RAKTHA CHARITHRAM"I will pull the knife stuck into you; and with it, I will etch a history doused in blood." (Soruvu Kathiye Uruvee eduthu ezhudhavendum Rattha Charithram) goes the song that plays throughout the movie. Cloud Nine Movies and director Ram Gopal Varma have been pumping up the anticipation of fans in Tamil Nadu with blood-red tinted advertisements running throughout last month. In the posters, Suriya was mesmerizing us with his beefy body and bloodshot eyes glistening with anger and vengeance. You may have been startled with the liberal use of the word 'blood'. We are not mindless; we are just doing justice to the movie. Released as Rakht Charitra - Part 1 and 2 in Telugu and Hindi, this movie is bundled up as a single part in Tamil.
Though Rattha Charitram is a biopic of late Andhra politician Paritala Ravi and his enmity with a rival politician Maddalcheruvu Suri, the characters and storyline have been blended with a liberal dose of imagination. Prathap Ravi (Vivek Oberoi) is pulled into the faction-ridden political activities of his family after the murder of his father, brother and their loyalists. Prathap leads his men in ruthlessly killing every one who is connected to his father's murder. Prathap's power in his locality and the political circumstances earn him a seat in the State Assembly elections. He wins the election and sails into the legislature, becoming a State minister. Now, with the state machinery on one side and his henchmen also to support him, Prathap is the undisputed strong man in the state.
Prathap and his men kill anyone who is a threat or will ever be a threat for them. Prathap and his men have taken so many lives that they have lost count of their enemies who have been deleted. His remaining enemies go underground, as they are too terrified to take revenge on him. Suriya (Suriya) is one among the many who lost a loved one to Prathap's brutality. Suriya chooses not to take vengeance but to lead a life of peace with the rest of his family. But he is pushed over the edge when the rest of his family is brutally killed by Prathap. Now vengeance is the life purpose for Suriya, and he devises a plan to kill Prathap.
The usually fearless Prathap is disturbed with the similarity of Suriya's life to his own (when he took up violence to revenge the killing of his family members). Prathap's undaunted spirit starts to shake after witnessing Surya's determination to avenge the deaths of his family members. Now both Prathap and Suriya are on a mission to kill each other for their own survival. Can a man's love for his family, his agony at seeing his family die and a diehard thirst for vengeance overcome a man who is considered a demi-god? You must witness this tale of vengeance to know the aftermath.
The Hindi and Telugu versions of Rattha Charithram have already been declared blockbusters. Director Ram Gopal Varma seems to be getting better and better in romancing bad men on screen and this is definitely RGV's best attempt till date. There is blood everywhere, but it has been justified with a strong storyline, characters and screenplay. We feel the editing in the first half (of the Tamil version) is poor as the scenes seem to be rush on the viewer. Maybe the compression of the two versions into one was mindfully speeded up. Though it's all about visuals, the dubbed Tamil dialogues sound irrelevant and silly at times, killing the mood of the scenes. Dharam and Sandeep's background score haunts us. Vivek Oberoi as Prathap Ravi makes your knees knock with his brutality; Suriya is a man gone numb with the death of his family; they are the star attractions of the movie. Amol Rathod's camera takes a 360 degree turn in scenes, which is magical in introducing characters. Rattha Charithram is all about the trimurthi (trinity): Surya, Vivek Oberoi and Ram Gopal Varma.
