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| Raakhee | Telugu Reviews | |
Cast: Jr. NTR, Ileana, Charmee, Chandramohan, Kota Srinivas Rao, Sharanya, Suhasini, Sharath Babu, Prakash Raj, Uttej, Suneel, Siyajee Shinde
Director:Krishna Vamshi
Producer:Dr. KL. Narayana
Music:Devi Sri Prasad
Art: Ravindra
Camera: S Gopal Reddy
Editing: Shankar
Emotions and violence inflame
After having tried his hands at thrillers to patriotic themes to family dramas, Krishna Vamshi this times looks at the women folk. A film for women – about their problems in this male-dominated world – with a male lead. Sounds interesting aren’t it? But Krishna Vamshi should have taken more care to handle the subject more sensitively and subtly, so that it would definitely appeal to female audience. Now the film looks like a semi-baked cake which is neither mass or socially relevant!
The film deals on the subject of atrocities against women; the lone crusader against the evil is our hero – NTR. Though the fight is justified, his method of revolt – burning alive the sinners – is cruel and might not work out for any kind of audience. But the sentiments seem to be appealing to mass with cries for the deaths and laughter for the comedian. Over all, an average show in spite of huge expectations.
The story
Ramakrishna alias Rakhee (NTR) is son of a stationmaster (Chandramohan) and adores is sister very much. Bala Tripura Sundari (Ileana) works for Sri Devi TV Channel as a reporter. She is upset that women are being harassed in this society.
A sudden event changes the mindset of Rakhee – it is the murder of his sister’s friend in the college. The director Krishna Vamshi takes the incident of the Vijayawada college where a boy hacks his classmate to death for not loving him. The incident is enacted in this film… similarly there are many real-life incidents that have been shown in the film. All these are sins committed against women. But it is the marriage and death of his dear sister that makes Rakhee turn into highly inflammable material. Rakhee’s sister is married to a greedy man with Rs 10 lakh as dowry. But the greedy man kills her to get married for larger dowry to another girl. Rakhee’s sister is burnt alive and she dies of burns.
After the sister’s episode, Rakhee realizes that there are many more sisters in this country and starting killing all those who commit crime against women by burning them alive. Then a DCP (Suhasini) enters the scene and she starts investigating the killing of 47 people on a single day, finally she becomes Rakhee’s fan and even wishes to have a son like him! The DCP who was insulted by a minister (Siyajee Shinde) takes Rakhee to the minister’s house to kill him. Even as the entire police department keeps watching, Rakhee burns him alive (this is something very illogical).
Performances
NTR who not only dances well and enacts the action sequences, has shown considerable performance in this film. The highlights are NTR’s delivery of 1-2 minute’s duration dialogues without a cut. NTR takes care to deliver dialogues and act some scenes for the frontbenchers. Ileana for change is not just there to show are navel and abdomen, but also act a meaty role. Though she had ample scope to perform, she fails to makes shown any incline to act.
Charmee is voluptuous, but without a role in the film. Sushasini acts foolishly in the film by overacting, she should have taken care not to act like this. Though an important role, due to the overacting the role turns out to be damp squib. Brahmanandam’s take on TV anchor’s is good. All other big names have very little role which is of no importance.
Editing and special effects are only two plus points in the film. Special effects of human beings burnt alive are very good and well made. Shankar’s scissors has contributed to enhancement of the film, for example cut where Rakhee’s brother-in-law lights a matchbox and then cut to MS Narayana lighting matchbox is well cut shot-edit. Devi Sri Prasad’s music is ok and most of the rerecording is loud.
It is surprising that Krishna Vamshi has directed this mediocre movie. Krishna Vamshi who had an illustrious career as a filmmaker of repute in Telugu film industry looks like a spent force today. He seems to have exhausted all the tricks up his sleeve. Though a good subject to deal with, Rakhee is a failure in presentation aspect. Definitely it could have been better if the director could forget the images that are associated with actors and directors. The film which seems to be targeted towards women folk, might not get their attention as well due to the over dose of violence and brutal killings!
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