Rakht Charitra Review By Komal Nahta

Vivek Oberoi does well. Having said that, it must be added that his acting mostly comprises killing people as there is hardly anything else in the film. As his wife, Radhika Apte gets very limited scope. She has an expressive face and acts ably. Abhimanyu Singh performs his maniacal act effectively. Shatrughan Sinha is nice. Sushant Singh is good in a brief role. Zarina Wahab excels. Rajendra Gupta shines. Raja Krishnamurthy is okay. Kota Srinivasa Rao is excellent. Ashwini Kalsekar has her moments. Ashish Vidyarthi acts with aplomb. Anupam Shyam (as Omkar), Subrat Dutta (as AK), Chetanya Adib, Sushmita Mukherjee, Vishwajit Pradhan, Om Prakash, Sudeep, Darshan Jariwala, Sukhwinder Singh, Tanikella Bharani (as Ram Murthy), Shailendra Shrivastav (as policeman) and Shubhalekha Sudhakar lend excellent support.

Ram Gopal Varma’s direction is effective but his script and narrative style would appeal only to those who love bloodshed and violence on screen. Ladies and family audiences would not approve of the excessive blood-and-gore scenes. Music (Sukhwinder Singh, Imran-Vikram and Bapi-Tutul) is functional. The background songs, which are played at several places, add to the mood of the drama just as the background score (Dharam-Sandeep), with Sanskrit shlokas, does. Amol Rathod’s cinematography is excellent. Javed-Eijaz’s action is as raw as raw can be. The crudity and overdose of violence will be too much for the audience to digest. Editing (Nipun Ashok Gupta) is okay.

On the whole, Rakht Charitra is too violent and crude to be entertaining. Except for pockets in some circuits like U.P., Bihar and C.P.C.I. Rajasthan, it will not find acceptance or appreciation. Collections in multiplexes will be poor. Losing!