Rakta Charitra- RGVs Programmed Emotion

In one of his posts from his blog, RGV (Ram Gopal Varma) makes it a point that better to fuck up knowingly than getting fucked up unknowingly. Indicating his innately brazen recklessness from the very title- Programme Fuck Ups, while giving a damn to the recital etiquette and also to the grammatical precision (grammatically it must be -Programme Fucks Up), Varma generalizes that humans are usually programmed to feel an emotion so strongly even without ever understanding the fundamental basics of why they feel that emotion. Though he called upon his blog readers not to be carried away by aliened emotions, he actually knows well that his audience gets fucked up unknowingly by the emotions he enrages both on and off the screen. His much hyped recent flick Rakta Charitra is the nearest and successful example to his adapted provocation.

Since the reel storyline is said to be based on the real faction hostility in Penugonda constituency in Ananthpur district in Andhra Pradesh between the families of Paritala Ravi and Maddela Cheruvu Suri and since RGV is basically a Telugu personality, who is not snapped out to his native land, I, being reviewer of the film and also a Telugu man, am confined to Telugu version of Rakta Charitra. From the time of announcement to the time of release (and even after release), Varma never let the provoked dust settle. He has been in news, particularly, in AP, where numerous 24X7 news channels swarm in to make mountains out of molehills. His field work, inclusive of his personal visits to the villages of both rival groups, created (anticipated) controversies, with regular contribution from the cultural police of Rayalaseema region, who ritually oppose the stereotyped depiction of their region in brutal colours in films, and from the faction groups related to the story. Besides getting the free publicity from one hand, Varma set the minds of general audience to the desired tunes on other hand.

When the film is said to be based on real story, it is generally expected the depiction of the times with an artistic objectivity from the narrator / director. In a nutshell, the vengeance story of Penugonda spans for three decades, particularly from 1975, when Paritala Sree Ramulu, father of Paritala Ravi was killed, to 2005, when Ravi was slain. Within these three crucial decades, the time had been a prime witness to many important socio-political events. A class conflict turned to be a caste clash. The righteous anger and counter violence in the philosophical planes of Peoples War group (naxalites) had been reduced to stupid violence of personal vendetta sans rational base. Social, political and also technical changes were rapid and cold-blooded. Even the emotional the jargon of weapons was changed along with the desertion of ethics in violence. It went to an extent in targeting the enemy, insensible to the victimization of the vicinity. On the other hand, violence adapted strategically statistical recession, with subtle connotations. But, Varma, despite his extensive research, did not care a damn to the changing colours of realty. The filmy duration of Rakta Charitra I lasted not more than 2 to 3 years and thus, it did not depict the real-time transport facilitations and the technical disparities, which played major role in intriguing and implementing the killings.

I am not plaguing my argument on the vexed question of fidelity. As Varma rightly said in an advertisement in a few Telugu news dailies, a day before the release of Rakta Charitra I (October 22nd, 2010), truth is slippery and not always self-evident. It is sure that Rakta Charitra is not a documentary to be "faithful" to its original source. The director, as an artist with all his right to expression, can alter characterization, setting, or plot to suit his own interpretation, or understanding of the original. Since the true story is implausible and even inconvenient and does not pack enough punch, we might suppose that Varma might have improved it accordingly. But, he actually thumbed his nose at the audience right from the beginning, while giving story credits to Prashant Pandey in the titles. Following a so-called field research by him in understanding the truth, and scripting of screenplay based on the true story, how a strange man is credited for cooking the story?

If the outline of the plot of Rakta Charitra film is concerned, to any script writer all it requires is an accessibility to the Internet and general modes of communication, at least an ordinary telephone with outgoing facility. Of course, it definitely requires craftsmanship to dramatize the original raw to come up with a cinematic masterpiece. And there is nothing explicit to refer to the brilliance of Varmas direction and to his aplomb in extracting subtle action from the cast and crew, as his earlier films including Satya and Sarkar stand tall inferences. But, here the only objective of the debate is his sincerity with reference to the making of this film. In a single attempt to get clever excuses to many of factual errors, film flubs, dramatic anachronisms and liberal adaptations in Rakta Charitra, Varma said with repeated smartness that Paritala Ravi- Suri rivalry was only a pretext. If it had been true, he would have not announced openly and he should have not toured Rayalaseema, including Anathapur central jail to meet Suri (Maddelacherevu Suryanarayana Reddy). This duality, rather a dichotomy of Varma vindicates his single-point agenda of getting publicity. If it is told in his jargon, provoking and thus preparing the audience to get fucked up unknowingly at his behest.

His post Programme Fuck Ups ( http://www.rgvzoomin.com/programme-fuck-ups/ ) starts with the quotation of the French philosopher Baruch Spinoza - If you throw a stone into the air and if the stone has consciousness it will think its flying as per its own wish. RGV knows well that his audiences are stones with tuned consciousness and thus, he was/ is/ will be successful.

- Naresh Nunna