Photos/Videos/Story/Real Stars/Cast/Full Details: Rakht Charitra (I & II)
Rakht Charitra (English: A Bloody History) is a two-part Indian biographical film based on the life of Paritala Ravindra, directed by Ram Gopal Varma. The film features Vivek Oberoi as Ravindra, and Surya as Suri, appearing predominantly in the second part. Shatrughan Sinha, Abhimanyu Singh, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Sushant Singh, Priyamani and Radhika Apte play other supporting roles. The film was shot simultaneously in Telugu, Hindi and Tamil, with the two parts releasing three weeks apart while the Tamil version will release as a single part.
Film is about:
- The film is based on the life of Paritala Ravindra, a factionist and political leader from Andhra Pradesh who was assassinated by his rivals in 2005.
Star Cast:
- Surya as Gangula Suryanarayana Reddy (Maddelacheruvu Suri), nemesis of Ravi
- Vivek Oberoi as Pratap Ravi (Paritala Ravindra)
- Priyamani as Bhawani (Gangula Bhanumati)
- Kota Srinivasa Rao as Nagamani Reddy (Chenna Reddy)
- Radhika Apte as Nandini (Sunitha)
- Abhimanyu Singh as Bukka Reddy (Obul Reddy)
- Shatrughan Sinha as Shivaji Rao (N. T. Rama Rao)
- Sushant Singh as Pratap Shankar
- Tanikella Bharani as Ram Moorthy (Nara ChandraBabu Naidu)
- Ashish Vidyarthi as Manda (Sayanna)
- Sudeep as Special Officer DCP
- Kitty as Narasimha Reddy (Gangula Narayana Reddy)
- Rajendra Gupta as Veera Bhadra
- Ashwini Kalsekar
- Sushmita Mukherjee
- Zarina Wahab
Story in Detailed:
- The film starts with a narration about politics and gangs in Ananthapur district, Andhra Pradesh. The opening scene of a ****** in broad daylight, which the narrator calls "rakta politics", sets the tone of the movie. Narsimha Reddy, a local politician, is a powerful man in the area. His close associate Veera Bhadra (Rajendra Gupta) is a very close associate to him and is his trustwothy ally for his political work, to the extent that Narsimha Reddy gives him freedom to contest Jilla Parishad polls with his men. Veera Bhadra is a champion of the poor and the oppressed and they look up to him like their leader.
- Nagamani Reddy (Kota Srinivasa Rao), who is the local MLA of the district and close to Narasimha Reddy, becomes jealous at 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 in the polls with his contestants, but rather support Nagamani Reddy's. Veera Bhadra lashes out at Narasimha Reddy for being unfair to the lower castes and storms out. Nagamani Reddy calls for Manda (Ashish Vidyarthi), a close follower of Veera Bhadra, and manipulates him into ****ing Veera Bhadra, giving him the assurance that if he does it, people will suspect the policies of Veera Bhadra as his own follower ****ed 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. Veera Bhadra and his wife (Zarina Wahab) travel in a bus with 40 people to a wedding. Manda and Nagmani's men apprehend the bus, **** Veera Bhadra's guards, and tell him to step out of the bus or else he will be ****ed along with 40 other people. Veera Bhadra comes out, looking at Manda, and dares him to ****. Nagamani's henchman Durga shoots at Veera Bhadra, making it look like Manda shot at him; prompting Manda about the deal he made with Nagamani, he tells him to **** him in front of everyone. Manda takes a huge stone and crushes Veera Bhadra's skull while he is still alive, ****ing him.
- This results in an agitation led by Shankar, who wants to avenge his father's ****** by ****ing all the men of Nagamani and Narasimha Reddy. Enter Nagamani's son Bukka Reddy (Abhimanyu Singh), described as a ruthless man who enjoys raping women and ****ing men in brutal ways. He starts ****ing Shankar's men in gory ways: drilling a bore into their skull, chopping off their head with a sugarcane chopper, burning them alive and feeding them to rats.
- Pratap Ravi (Vivek Oberoi), who is in college in the city, gets the news of his father's ****** and rushes to the village. Nagamani Reddy orders local police inspector to **** Shankar in a fake encounter. When Pratap goes to the police station to ask about his brother, the inspector shows him Shankar's dead body and mocks him. Infuriated with this brother's ******, Pratap and Veer Bhadra's men **** all the police officers and the inspector.
- Pratap Ravi swears revenge while hiding in the jungle with his father's associates and vows that he will **** Narsimha Reddy, Nagamani Reddy and Manda one by one, instilling fear of death in each one of them. He starts by busting in the house of Narasimha Reddy, ****ing his guards and finally ****ing him by 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 palm off. Manda begs for his life but Pratap stabs him in front of everyone. They plan to **** Nagamani 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, **** most of the policemen.
