Rudraksh

Infobox Film
name = Rudraksh


director = Mani Shanka
writer =
starring = Sanjay Dutt
Bipasha Basu
Suniel Shetty
Isha Koppikar
producer =
distributor =
cinematography =
editing = | released = February 13, 2004
runtime =
language = Hindi
music =
imdb_id =0366985

Rudraksh directed by Mani Shankar is a Bollywood science-fiction film staring Sanjay Dutt, Bipasha Basu, Suniel Shetty and Isha Koppikar. The film is strongly based on the Ramayana ("The Path of Rāma"), one of the most famous and influential epic poems of India.

Tagline: The power to possess

Ź=Synopsis=Ǎ

Good and Evil are two sides of a same coin. If good grows in strength so does evil. And there comes a point hjkl; when either must overcome the other.

Dr.Gayatri (Bipasha Basu) is researching the esoteric practices like voodoo, spirit possession, magic and healing powers. She seeks to find the hidden knowledge that goes into such practices, the knowledge that cannot be explained by science or logic.

Her search for answers brings her with her team of fellow scientists from America to India. In India she comes across an uncommon man named Varun (Sanjay Dutt) who is gifted with special intuitive and healing powers.

Gayatri is immediately flummoxed 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 intuitive insight about the existence of a dark power that is hidden and evil. Many questions crop in his mind – like 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 somewhere, unknown to 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.

Varun sets out on a search to discover this Rudraksh and also find certain answers for his own self. His search his into a perilous journey from the most rugged terrains of Himalayas to the mysterious ruins of the legendary King Ravan's palaces in Sri Lanka.

Ramayana Connections

The Ramayana tells the story of the great hero Rāma, an incarnation of the god Vishnu. In the original story Rāma's beautiful and virtuous wife Sita is kidnapped by Ravana, lord of the rakshasas (demons), and Rāma's divine task is to kill Ravana and rescue Sita. Rāma is aided by his friend Hanuman, king of the Vanara (monkey-headed people).

The premise of the film Rudraksh is that the Ramayana is an historical account, and Ravana has found a way to threaten all mankind once again. Ravana re-asserts his will via a recently-unearthed magic talisman called the Rudraksh (the nut from a Rudraksh tree, which is sometimes used as a storehouse for magical power in Hindu mythology). The Rudraksh contains Ravana's soul, and has the power to convert normal human beings into superhumanly powerful rakshasas. Ravana's ultimate plan is to convert (or possess) every human on the planet, and only Varun has enough power to stand in his way.

* Varun, the film's hero, represents Rāma.

* Varun's father Ved Pujan/Pandit Ved Bhushan might be related to Rāma's father, the Maharajah Dasaratha, though his role in the film does not obviously match the original story.

* Bhuria represents the evil Ravana, or at least his representative on Earth. The alien demon creatures are explicitly called Rakshasas in the film. The film's tagline, "The Power to Possess," probably refers to Ravana's desire to possess both Sita and absolute military power. Note that when Bhuria and Lali become Rakshasas, their eyes become blue like Westerners.

* Bhuria's girlfriend Lali may be related to Ravana's primary wife, Mandodari the Aspara (feminine spirit of clouds and water), though her role in the film does not obviously match the original story.

* Dr. Gayatri, Varun's love interest, represents Rāma's wife Sita. Her all-female scientific research team represent Sita's handmaidens. Bhuria attempts to kidnap Gayatri as Ravana originally kidnapped Sita, but in this version his kidnap attempt is prevented by Varun.

External links

* [http://www.scifilm.org/reviews2/rudraksh.html Review at scifilm.org] includes an explanation of the word "rudraksh."
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366985/ Rudraksh at IMDB] .