Rakshasudu Movie Review: A faithful remake that is as effective as the original but fails to bring anything new

As most know Rakshasudu is the official remake of the Tamil film Ratsasan. The film starts as the story of an aspiring director, Arun (Bellamkonda Sreenivas), who makes futile attempts to find a prospective producer for his crime thriller script, which is inspired by several real-life incidents. As fate would have it, he is forced to give up his direction plans and gets appointed as the sub-inspector of police on compassionate grounds. He works closely with his brother-in-law CH Prasad (Rajeev Kanakala), who is also a cop and he also starts developing feelings for a school teacher, Krishnaveni (Anupama Parameswaran). 

Just a week into his job, a series of gruesome murders of school girls shakes the city and Arun comes up with theories to prove that all the homicides were done by a psycho killer. In his pursuit to find the killer, he suffers a personal loss and this incident helps hunt down the perpetrator.  

Director: Ramesh Varma Penmetsa
Cast: Bellamkonda Sreenivas, Anupama Parameswaran, Rajeev Kanakala

Usually, thrillers rely on building a sense of nail-biting tension by throwing loud noises at the audience. But Rakshasudu accomplishes this using compelling background score and clever plot twists. Characters like the senior police officer, who is envious of Arun’s intelligence, and the hot-tempered Mathematics teacher, who adds the element of mystery, make the film an interesting watch. 

The climax twist in the original is packed with a shock factor which clicked big time and it almost leaves a similar impact in this remake too. All credit to Ramesh Varma for not diluting the essence in an attempt to make his mark.

On the flip side, when you are directing a remake, the very purpose of it is, one would think, to improve upon the original. It would have been good if the core plot was retained but Ramesh Varma had incorporated a few changes to the film and its characters. However, the director has played it safe without altering any scenes or characters and stays quite faithful to the original. Right from Arun’s name and characterisation to Christopher’s haunting music and looks, there is nothing that makes Rakshasudu stand out from the original.

Bellamkonda Sreenivas fits the bill perfectly as an underdog. He emotes through his eyes and has come up with a mature performance. This film will easily go down as one of the best works in Bellamkonda’s career and it couldn’t have come at a better time for the actor.  He is well backed by Rajeev Kanakala, who has a lot of wonderful moments in the film. Anupama Parameswaran, though she fits the part appearance-wise, doesn’t quite bring to the character the credibility that Amala Paul brought in the original.

Rakshasudu, more or less, feels like a tribute to the original. The film may take you by surprise in terms of its narrative and characterisations, but it doesn't hit the right notes if you have seen Ratsasan.