Rakta Charitra 2

Rakta Charitra 2
Theatrical release poster in Telugu
Directed byRam Gopal Varma
Written byPrashant Pandey
Produced byMadhu Mantena
Chinna Vasudeva Reddy
Sheetal Vinod Talwar
Starring
Narrated byChetan Sashital (Hindi) Ram Gopal Varma (Telugu)
CinematographyAmol Rathod
Edited byNipun Ashok Gupta
Music by
Production
companies
RGV Film factory
Cinergy
Release date
  • 3 December 2010 (2010-12-03)
Running time
111-116 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguagesTelugu
Hindi

Rakta Charitra 2 (transl. History of Blood 2) is a 2010 Indian biographical political action thriller film directed by Ram Gopal Varma and written by Prashant Pandey. Based on the life of Paritala Ravindra, the film is a direct sequel to Rakta Charitra which released two months earlier.[1] The film features an ensemble cast of Vivek Oberoi, Suriya, Sudeep, Shatrughan Sinha, Priyamani, Radhika Apte, Zarina Wahab, Sushmita Mukherjee, Ajaz Khan, Tanikella Bharani and Subhalekha Sudhakar. Shot simultaneously in Telugu and Hindi, with the latter titled Rakht Charitra 2, the film was released on 3 December 2010 and received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, with lukewarm comparisons with the original film as well as the repetitive narrative being the common points of criticism. Despite emerging as a flop during its theatrical run, the film has gained cult status and is regarded as one of Varma's best works with Suriya receiving praise for his memorable debut in both Hindi and Telugu industries through this film. The two-part epic was later dubbed and released in Tamil as Raththa Sarithiram in March 2011, with the entire first part being condensed into an half-an-hour prologue and some scenes rearranged.[2]

Plot

The sequel opens with a recap of Rakta Charitra, depicting how Pratap avenged the murders of his father and brother and rose to power with the support of Shivaji before the original narrative begins.

On a fateful day, a man waits in the woods near the main road with his allies, for Pratap and hurls a bomb at his convoy. Unfortunately for the man, Pratap escapes the bomb blast with heavy injuries while many of his men die. Pratap's henchmen attempt to kill the man and many of his allies are killed, but he and his remaining allies manage to escape.

As Pratap undergoes treatment for his injuries, he becomes paranoid and considers his sparing of Puru to be a huge blunder. Meanwhile, a helpless Puru is captured and coldly interrogated by Prasad who is investigating the bomb blast to which Puru confessed that he knows who the perpetrator is: Suryabhan "Surya" Reddy, the eldest son of Narsimha, who had set out to avenge his father as well as his remaining family members who were wiped out in a TV bomb at the same time when Pratap joined the election campaign. When the media asks Pratap about the TV bomb, he denies the charge. Surya informs his wife Bhavani that he missed the chance of killing Pratap. Prasad and Pratap prove to be hostile to each other when the former meets and questions the latter regarding the TV bomb. Pratap orders his action teams to kill all the supporters of Surya they can find, with the first victim being Puru, who is riddled with bullets as a punishment for hiding Surya's agenda from Pratap. As the death toll rises, Prasad captures Bhavani who tried to flee with her infant Arya and demands Surya to surrender or else he would harm his wife. Surya thinks that he has missed a great chance and another chance will not come so easily and decides to surrender for protection to safely continue to plot killing Pratap. As such, Surya surrenders to Pratap after being convinced that Bhavani and Arya are safe. Knowing his life is in danger, Pratap asks for support from Shivaji to kill Surya but Shivaji, in fear of his government being dissolved, decides to be neutral to this case. Nevertheless, Pratap Ravi sends Murari, a freelance hitman, hired outside Pratap's camp to avoid police suspicion, to kill Surya in the court itself. However, Murari, disguised as an old woman, fails to kill Surya in the first attempt leading to an all-out chaos in the court; Surya, even with his hands cuffed, manages to fight and behead Murari in front of the judge just before a horrified Prasad intercepts, leading to Surya's imprisonment. On the advice of AK, Pratap decides to kill Surya inside the jail and plans to hire prisoners of the same jail where Surya is imprisoned.

