Movie Review: Not a Love Story: Real to Reel Turmoil

Ram Gopal Varma’s most engaging and path breaking films, notably Satya (1998) and Company (2002) were inspired from real-life incidents. We didn’t mind gangsters adding up the body count then. The main protagonists, played up as anti-heroes, got little sympathy that when they got the bullet, it was as if they deserved it. Then there was always a good wrap of fiction and tight story-telling in these stories. We could easily distance ourselves from comparison to a Dawood Ibrahim or a Chota Rajan. Disassociated, yet engaged in the myth of the characters.

“What did happen?” is a tantalizing question. RGV’s latest, though said to be only ‘inspired’ by the 2008 Grover murder case, can’t distance itself from what really happened. Robin (Deepak Dobriyal) and Anushka (Mahie Gill) are lovers in a nameless city. The girl aspires to be a Hindi film heroine, and a possessive Robin finally relents, and Anushka leaves for Mumbai. She lives alone in her fifth storey flat, constantly been at auditions, meeting similarly zealous friends and talking to Robin on the cell phone. Her hopes for a lead part are dashed again and again, until Ashish (Ajay Gehl); a film producer finalizes her for an upcoming movie. Elated, Anushka informs Robin and parties all night with Ashish and her friends. A turn of events leads to a one-night stand between Ashish and Anushka at her flat. Meanwhile Robin, getting no response of his calls, arrives the next morning to surprise Anushka. Even as a tense, disturbed Anushka fumbles at the door, in a burst of realization and fury, Robin ending up killing a naked Ashish with a knife. The story then traces the disposal of the body, the discovery and the court trail of the doomed lovers.

Voyeuristic camera works  

The main shutter is the script which imitates real incidents faithfully, and displays what most of the audience mostly knows through TV news channels and newspapers. So it boils down to the treatment and intensity. The hand held camera is effective in parts, especially in scenes to convey Anushka’s shock. It is also overtly voyeuristic in Anushka’s close ups. Cleavage and thighs on your face to convey a woman’s allure? The Sandeep Chowta background score has its moments early in the movie - Ominous grating bits of the local train, fluttering pigeons, the extended door bell ring and the fish bowl gurgle. The court trail part is cliched and the end goes awry, making odd martyrs out of the doomed lovers, bordering on disgust.

The performances of Dobriyal, Gill and Zakir Hussain as the grim cop do salvage some scenes. Not A Love Story may be rebellious stuff; but its purpose is nowhere to be seen. On introspection; RGV could have used elements like the possessive lover and the film world to make probably, a less-gruesome, more insightful fictionized story. To sum up; we, the cinema goer, forgive RGV this one in memory of all the delicious cuts he has given before. Hey, we didn’t mind the two-part Rakht Charitra (2010) as much.

Fitting in

As a veiled Anushka is led to a police jeep, hounded by media persons, the soundtrack finally finds its apt moment.

Movie Review:RAKTA CHARITRA II: Lost in Kill! Kill! Kill!

Stretched, a relentless bloodbath, a loud merciless background score (Dharam-Sandeep, the culprits), the overused slow motion technique, irritating upside down camera angles, and Ram Gopal Varma make up for a messed up second part of this movie - based as it on a true story. The politics of it is kept to the background, all we get to see is how revenge comes full circle for Pratap Ravi (Vivek Oberoi), as Surya (Tamil actor Suriya) has only one thing is mind - Ravi's death. Apparently, Ravi's men had killed off Surya's entire family in a murderous rampage of killing all potential enemies of Ravi.

Instead of effectively depicting how violence transmits - from a person's anger to a mass culture, what we get is an escapist orchestra of killings - bullet-holed bodies, vehicles in flames, and again the sickle. Some scenes work, like the tense slow-motion sequence of Surya's arrival at the court. Finally, at the end of it all Rakta Charitra makes a mild impact in its intended message. It certainly makes for gory, gritty drama but nothing more. The director's signature clad epilogue at the end says it all - it ends up making violence look more attractive and justified than deplorable.              

Watch it strictly for the performances and RGV's technical expertise and experimentation, and the engaging cameos.

Movie Review: RAKTA CHARITRA I: Drowned in violence

Rakta Charitra chronicles the blood-soaked rise of Partala Ravi during the 1980's caste tensions in Andhra Pradesh. The names are suitably, understandably altered. The opening credits declare - All characters of this film are fictional...followed by the declaration in red - Based on a true story. So much for deliberate irony.

R for Revenge
The battleground is Anantpur, where a powerful local politician Narasimha Reddy is instigated by his discontent party worker Nagamani (Kota Srinivasa Rao) to kill Veerbhadra (Rajendra Gupta), his (lower caste - bleeped in the movie) trusted aide. The aide is also the leader of his community and is promised tickets for the upcoming election for his people by Reddy. This is not to be.
Accompanied by loud, unforgivable background music, the aide's elder son Shankar (Sushant Singh) goes on a murder-spree against Nagamani and his gang, and thus, vengeance is born. The younger son, Pratap (Vivek Oberoi), is forced back from his city education to the battleground. Pratap is soon sucked in to the vortex of violence, as Shankar is brutally killed. Pushed to a corner with death looming, Ravi,  late father's followers in tow slays Reddy, Nagamani and his demonic, psychotic son Bhukka (Abimanyu Singh).

Grim as the setting is, Ram Gopal Varma marks a return to decent (if not subtle) form, with disturbing yet essential scenes of blood and violence. There are sickles slashing out fountain blood, bullet holes gorging out, drills boring skulls, and an axe brandished with savagery. A grayish tint fills all scenes, there is hardly any sunshine, very apt.

Rakta Charitra I is not a movie I would like to watch again, though Varma has crafted it sincerely, technical edge adding punch and without many commercial compromises. The director's raspy voice over hinges between arresting and mockery. If only he had not overlooked the criminally insane background score and most importantly, added textures to the violence.

Sturdy performances
Vivek Oberoi is efficient, but it is Abimanyu Singh's crazy lunatic act that haunts. Shatrughan Sinha's minister take makes for an entertaining cameo, his dialogues are slightly over the top ( "Topic over," he thunders, and all turn submissive) from a otherwise well-sketched array of characters. The woman characters are expectantly given less screen space. The intensity slackens towards the end, with Pratap depicted as a kind of Godfather character, and shades of Varma's own Sarkar. That we do not get some powerful final scenes is ensured, as the film is wrapped up with glimpses of the second part (releasing on November 19, 2010) which will mark Tamil star Suriya's Hindi film debut.

Chilling / Overdone?
A pillion-riding woman is carried off by Bhukka's men, like prey in a bird's talons.