Rudraksh (film)

Rudraksh
Directed by	Mani Shankar
Produced by	Nitin Manmohan Sohail Maklai
Screenplay by	Mani Shankar
Story by	Mani Shankar
Starring	Sanjay Dutt Sunil Shetty Bipasha Basu Isha Koppikar
Narrated by	Amitabh Bachchan
Music by	Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Cinematography	T. Surendra Reddy
Edited by	Mani Shankar
Distributed by	Karma Entertainment
Release dates	13 February 2004 (2004-02-13)
Running time	135 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Rudraksh directed by Mani Shankar is a Bollywood science-fiction horror film starring Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, Bipasha Basu and Isha Koppikar. The film has many references to Ramayana ("The Path of Rāma"), one of the most famous and influential epic poems of India.

Plot

Good and sinful are two sides of a same coin. If good grows in strength so does evil. Finally there comes a point when one must overcome the other.

Dr. Gayatri (Bipasha Basu) is an Indian American paranormal researcher at University of California, researching esoteric practices like voodoo, spirit possession, magic and healing powers. She seeks the hidden knowledge that goes into such practices, the knowledge that cannot be explained by science or logic.

Her search for answers brings her and her team of scientists to India. In India she comes across an uncommon man named Varun (Sanjay Dutt) who is gifted with special intuitive and healing powers which he claims to have developed through meditation. He can affect people's minds through his mental powers. He is a blend of Indian philosophy and modern culture, a master at martial arts and a devotee of Lord Hanuman. He heals people by absorbing their pain. He worships and trains by day, while working as a bouncer at a club by night.

Gayatri is immediately impressed by Varun’s powers to take away pain and disease from people and cure them. He becomes the subject of her study.

After a few experiments by Gayatri, Varun has an insight about the existence of a dark power that is hidden. Many questions crop up in his mind – what is this dark force and what is its source? He knows that the force is linked to Ravana's Rudraksh, which is hidden away from the world.

This is not a normal Rudraksh. It carries in its seed the powers that can transmute humans into new species. The bearer of this Rudraksh will have supernatural powers beyond imagination. In the language of science, it was a multi-dimensional hologram in the form of a seed.

Meanwhile, Bhuria (Sunil Shetty), a Rakshasa, mentally communicates with Varun in a dream-space and offers to becomehis brother, so they can share their power since neither of them can utilize full power of the Rudraksha alone. Varun, being a good person, straight-away refuses friendship with a rakshasha but Bhuria continues his attempts to join their powers and manipulate Varun.

Meanwhile, Gayatri finds about a madman speaking some strange words which cause changes in people. Gayatri tests the effects of those sounds on a rat, and notices strange mutations and changes in functioning of the rat's body. Suzy, Gayatri's research assistant, hears those sounds directly, becomes possessed, starts working for Bhuria and tries to kill Gayatri, but Varun fights her and saves Gayatri, after which Suzy commits suicide by spider-climbing the side of a building and losing her grip near the top.

Varun and Gayatri thus set out to discover this Rudraksh, the reality of Bhuria and also find certain answers for Varun's own self. Their perilous journey leafs through the most rugged terrains of the Himalayas to the mysterious ruins of the legendary King Ravana's palaces in Yala, Sri Lanka.

He thus finds how Bhuria, a poor but wild and arrogant labor contractor in excavation team of the Rudraksha, transformed into a powerful Rakshasha & possessor of supernatural powers, that the words spoken by the madman were actually an ancient verse, a Rakshasha mantra, and that the real aim of Bhuria is to use the Rudraksha and Rakshasha mantra for spreading evil and hatred in the world, thus effectively restoring the rule of rakshashas once more.

It thus, once more becomes a battle of good vs. evil, where either must overcome the other.

Reception

Rudraksh was a commercial success with collections of ₹450 million (US$6.7 million) in three weeks after its release. But the Film was panned across the spectrum of reviewers for its tacky visuals and its actors hammy performance which didn't help the already amateurish screenplay.^[1] Even film critic Taran Adarsh, known for being quite lenient with his ratings, criticized this film's screenplay.^[2]

Cast

• Sanjay Dutt as Varun
• Sunil Shetty as Bhuria
• Bipasha Basu as Dr. Gayatri
• Isha Koppikar as Lalli, Bhuria's girlfriend and a contract killer
• Kabir Bedi as Pandit Ved Bhushan, a saint and Varun's father
• Farhad shahnawaz in Supporting Role
• Vinay Varma as Mantrik
• Agnes Darenius as Suzy, Dr. Gayatri's research assistant
• Negar Khan
• Virendra Saxena as security guard
• Narration by Amitabh Bacchan^[3]

Soundtrack

See also

• Science fiction film of India

References

1. ↑ Box Office for the week ending <03/06/2004>
2. ↑ Movie Review by Taran Adarsh
3. ↑ "IMDB website". 

External links

• Review at scifilm.org includes an explanation of the word "rudraksh."
• Rudraksh at the Internet Movie Database