In prison, Surya befriends Bhondu, who is impressed by his guts, and tells him his reason of hurling bomb at Pratap. The saga shifts to a lengthy flashback: fed up with the violence in his hometown, Surya is planning to live a civilian life by opening his own construction company in Bangalore; at the time when the flashback begins, Surya has received a contract and is having banters with Bhavani, then his fiancée, regarding their upcoming marriage, when he learns that Pratap has killed Narsimha, hearing which he rushes back to his home. Surya's younger brother Chandrabhan "Chandu" Reddy, volatile in nature, wants to kill Pratap immediately. Learning that the matters of Narsimha's wealth and properties were handled by Nagmani who has usurped them, Surya meets him to retrieve them; however, Nagmani refuses to pay the money and instead claims that Narsimha and Surya had not yet paid their debts to Nagmani, given that Nagmani had invested money in Narsimha's business. Surya doesn't want to kill Pratap straight away, and tells Chandu to be patient and to leave the matter as it is, as he doesn't want to put his mother Gomthi and sister in any danger. The day Bhavani promises to marry Surya, who plans to migrate to Bangalore with his family, Nagmani is shot dead by Pratap. As days go by, Pratap joins the election campaign and had his action teams purge many men of Narsimha; Surya tries to deal with it legally in vain. On a festival, Surya and Bhavani visits Narsimha's home, where a new TV was installed by one of the action teams of Pratap. When Chandu switched it on, the TV bomb wiped out the entire household by instantly claiming the lives of Chandu, Gomthi, Surya's sister and all the other guests. Only Surya and Bhavani are left alive, now completely broken with multiple injuries. Seeing the gory way in which his family members' burnt corpses are lying, Surya realized that he has only one target left in life: exacting revenge on Pratap. When the flashback ends, an emotional Bhondu empathizes with Surya and decides to help him in killing Pratap.

As a conflicted Pratap is having a heated confrontation with AK and Omkar regarding the fallacy they committed by killing Surya's mother and sister instead of directly targeting Chandu despite warning them not to kill women and children, the prison inmates of Surya, hired by Pratap, try to kill Surya when he is bathing, but Surya brutally kills them all. After this failure, Pratap is reprimanded by Shivaji who tells him to change tactics. As a result, Pratap decides that he wants to stop this revenge, and he meets Surya in jail. Pratap coldly requests Surya to stop this bloodshed, since no one is going to gain from it, to which Surya promptly replies that he will surely stop after killing Pratap. Pratap thinks he can't do anything because he is in jail, which makes him defenseless.

To usurp Anantapur from Pratap, Swami, the closest ally of Naidu Sir ji, decides to meet Surya. He says that to kill Pratap, Surya has to become a bigger name in Anantapur than Pratap. Swami requests Surya to convince Bhavani to stand in the election, to which both of them agree. Afraid of losing his life and his ministerial post, Pratap orders AK and Omkar to eliminate Bhavani but a pregnant Nandini, stands up against her husband's decision for the first time, and pleads with Pratap not to kill Bhavani, causing an agitated Pratap to call AK, who is present at the site with Omkar, and orders him to abort the plan. However, his message comes too late as Bhondu, now out of the jail and keeping direct contact with Surya, shoots Omkar and saves Bhavani. Swami comes to the prison to thank Surya on helping them exact influence over Anantapur, and an infuriated Surya, having learnt the attempt on Bhavani from Bhondu, requests Swami to give him a chance thank the latter in return by letting him kill Pratap.

Helpless for the first time in his life, Pratap organises a meeting involving his fellow politicians all over the state. Knowing this, Surya plots to kill Pratap. He realises that in the meeting, all the leaders will participate with their bodyguards. He orders Bhondu to dress like a bodyguard since no one would be able to identify whose bodyguard belongs to whom. Using this ambiguity, Surya can kill Pratap. After the meeting comes to an end, Pratap plans to leave. As he is leaving, he comes face-to-face with a familiar person and is struck when he recognizes him — Surya, disguised as a commoner. Surya riddles Pratap with bullets until he dies in a pool of blood, thus finishing the war of revenge. Surya's friends put tear gas and create chaos, and under the cover of smoke, Surya escapes from the scene and surreptitiously returns to the prison. A devastated Nandini mourns Pratap along with Pratap's other men.

Bhondu, having accompanied Surya to the scene, is subsequently arrested and takes the blame for killing Pratap for Surya, much to the joy of Swami who wanted a scapegoat in place of Surya to face the trials, so that Surya and Bhavani remain under the influence of Swami's party. In the solemn finale, Prasad comes to meet Surya in jail and admires his perseverance while reminding him why Pratap became a factionist in the first place: it was the circumstances that made him a factionist. He also reminds that the mastermind behind TV bomb incident may not have been Pratap at all, given the ambiguity of the situation. He concludes that Pratap slowly transformed into the very tyrants he killed and if circumstances change, Surya will change into another Pratap. Surya thanks Prasad and claims two points: he is absolutely sure that Pratap is the mastermind behind the TV bomb; also, he won't change into another Pratap. The final scene featured Nari praying to God, having lost her husband and two sons while Nandini takes care of her infant.

