Raktha Charithram

Medium : Tamil
Starring : Soorya, Vivek Oberoi, Shatrukhnan Sinha, Sudeep, Priyamani, Radhika Apte
Director : Ramgopal Varma
Music : Imran - Vikram, Dharam - Sandeep (bg score)

Since weeks before, I have getting requests from my friends outside Kerala, to write the review on the movie titled 'Raktha Charithra 1'. Let us have a small brief about why this '1' there. The rebel director Ramgopal Varma had got this time also something different. An year before, when he had announced the movie 'Raktha Charithra', he told that it will be coming in two parts and more over it is tamil actor Soorya's debut in hindi. He will be appearing in the climax of the first part and will be the hero in the second part. 'Raktha Charithra 1' is released in hindi and telugu, a month before and had got a big positive response. The director had planned a single movie 'Raktha Charithram' for the tamil version, the first half an hour tells the whole story of the first part with the help of narrations and then Soorya will lead the story as it is.

Prathap Ravi (Vivek Oberoi), who had lost his relatives and family members, due to the cheap political games, has decided to take the swords for revenge. His group had destroyed all those people who standed on their way and Ravi thus emerges as a big powerful man who later entered politics to become a leader. He is teamed up with an actor turned politician (Shatrukhnan Sinha). Suri (Soorya) was among the many who had been affected due to the actions of Ravi. Suri and his friends had decided to kill Ravi, but Ravi survives the attack. Suri had surrendered as per request from DCP Anand (Sudeep, 'Rann', 'Phoonk 1, 2' fame). In the jail, he had planned his revenge. In the mean while, the opposition party had come forward asking Suri's wife (Priyamani) to stand in the elections, opposite Ravi. How Suri does his revenge is told through the rest of the happenings.

The director had used 'his style' in presentation using different and unstable camera angles to capture the emotions. In some areas, the frames are even rotating in 360 degrees. Such gimmicks might have been done to avoid the lip sink problems as it is a dubbed project (how ever some close up dialogues are shot in tamil). Though the problems happening for a normal dubbing movie is not there, in some areas the dialogue delivery neatly points out that it is not an original one. (If it is a hindi version, the outcome would have been more perfect). The happenings in the first part are shown too fast in the beginning; thus the audience might find difficulty to travel with that speed. The family episodes of the hero and the villain should have been discussed with more clarity. The portions in which the hero's wife entering the politics are not having many dialogues. Some of the dialogues covered by the bg score felt lengthy. The slow motions have been used in many places for keeping the tempo. There is a sort of lagging felt in some places in between. The darkish grading given for the frames is good for the movie's action mood, but when it mixes up with with the poor video quality of the theater screens, the outcome will not be the best as they expected.

The main strength of the movie lies in its excellent cinematography by Amol Rathod and mind blowing bg score by Dharam - Sandeep (in RGV style used in 'Satya', 'Company', 'Sarkar' etc). The action sequences involving the blood shelling sequences done by Javed - Ejaz are good. Ashok Gupta is the editor. Songs are not so good. Soorya has done well, he is in a tough look here. Vivek Oberoi and Sudeep are ok in their roles.

'Raktha Charithram' is a rough and tough, cold blooded subject told in Ramgopal Varma's style. Those who are particular about it can watch...


Rating : 5 / 10

Rann

Medium : Hindi
Starring : Amitabh Bachan, Sudeep, Ritesh Deshmukh, Paresh Ravel, Suchithra Krishnamoorthy, Neetu Chandra
Director : Ramgopal Varma
Music : Debashish Mehra

Director Ramgopal Varma's film career started with the telugu superhit of later 80's, 'Shiva' starring Nagarjuna. His career is a mix of many ups and downs. He is the director / producer of many action / horror based thrillers like 'Road', 'Kaun', 'Rangeela', 'Bhoot', 'Darna Mana Hai', 'Vasthu Shastra', 'Phoonk' etc. Unlike from other directors, he has always been practicing the custom of using contreversial subjects for his films. 'Satya', 'Company' etc were made on the underworld gangs, The hero in the film 'Sarkar' has got the shades of a notable political leader in Mumbai and 'Jungle' was filmed on sandalwood smuggler Veerappan's story. Anyway, even after giving so many flops, he is still an excellent director due to his unique style in the movie making. After 'Sarkar' series, 'Nisabdh' and 'RGV Ki Aag' (remake of 'Sholay'), Amitabh Bachan once again join hands with his favorite director Varma for his latest film 'Rann', which is based on the media world.


