Ramgopal Varma’s Rakta Charitra, like many of his earlier movies got into controversies, but it did manage to win accolades from all corners. He has been strangely silent through the release of its sequel Rakta Charitra 2. That adds a certain level of mystique to the movie. Also it stars Surya in a role inspired from Maddelacheruvu Suri. 123telugu.com takes a look at how good the movie is!

What’s it about: Rakta Charitra Part 1 narrates us about how Pratap Ravi (Vivek Oberori), an average guy, becomes a blood chasing killer and how he rises in stature – from being a leader of a group to a popular politician. Rakta Charitra 2 starts off exactly where Rakta Charitra part 1 ended. At a time when no one questions the power, wisdom and influence of Pratap, Surya (played by Tamil actor Surya) plots and attempts to kill Pratap with a bomb blast. For the first time Pratap and his men are beaten by an ordinary man. They are also beaten by the police as they trace who the plotter is! In fact the police lead by Officer Mohan Prasad (Kannada actor Sudeep), first capture Surya’s wife Bhavani (Priyamani) and use her as a bait to arrest Surya.

It is in the jail that Surya tells why he wants to kill Pratap and keeps hoping to kill him one day! It is having an enemy in the comfort zone of a jail that bothers Pratap! It is Pratap who has become a spot of bother for State’s politicians. Rakta Charitra 2 is a complex mixture of how a person’s thirst for revenge breaks a tough man’s defenses and how political parties benefit from this war!

What is Good: It isn’t always that you’d say almost ‘everything works’ for a Telugu movie, but it does for Rakta Charitra 2. The first half is as amazing as any Telugu movie can get. The graph of the story goes up, stays up, and merges with how humans are conditioned by situations toward the end. It is a journey into one man’s revenge story, and how other things like personal relationships, social responsibilities and intrinsic belief systems are stirred and shaken!

Some scenes like the following are topnotch:

- A man coming to meet another person in a jail. The camera angles are such that you never know who is in the jail, who is on the other side.

- A police officer brings a culprit to courtroom, where he is attacked. Every frame in those scenes are lessons in film making.

- The denouement (post-climax) in which a police officer narrates to a culprit how a so called hero always falls deserves applause. The hero here says that his reasons and excuses to be a hero ended when he killed his villain, and hence he won’t fall!

Sudeep betters his performance of Rann. Vivek Oberoi is amazing, and Surya beats them both, in the few scenes he has with them. Whenever Surya is on screen he uses his eyes, body language in such a way that we directly stare at the soul of character which has only one aim – to kill! What an actor.

Thanikella Bharani, Shatrugan Sinha and all other character artists are good too! Priyamani is just special. One wonders why an actress of her calibre chooses to do some dumb roles!

What is bad: The second part gets touch slower, as the director tries to bring in all the complex sides on one to stage. One problem is the expectations set by audience themselves after watching the first part. They expect violence, and a character like Bukka Reddy. Nevertheless the second part is an emotional affair, and manages to intrigue. Yes the climax could have been better, but it is the post climax that gives the movie its high. What might disappoint people is that the movie doesn’t side with any of the real life characters it has been inspired from. It never showcases either Paritala Ravi or Maddelacheruvu Suri as heroes or victims or villains. Instead it portrays them as men who rose and fell. This is hard for typical Telugu audiences to understand.

Technical Departments: The screenplay and dialogue are stunning. Cinematography is top notch. Unlike the prequel, the re-recording is justified, and never gets louder. The other good thing compared to the first part is the way Ramgopal Varma’s narration becomes an addition to the movie. Yes he should have chosen someone else, but that’s ok. However, all kudos to him for making this movie, keeping it balanced to all sides and bringing up philosophy to the end. The way he uses Sudeep’s character as a judge of characters, and the way he uses the wives of his principal characters as their conscience deserves a special mention.

Final Point: For those who liked Ramgopal Varma’s Satya this is a must watch movie, as this is by far his best movie since Satya. One can even say that he bettered it! On the whole Rakta Charitra 2 is a real dose of how human mind can get what it wants – be it love or hatred! Ramu choose to tell the story of human’s ‘hatred’ and he does a brilliant job out of it. Topic Over!