Rakht Charitra

This one is based on a true story – But ironically claims that all characters are fictional and that any resemblance to a person living or dead is purely coincidence – Now that’s what u call playing to the laws of the land. The funny part is that both these claims follow each other at the beginning of the movie itself. Now hows that for absolute irony. Based on the story of Paritala Ravindra, this one is everything that you can expect out of an RGV biography. Home Territory as one would call it. This is RGVs backyard. This is what RGV does best. And he comes reasonably close to his previous best.

Ananthapur is a district in Andhra Pradesh where Jungle Law prevails. It is led by and completely controlled by Narasimha Reddy, the local politician. His right hand man from the lower caste (wonder why this was beeped out in the movie) is Veerbhadra (Rajendra Gupta). He painstakingly helps Narasimha build his empire over 2 decades. And on Narasimha’s insistence goes ahead with the listings for the upcoming elections. Obviously he favours people who are closer to the so called downtrodden and thereby gives the people hope of a brighter future.

Unbeknownst to him, Nagamani Reddy (Kota Srinivasa Rao), yet another close associate of Narasimha Reddy is extremely upset with the turn of events which is taking away a lot of power from the upper classes (which coincidentally is not beeped out). He starts sowing seeds of doubt in Narasimha’s mind of how VB is misusing the power and tarnishing his image with the lower classes. Wonder why Narasimha never looks at checking up on these claims but directly takes away all power from VB. VB is obviously incensed about this entire episode and decides that he doesn’t need the lead party’s support. Goes ahead and launches his own challenge to fight the elections. Not a good idea Mr. VB. Remember – Jungle Law prevails. Obviously the result is his death – brutally murdered by his own kin – Manda (Ashish Vidyarthi) – who is threatened by Nagamani.

All hell breaks lose after this. Shankar (Sushant Singh) who is VBs elder son leaves the town for the jungle and starts plotting the revenge plan on his father’s killers. Simultaneously news reaches Pratap (Viveik Oberoi) who, at that time has just returned after discussing his plans to marry Nandini (Radhika Apte). He returns back to see an ocean of blood all over and his brother leading the revenge. Only a matter of time before he has to jump into the slug fest coz Shankar is also killed by the local cops who are hand in glove with Nagamani.

RGV’s home turf as I had mentioned earlier. Music is atypical Sanskrit Shlokas in the background. Some unnecessary stuff songs thrown in for bad measure. Could have done without it. And then there is the kicker in the shitter – There is RC2 releasing on November 19th 2010. Now how is that for squeezing the market dry. Smart Marketing RGV Saar!!!! Glad to say that VO is back although his entry could have been much better than riding on a scooter in slow motion!!!! Come on guys lets give the guy his due. But the absolute stand out performances are by Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh who plays the role of the disgusting despicable Bukka Rao – Nagamani’s son and by Kota Srinivasa Rao who plays Nagamani. Super performances by both. Overall RC1 is a 6 on 10. Not too close to Sarkar which was much better executed. Don’t think RC2 is going to be too great. But will be worth a dekko I guess.