The protagonist Vijay Malik (Amitabh Bachan) is the owner of a news channel, India 24/7. Even after affected by a low tam rating, he believes in the true way of delivering news and always followed an ethics in presenting it before the public. His competitor channel (owned by Mohnish Behl) is in the top postion, as they have given importance for new business strategies apart from sticking on to realities and ethics. Vijay's son Jay (kannada actor Sudeep, 'Phoonk' fame) is disturbed and worried at this. Vijay's son-in-law (Rajat Kapoor) with the help of a corrupted politician (Paresh Rawal) had agreed to help Jay. As a part of character assassination, they had made some forged videos against a clear politician and made him the main suspect behind the bomb blast that happened recently. Without knowing the real fact, Vijay Malik telecasted the news. Their channel's tam rating is in a higher position now and Jay got a bulk amount of money from the people who are benefited due to this. An ambitious young journalist (Ritesh Deshmukh), who is working in India 24/7, has smelled the fowl play and he decided to conduct an investigation on these things and its after effects are in the remaining portions of 'Rann'.


The main attraction here is the presentation of the film. Some of the under ground games that is happening in the media world these days are shown openly. The film is rich in its technical aspects also, cinematographer Amit Roy should be given the maximum credits. Amitabh Bachan, in the lead role has given an excellent performance. Kannada star Sudeep, who has done his son's role has also done a good job. Rithesh Deshmukh did the character in a matured way.


Though the speech in the end by the hero is sensible, it felt too lengthy in such a situation. There should have been justifications given for the inclusion of Rithesh's character in the higher level team meeting of the news channel and the reward for the double agent role done by the high official in the channel is given in an open place, which is also unacceptable.


'Rann' is a film that shows the darker side of the media world. How can a back door entry for the news in such a medium affects the system is shown in Ramgopal Varma's style...


Rating : 7 / 10

Agyaat

Medium : Hindi
Starring : Nithin Reddy, Nisha Kothari, Ravi Kale
Director : Ramgopal Varma
Music : Imran Vikram, Bapi Tutul, Amar Mohile

Notable producer – director in the country, Ramgopal Varma has come up with his new film ‘Agyaat’, co-produced by UTV and Ronnie Schrewvala. The director has launched an unusual promotional campaign in Mumbai for the film’s release. Many dead bodies were hanged in open air here and there which caught attention and created heavy traffic block in the metro. Later only the crowd came to know that they were all “live” dead bodies and they are created as a part of the marketing of the film. This is what Ramgopal Varma, who believes in the theory of “break the rules” does these days.

Like his own film, ‘Jungle’ this time also the director had selected the thick forests as the back drop for telling the story. The film which has got around 10 characters in total is shot in the thick forests of Srilanka and Athirappally (Kerala). The theme is based on the film unit who reached the jungle for the shooting schedule of their new film. The group consists of the producer, director, hero, heroine, camera man, stunt master, asst. director etc. Here telugu actor Nithin plays the role of asst. director and Varma’s favorite star, Nisha Kothari comes in the heroine’s role.

While going through a ride in the dense bushes, they have to face an unknown enemy. One by one, the members of the group were targeted and are killed. At last the hero and the heroine were left only and they escaped from the forest in the climax. The enemy is still not shown and the director has not given an end for the story hoping to reveal it through its second part, ‘Agyaat 2’ which is given “coming soon” in the climax portions.

Generally, I am against the attitude of not giving a full stop for the story in a film. Here I can’t blame the director, since he had got a chance pending to do another project with the same theme. At around half time while watching this film, a friend sitting beside me told that he had seen almost similar situation in a Hollywood film and told that this is the remake of Arnold’s hit film ‘Predator’, which happened 22years before. I have not seen it yet, but my friend told that the new remake is not a bad attempt.

Like the previous films by the director, here also the main attraction is the good visuals with lesser dialogues accompanied by a thrilling background score. Surjodep Ghosh had worked brilliantly behind the lenses. Amamr Mohile gave the re-recording and Mixing Engineer Leslie Fernandes also did his job well. The real beauty of the thick forest at day and night is shown through the frames placed by the director in his style. In the middle you have got a couple of glamour songs by the heroine also. The second half of the film is fast and thrilling. Only negative here is that, one might not be satisfied fully, since the real fear is not guaranteed as expected and the enemy is not revealed even after the climax.

‘Agyaat’ is a different voyage through the thick forest, which won’t be as easy and peaceful as you anticipate.

Rating : 7 / 10