his favorite genre of violence, intensity and bloodshed. Let us see how far RGV is successful in convincing audiences. Let us peep into good and bad in the movie:

StoryNoted MLA Narasimha Reddy (Kitty) has got a trusted aide in the form of Veerabhadriah (Rajendra Gupta) in Anandapuram area.
 
However, Narasimha’s relative Nagamani Reddy (Kota) is unable to take this for reasons of caste and losing his presence. He plants a seed of friction and in no time, Narasimha Reddy gets Veerabhadriah killed. This enrages Veerabhadriah’s elder son Shankar Ravi (Sushant) and he gets into a killing spree and operates from forests.
 
Veerabhadriah’s younger son Pratap Ravi (Vivek) who is away from all this gets to know of this and before he realizes, Shankar Ravi also gets killed. He vows revenge on his father and brother’s killers and in this process, Narasimha Reddy, Nagamani Reddy and others are brutally killed. Nagamani Reddy’s son Bukka Reddy (Abhimanyu) who is insane to the core is unable to take this and he becomes Pratap’s main enemy.
 
Meanwhile, the rise of Pratap as opposite force to Bukka Reddy is noticed by Shivaji Rao (Shatrughan) who sets a new party and he decides to lift Pratap to put an end to Bukka Reddy. What happens after that forms the rest of the story.
 
Performances:
Vivek Oberoi is an apt choice, his eyes deliver the sufficient emotion of revenge and his body language is intense. He has done full justice to his role.
 
Abhimanyu Singh is a complete show stealer. His menacing looks and his cold blooded performance will give some spine chilling moments.
 
Shatrughan Sinha was contained and it must be said that traces of real life N T Rama Rao are quite prominent in his gestures and dialogue delivery.
 
Kota was perfect, Radhika was naturally appealing, Zarina was neat, Tanikella was impressive and he made his presence felt, Rajendra Gupta was adequate, Sushant was brief, Ashish Vidyarthi was alright, Subhalekha Sudhakar was standard, Subrat Dutta was good, the others did their bit as required and added value.
 
Highlights:Symbolism shots with respect to showing a cycle in Shivaji Rao (Shatrugan Sinha)’s place (recalling TDP and NTR), usage of left had, addressing as ‘brother' are impressive.
 
Showing a dog barking after the death of Naga Mani Reddy (Kota) depicts ‘kukka chaavu'..That’s impressive.
 
Ram Moorthy (Tanikella) saying to Pratap Ravi ‘to shave beard as a politician should look clean at face although dirty at heart'
 
Bukka Reddy’s introduction scene
 
Disappointments:RGV’s voice over is overflowing. It’s not a radio drama to explain everything with a voice over. Whatever RGV is saying in voice, is being conveyed visually! It disturbed the mood to some extent.
 
Pratap Ravi stays in forest as per the dialogue. But he stays in a dusty hill area that hardly looks like a forest. It may sound trivial, but when such observations linger in mind, some audience gets distracted from the mood.
 
Why Dabbunnoda song? The context is not convincing.
 
Challenges:The subject chosen is quite hard hitting so one needs to have some background information before actually connecting to the film.
 
Facing criticism with respect to Shivai Rao’s (a replica of NTR) characterization and converting it into publicity element.
 
Facing criticism and questions with respect to ‘pedda sir' (implying YSR) and again converting it into a publicity element
 
Mood is suddenly dropping down at the conclusion point of the movie. Waiting till Part-2 to get completeness in feeling is a challenge for audience and it’s challenge for maker to sustain interest for 1 month till Part-2 release.
 
Analysis:“Goodness or badness can never be anyone’s property. They are situational.
If a man is hunger free, he showers only goodness. But if any sort of hunger (be it lust, power craving or greed or vengeance) hits him, he spells badness'. 
Rakta Charitra is a fiction based on historical facts.
It’s rather powerful to say that it’s a true depiction of human emotions.
It’s a tour to extreme human beings.
 
Ramayan or Mahabharat or any chronicled history in dramatic form depicts the extremities of emotions in every character. For example if Karna is known for generosity, its shown with eccentricity of chopping off his own armored skin to offer for a beggar. If Bheeshma is known for sacrifice, its shown in extreme point of choosing life time celibacy to keep himself and his legacy far from kingship. Any drama holds grip only when the characterizations are strong. This fact was known for dramatists right from Veda Vyasa and Valmiki. Similar path is now chosen by Ram Gopal Varma is depicting a historical fact in dramatic form.
 
He has shown Bukka Reddy as a determined rapist (!) and dedicated murderer (!).The incidents canned around this characterization are extreme in imagination. Pratap Ravi is shown as a bad guy, but for a true reason (since he is chosen to be the hero of the plot).
 
Ram Gopal Varma is a master of movie making and an expert storyteller. This is seen here yet again. As such, the storyline can be understood in few words and there is nothing unpredictable about it but then it is the way Ramu takes off with each scene and how he gets the viewer into the film which counts.
 