Cast

Suriya with Ram Gopal Varma on the set of Rakta Charitra 2

Soundtrack

Rakta Charitra 2
Soundtrack album by
Imran-Vikram, Dharam-Sandeep, Sukhwinder Singh, and Amar Desai
Released11 November 2010
Recorded2010
GenreFilm soundtrack
Length23:11
LabelT-Series
Hindi tracklist
No.TitleLyricsMusicSinger(s)Length
1."Patthar Ko"Sandeep SinghSukhwinder SinghSukhwinder Singh3:09
2."Khel Shuroo"VayuDharam-SandeepArmaan Malik, Shreekumar Vakkiyil4:03
3."Nagendra Haraya"Prashant PandeySukhwinder SinghSukhwinder Singh, Viveka4:02
4."Maar De" (Remix)Shabeer AhmedImran-VikramJojo6:04
5."Mila Toh" (Electro Mix)Shyamraj DuttaDharam-SandeepSandeep Patil, Ravindra Upadhay, Vishvesh Parmar3:48
6."Patthar Ko" (Theme Music) Sukhwinder SinghInstrumental2:05
Total length:23:11
Tamil tracklist[3]
No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Sathathin Soodhattam"Tippu4:29
2."Thuninju Vettiven"Abishek Nailwal3:42
3."Manidham Yendra"Ravi4:20
4."Kollada"Tippu5:48
5."Kathigalin"Krishnaraj4:17
6."Karma Dharma"Vardhan, Aditi Paul3:08
7."Aattam Arrambam"Armaan Malik, Sreekumar3:33
8."Nagendra Haraya"Manikka Vinayagam4:00
9."Thottale Unnai"Manikka Vinayagam2:09
10."Kollada" (Remix)Tippu6:02
11."Thuninju Vettuven" (Remix)Tippu6:02
Total length:46:10

Reception

From left to right: Vivek Oberoi, Suriya, and Priyamani during the press meet of Rakta Charitra 2.

Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave 3.5 out of 5, praising the film as a powerful, fast-paced, and intensely violent sequel directed by Ram Gopal Varma.[4] Renuka Rao of DNA India gave 3 stars in a scale of 5, concluding that "Watch it if you had watched the first part, but don't be surprised if you don't like this as much".[5] Nikhat Kazmi of Times of India gave 3 stars out of 5, stating that "Rakht Charitra doesn't break new ground like Satya and Company, nevertheless it remains a must-see film for Ramu fans."[6] Shubhra Gupta of Indian Express gave 2.5 stars out of 5, and wrote that "Like in the first part, RGV's intention is not so much to delve into the complexities of Andhra politics, which stay firmly in the backdrop, but to create sequences where death is choreographed in varying ways. After a point, you are oblivious to the gore. But you cannot, at any point, bypass Suriya : he has eyes that speak. Bollywood is ready for him".[7]

NDTV gave 2 out of 5 stars writing "Suriya saves the film from being a total loss. His expressive eyes have a quiet strength and his presence sears the screen".[8] The Economic Times gave 3 out of 5 stars stating "The sequel carries forward the tale of power and revenge which exploded in Rakht Charitra 1".[9] Rediff gave 1.5 out of 5 stars stating "RGV doesn't have anything new to offer in Rakht Charitra 2. The film does have some high points but they are too few to keep you engaged".[10]

Accolades

Year Award Category Recipient Notes
2011Screen AwardsScreen Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Male Suriya [11]
2011Stardust AwardsStardust Award for Superstar of Tomorrow – MaleSuriya [12]

References

  1. ↑ "Rakht Charitra 2: Bloody Bore". Rediff. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  2. ↑ "Ratha Sarithiram". The New Indian Express. 16 May 2012. Archived from the original on 21 February 2022. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  3. ↑ "Ratha Sarithiram (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)". 31 October 2010. Archived from the original on 7 June 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  4. ↑ "Rakht Charitra II Review". Bollywood Hungama. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  5. ↑ "Review: Rakht Charitra II fails to live up to expectation". DNA India. DNA. Archived from the original on 11 January 2011. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  6. ↑ "Rakta Charitra II Times of India Review". Times of India. Archived from the original on 11 March 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  7. ↑ Gupta, Shubhra (3 December 2010). "Movie review: Rakht Charitra 2". Indian Express. Archived from the original on 14 June 2021. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  8. ↑ "Moview Review: Rakht Charitra 2". NDTV Movies. 7 March 2014. Archived from the original on 12 August 2020. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  9. ↑ "Movie Review: Rakta Charitra 2". The Economic Times. 4 December 2010. Archived from the original on 4 July 2023. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  10. ↑ "Rakht Charitra 2: Bloody Bore". Rediff. 3 December 2010. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  11. ↑ "Nominations for 17th Annual Star Screen Awards 2011". OneIndia. 3 January 2011. Archived from the original on 22 October 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
  12. ↑ "Check out: Bangistan actors Pulkit Samrat, Jacqueline Fernandez and Riteish Deshmukh lunch together : Bollywood News – Bollywood Hungama". Bollywood Hungama. 13 August 2014. Archived from the original on 25 January 2011.
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