Rudraksh HH

Directed by: Mani Shankhar

Starring: Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, Bipasha Basu, Ishaa Koppikar

Two hours and 10 minutes of sitting in a bus could take you somewhere but two hours and 10 minutes of Rudraksh takes you exactly nowhere. It takes immense determination and much squirming to sit through this film. The only reason that you might sit it out is either because you want to watch the superb effects which sadly fall flat or because you have nothing better to do.

The strong textured voice narrating the beginning can be misleading. That is probably the only part of the film that builds up your hopes. After that, all comes crashing down.

Bhuria (Sunil Shetty with unruly long hair) finds the powerful Rudraksh that belonged to Ravana, the rakchhyas (demon) of the Hindu epic Ramayana, in an archaeological site in Sri Lanka. Obsessed with the powers, he begins wreaking havoc all over the world. He acts from Mumbai where Varun (Sanjya Dutt) must meet him.

Enter Varun with his unruly hair. Varun is the only man who has the powers to defeat Bhuria and the powers of the Rudraksh. Gayatri (Bipasha Basu) is a scientist who is conducting a study on paranormal and supernatural powers. She gets caught up in all the hungama that takes place.

The songs of Rudraksh are all commercially aimed and thus lack feeling. The direction is pathetic and the screenplay makes you want to bawl. Basically, a war between the good and the evil, the end is predictable. Mani Shankhar needs to do a lot of homework before he begins his next venture. The only aspect worth mentioning is the special effects, which unfortunately, does not make a movie. — HNS