His screenplay techniques and shot compositions are one of those dexterities he possesses. Perhaps a layman might find the visual appeal to be dim but then there are few flashes of his brilliance which are seen on and off. The focus was more on the emotion of the protagonist and the villain so that is a challenge to handle for more than two hours.
 
On the other hand, it is not a typical Varma characterization where most of the actors give hard expressions, talk less and convey more. Here the characters speak sufficient and sometimes little verbose!! But still there is a rhythm in their performance and it connects to the regular audience.
 
On a whole it’s a movie about the raise of a leader.
 
Bottom-line: For the lovers of realistic violence.

Nagababu back in action in PRP

Praja Rajyam Party president K Chiranjeevi is bringing all his family members one by one back into the party and offering them key positions, lending credence to the allegations that the PRP has once again become a family-centric party.
A week after Telugu film producer and Chiranjeevi’s brother-in-law Allu Aravind returned to the PRP with a bang and became its general secretary, Chiranjeevi’s younger brother Naga Babu also came back into action in the party on Sunday. Naga Babu held a meeting of Chiranjeevi’s fans association representatives at the party office and gave them orientation in the party activities. He exhorted them to take up the party activity very seriously and work for the victory in the forthcoming local body elections.
In the past, too, Naga Babu held the responsibility of interacting with Chiranjeevi fans and seeking their help in strengthening the party. But after the PRP was formed, Chiranjeevi totally neglected the fans and did not take them into confidence while distributing the party tickets in the last general elections. This widened the gap between the party and Chiranjeevi fans. And Naga Babu had to go into oblivion. Now that Chiranjeevi decided to woo the fans again, Naga Babu came back into picture.

A Right Movie For All Human Beings :: Robo Review

Film: ROBO   (రోబో)
Cast: Rajni Kanth, Aishwarya Rai, Danny Dengzompa, Santhanam, Karunas
Lyricists: Vanamali, Suddala, Bhuvana Chandra
Dialogues: Sree Rama Krishna
Music: AR Rehman
Producer: Kalanithi Maran
Main Story: Sujatha
Cinematography: Rathnavelu
Editing: Anthony
Costume: Mary E Vogt
Screenplay-Director: Shankar
Released On: 1st Oct 2010

This is the most talked about movie in recent times. Huge technical values, whopping budget, star casting in high élan and a gen-next concept…all conglomerated to spell out ‘Robo’.

Story:
Dr Vaseekaran (Rajni Kanth) makes a Robot and gives him his own shape. The Robot is omniscient and omnipotent. His motive is to prepare his Robot to join Indian Army. He wishes to make many more such Robots to help Army and reduce loss of lives during wars. But Dr Vaseekaran’s enemy, another scientist (Danny) disproves that his Robot cannot fit to be used for military purposes as it cannot think like a human. He states that it has no emotions and reasoning capacity.

Dr Vaseekaran pumps in human feelings and reasoning capabilities and makes him almost a human. But things turn upside down. Robot starts loving Sana (Aishwarya Rai), the fiancée of Dr Vaseekaran. Robot gets attracted to Sana and that makes Vaseekaran angry. He destroys it.

But the enemy scientist takes the destroyed Robot, repairs it and infuses destructive mechanism in it. He wants it to sell to some international gangsters. But the love for Sana in Robot aggravates as wild possessiveness and that pesters Sana.

Robot becomes very strong physically and becomes like a cruel demon. It even kills the scientist who gives him second birth. It creates massive destruction to society by creating many Robots like itself.

How Dr Vaseekaran deactivates the Robot and brings things to peace is the end of the film.

Performances:
Rajni Kanth is tremendously good at age 60. His moves, his gait and expressions didn’t wane even a bit. He got connected to new age kids and they cannot forget him for rest of their lives. That way Rajni Kanth added another 60 years to his image.

Aishwarya Rai is the true asset for the movie. Her glamour made a lot of difference. As a true goddess of beauty she enchanted everyone.

Danny is apt in serious role. His performance is in contemporary international standards.

If there is anything to speak about the film, that’s technical brilliance.

Music is in gen-next style. Sound is marvelous. Canning of songs is opulent. But the lyrics in Kilimanjaro are lewd and weak. Rest of the songs are fine.

Director Shankar deserves great mention for making this biggest feat possible on Indian screen with a message.

Analysis:
“It is selfishness that we must seek to eliminate. I find that whenever I have made a mistake in my life, it has always been because ‘self’ entered into the calculation. Where self has not been involved, my judgment had gone straight to the mark”- Swamy Vivekananda

This saying of great soul of Indian soil lingers in the mind while watching this film. Knowingly or unknowingly Shankar made a movie basing on this saying.

It’s a movie for world children.

