Rudraksh Hindi Movie

Feature Film | 2004
Critics:
Audience:
Jan 24, 2004 By IANS


Rudraksh No doubt, making a film like this seems difficult from all angles but the effort is appreciable. Nitin Manmohan and Sohail Maklai's production "Rudraksh" has been directed by Mani Shankar who also vows to do a number of other jobs for this enterprise such as story, screenplay, dialogues, editing and SFX. The flick has been inspired by the two popular Hollywood movies namely "X-MEN" (directed by Bryan Singer) and the "Green Mile". "Rudraksh" carries the concept of "good versus evil" and the story revolves around the powers of an ancient "Rudraksh", which once belonged to Ravan.


The film begins with Bhuria (Sunil Shetty) who is a labourer and steals the powerful "Rudraksh" when it is excavated from the archeological ruins. Then this evil Rudraksh forces him to destroy the world and he follows it up rightly by causing riots in every corner of the world. Lali (Ishaa Kopikar) Bhuria's girlfriend gets along with him during all of his evil practices. There enters into the picture Varun (Sanjay Dutt) who has mystical and inexplicable paranormal powers. His ability lies in his healing powers, which cure his subjects once he holds their hands. The subject's pain then transfers to him making him tremor a bit but soon he feels perfectly all right. Gayatri (Bipasha Basu) a US scientist who comes to India together with her team of fellow scientists from America to do a research work on supernatural. Varun's powers fascinate Gayatri and as a result of it, Varun agrees to become the subject for her experiments. During the experiments, Varun and Gayatri start blossoming their love. The rest of the film is as predictable about the fight between the bad and the evil. In order to eliminate Bhuria (the evil), Varun (the good) has to become "Rakshak" (demon). At last, the good gets success over the evil.


The story (written by Mani Shankar) somewhat lifts the spirits but the screenplay (penned by Mani Shankar also) is very poor. Fighting sequences are brilliantly executed. Technical terms and difficult vocabulary used in the film do not make sense at all for an average cinegoer. On the contrary, some scenes are very catchy and capture the breath such as the one when Varun massages Gayatri with oil to heal her emotional trauma. And the other scene of the storm effect in Varun's father's ashram soars sky high as well.


Mani Shankar does not impress with his talent of direction. Cinematography by T.Surendra Reddy is absolutely marvelous. Action sequences by Abbass Ali Moghul are first-rate. Sashi Pritam does a fair job in background score. Dialogues (by Mani Shankar) with technical terms and difficult vocabulary are below average. SEL (Shankar-Ehsan-Loy), Vishal-Shekhar and Sashi Pritam win praises with well-arranged music. Sanjay Dutt is superb and his excellent skills are clearly visible on the screen. Sunil Shetty fits well in his character. Bipasha Basu gets mature with every coming film while Ishaa Kopikar goes waste in acting department but boils the blood in body with her sexy outfits. Kabir Bedi appears in a cameo role but justifies his character well. Other cast of the film is too okay.


On the whole, "Rudraksh" may open well but could not last long due to the poorly penned screenplay, technical vocabulary (which is hard to understand for the audience) and below average direction. Though the brilliantly executed special effects and fighting sequences can drag the viewers to the cinema halls.


IANS

   

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