- As Bukka Reddy and his brother Puru Reddy see their father's dead body, Bukka becomes enraged to the extent that he slaps the policewoman (Ashwini Khalsekar) who has come to take the body for postmortem. The story progresses as famed filmstar-turned-politician Shivaji Rao (Shatrughan Sinha) targets Anandpur for contesting elections. The day he enters Anandpur for the rally, Bukka's men throw bombs, which makes Shivaji Rao get back inside the car and go back. This insults him heavily and he asks his secretary for the one who can stop Bukka. Immediately, his secretary mentions Pratap'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 ****d 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's men fail in rigging the election process, Pratap wins by a majority. Immediately, Bukka Reddy is arrested. Puru Reddy seeks the help of opposition leader Sethji's help in influencing the release of Bukka on bail. As soon as Pratap learns of this news, he looks out for the location where Bukka is hiding underground. Bukka, inflamed with the desire to avenge his father's death, hides out in an apartment with his men, planning to **** Pratap Ravi. As Pratap comes to know about his hideout he 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 5 lakhs to aid in the execution. Babu Qadri and Pratap's men rush into the apartment, ****ing all Bukka's men; Babu shoots at Bukka but he escapes the bullets and runs to the back door's balcony, where Babu shoots him from behind, cuts him in pieces with his axe and keeps on cutting him, fuelled by anger vented out in satisfaction. Pratap Ravi, being at the peak of his power with Shivaji Rao's full support, invites all the gangsters of the state to his place for lunch; after lunch he orders everyone to stop their illegal activities or face the music, emphasizing the power that he has in the state now.
Part 1
- The film opened to mostly positive reviews from critics, garnering particular praise for Ram Gopal Varma's direction and powerful performances from the ensemble cast. On the review-aggregation website ReviewGang, the film scored 5.0/10 based on 6 reviews. Bollywood Hungama claimed that Varma "handled a number of sequences brilliantly", drawing comparison with the filmmaker's previous successful ventures including Satya and Sarkar. He also went on to praise the performances, labelling Vivek Oberoi as "super efficient", and gave the film a rating of three stars. Rediff.com wrote: "Ram Gopal Varma doles out another concoction of outlaw politics with all his favorite ingredients — an intense ensemble cast, new south Indian baddies, edgy wide angle camerawork and a trademark theme track." Moviebuzz wrote that the film was "a feast for serious moviegoers". Daily News and Analysis and Filmfare gave the film a 4/5 rating and Midday Mirror gave it 3.5/5.
Factual errors
- In the movie it is shown that stones and bombs are thrown by Bukka Reddy and his men when Shivaji Rao (NTR) visits Dharmavaram during an election campaign in the 1990s. After that incident, in the movie, Shivaji Rao immediately flees in his car with a voiceover of Ram Gopal Varma calling him a coward.
- In the film it is also shown that Shivaji Rao (NTR) makes a hand sign that says 'Out', implicitly giving Prathap, Paritala Ravi permission to **** Bukka Reddy (Obul Reddy).
- However, NTR died one year before the ****** of Obul Reddy. Ram Gopal Varma also admitted that he made a blunder regarding this incident.
- Other historical inaccuracies in the film's portrayal of events include the following:
- The film shows that Prathap married Nandini from another family. In fact, Sunitha is the daughter of Kondaiah, Paritala Ravi's maternal uncle from the village of Seerpi Kottaala, Uravakonda constituency. After losing his father and brother, Ravi wanted to take shelter to protect himself from his rivals. He went to his uncle Kondaiah to take shelter. He married his uncle’s daughter Suneetha in 1986 and took up cultivation.
- The film shows that Manda was ****ed by Prathap. In reality, Sayanna was ****ed by Paritala Hari.
- Paritala Hari is younger than Paritala Ravi, though the film suggests that Shankar is older than Prathap.
- Pothula Suresh, leader of ROC ****ed Chenna Reddy.
- Ramana Reddy became MLA in 1991 after the assassination of Chenna Reddy.
- NTR formed TDP in 1982. Paritala Ravi became MLA (by defeating Ramana Reddy) in 1993.
- Ramana Reddy was shot dead by ROC in 1994. Obul Reddy was ******ed in 1996. In 1996, while Obul Reddy and his three henchmen were in a lodge in Hyderabad with a **********, he was attacked by ROC. He was taking a bath. That ********** was sent away from the room and the henchmen were hacked down. Then they brought Obul Reddy outside the bathroom. His throat was slit almost completely and his genitals were brutally mutilated. They escaped from there immediately. Paritala Ravindra was the prime accused.
Review: Rakht Charitra 2
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 In Rakht Charitra 2, 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. At the screening I was at, most people thought that Rakht 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 ****ing and counter-****ing 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 **** 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. Will someone please find him a better Bollywood script? I'm going with two stars.
- Pratap keeps on rising to power and becomes a demigod for the poor and the oppressed, until he meets with his biggest obstacle: his nemesis, Surya Narayana Reddy.
Soundtrack
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