Yes, it truly influences the senses of new generation kids those developed relation only with video games but not human beings. Hardly there are joint families now where grand parents teach morals to kids. And the kids tend to listen only to machine. They tend to follow what machine says. And director Shankar aptly takes the way through machine, the Robot, to teach values.

Kids run away listening to words kama, krotha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya…but they assimilate that when shown in a dramatic way. That too, not in the style of Chandamama stories. They want something with scientific reasoning. Hence the path is chosen through ‘Robot’.

How peaceful the Robo was and how useful that was to society when it’s free from those 6 evils. And how it becomes detrimental to itself and society when injects them into it. That’s aptly narrated.

The true essence of the movie is narrated in the end. The dialogues delivered by Robot while dismantling himself are hitting the hearts. The dialogues touch every human being with introspection.  And at last, a girl looks back and goes with a thoughtful grimace. That is a symbolism for entire world kids those will be in thought process from now.

First half is entertaining. The first 30 minutes of second half are not gripping in right standards. That part is boring. But the climax action episode is marvelous to be on Indian screen. The last few closing dialogues are impressive and with true essence.

Hinduism or Islam or Christianity or Shintiosm or Taosim…every religion says one who is free from anger is the true strong man and one who shuns self is the true atman!!! ‘Anger’, as Sukhabodhananda says, is one letter less to danger. That is the true cause for destruction. Let us wish that this movie sows a seed at least in a few minds of children to prevent self entering into calculation while taking decisions….like a school girl that turns back and goes at the end on the screen..!!!!

 

Bottom-line: Watch it...

Ravindranath Is No More A 420!

Despite strong evidences against him in the fertilizer scandal, Kadapa Mayor P Ravindranath Reddy successfully managed to wriggle out of the case.
While the Kadapa police had submitted to the court that they had withdrawn cheating case (under section 420 of the IPC) against Ravindranath Reddy, the High Court on Friday issued a stay on the implementation of First Information Report (FIR) lodged by the police on the management of Balaji Fertilisers owned by Ravindranath Reddy.
So, as the things stand now, Ravindranath Reddy is no more an accused in the fertilizer scam case. The police shifted the case to the Agriculture department and the latter has conveniently manipulated all the records to give him a clean chit. The media, particularly, Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy, which exposed the scandal with documentary evidences, has become a fool!

KCR can spend a lakh on her, but not T-martyrs

At a time when the Telangana Congress leaders, including MPs and MLAs are chalking out plans to launch their own “Odarpu Yatra” in Telangana region and offered to pay Rs 1 lakh each to the families of the youth who had committed suicide for separate statehood, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi has maintained a strange silence in this regard.
TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao’s double standard on extending financial assistance to the bereaved families of Telangana martyrs was strongly criticized by the Osmania University students. “KCR had money to pay Rs 1 lakh to his party colleague and Medak MP Vijayashanti for tying Rakhi to his hand, but has no money to help the families of those who died for the Telangana cause. He is such a selfish guy,” the OU student leaders said.
On Rakhi day, KCR paid Rs 1 lakh each to his sisters; and when Vijayashanti also tied him Rakhi, he immediately took out a Rs 1,000 bundle from his pocket and gave to her in the presence of media. “So much for publicity, but he does not have the heart to help the distressed families of Telangana,” the OU students said.

Jagan Looks Glamorous With Spectacles

After taking rest for three days on account of his eye-infection and joint pains, Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy hit the road again with his Odarpu Yatra in Prakasam district on Sunday.
And the people observed a refreshing change in the young leader. He was looking more glamorous and attractive than he was earlier; and the reason was: he is wearing spectacles on the advice of doctors, so that the pollen from flowers would not cause allergy in his eyes. In one angle, he looked exactly like his father; though he did not wear khaddar dress. In any way, his voice has all the mannerisms of his father.
Some journalist commented that Jagan was looking like Rana in the Sekhar Kammula film “Leader,” though the little beard Rana had in the film is missing in Jagan. If he sports that little beard (no, not like Rahul Gandhi), Jagan would look more glamorous, the journo commented.

Media Makes Quick Buck On Purandeshwari

               Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development Daggubati Purandeswari, who was in the news last month for spreading a negative campaign against Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, was back in the media on Friday for being awarded doctorate degree by the Padmavathi Mahila University in Tirupati. The doctorate degree was presented by the Andhra Pradesh governor E S L Narasimhan.
                 What is more interesting is that she made the media richer by several thousand rupees. Suddenly all the newspapers carried huge advertisements issued by various educational institutons and even her family members, eulogizing her great contribution to the nation and the state. Several corporate colleges like Narayana and Chaitanya issued big advertisements not only in the print media, but also in the electronic media, praising her. Not only that, the doctorate degree presentation ceremony was telecast by several channels, of course at a price.
              One wonders whether this publicity stunt was a precursor to her attempts to get into the hot seat in the state sooner or later. And Purandareshwari had already made it clear that she was not averse to becoming the chief minister!