Narasimha Reddy, a local politician, is a powerful man in the area. His close associate Veera Bhadra is his trustwothy ally for his political work, to the extent that Narasimha Reddy gives him freedom to contest Jilla Parishad polls with his men. Veera Bhadra champions the causes of the poor and oppressed and they look up to him like their leader. Nagamuni Reddy, who is the local MLA of the district and close to Narasimha Reddy, becomes jealous of the budding trust between Veera Bhadra and Narasimha Reddy, and starts poisoning Narasimha Reddy against Veera Bhadra. Narasimha summons Veera Bhadra and asks him not to contest the polls with his contestants, but rather support Nagamuni Reddy's. Veera Bhadra lashes out at Narasimha Reddy for being unfair to the underprivileged communities and storms out. Nagamuni Reddy calls for Manda, a close follower of Veerabhadra, and manipulates him into killing Veerabhadra, giving him the assurance that if he does it, people will suspect the policies of Veera Bhadra as his own follower killed him and he will be the next in line as the leader of the poor people, else take his life. Manda reluctantly agrees to it. Veerabhadra and his wife travel in a bus with 40 people to a wedding. Manda and Nagamani's men stop the bus, kill Veerabhadra's guards, and tell him to step out of the bus or else he will be killed along with the other innocents on the bus. Veera Bhadra comes out, looking at Manda, and dares him to kill. Nagamani's henchman Durga shoots at Veerabhadra, making it look like Manda shot at him; prompting Manda about the deal he made with Nagamani, he tells him to kill him in front of everyone. Manda takes a boulder and crushes Veerabhadra's skull and kills him. This results in an agitation led by Shankar, who wants to avenge his father's murder by killing all the men of Nagamani and Narasimha Reddy. Enter Nagamuni's son Bukka Reddy, described as a ruthless man who enjoys raping women and killing men in brutal ways. He starts killing Shankar's men in gory ways: drilling a hole into their skull, chopping off their heads with a sugarcane chopper, burning them alive and feeding them to ravenous rats. Pratap Ravi, who is in college in the city of Anantapur, gets the news of his father's murder and rushes to the village. Nagamani Reddy orders the local police inspector to kill Shankar in a fake encounter. When Pratap Ravi goes to the police station to ask about his brother, the inspector shows him Shankar's dead body and mocks him. Infuriated with his brother's murder, Pratap Ravi and Veerabhadra's men kill all the police officers and the inspector. Pratap Ravi hides in the jungle with his father's associates and vows to kill Narsimha Reddy, Nagamuni Reddy and Manda one by one, instilling fear of death in each one of them. He starts by busting in the house of Narasimha Reddy, killing his guards and finally killing him with a scythe in front of his wife as she looks on in horror. Next is Manda; as he roams in the market, Pratap's men follow him, and before he can defend himself, they chop his hand off. Manda begs for his life but Pratap stabs him in front of everyone. They plan to kill Nagamuni Reddy, but they are cautious as there is heavy police security in his house. As Nagamani Reddy is sitting on his lawn conversing with a police officer, he is shot at by Pratap, who is dressed as the cop, and his men, dressed as cops as well, kill most of the policemen. The story progresses as famed filmstar-turned-politician Shivaji Rao targets Anantapur for contesting elections. The day he enters Anantapur for the rally, Bukka Reddy's men throw bombs, which makes Shivaji Rao get back inside the car and go back. This insults him greatly and he asks his secretary for the one who can stop Bukka Reddy. Immediately, his secretary mentions Pratap Ravi's name; Shivaji Rao sends for him and puts down a proposal of joining his party and ticket for contesting elections. On the other hand, Bukka Reddy makes his brother Puru Reddy contest for elections and tries to sabotage the voting process by stealing the ballots. Pratap starts his rampage by eliminating, one by one, every rival of his party. Eventually, he comes across a man named Babu Qadri who seeks Pratap's help in avenging his sister's death. Bukka Reddy had raped his 16-year-old sister, because of which she immolated herself, and Bukka had then broken Babu Qadri's leg. Pratap assures him his vengeance but asks him to forget everything for some time. As Bukka Reddy's men fail in rigging the election process, Pratap Ravi wins by a majority. Immediately, Bukka Reddy is arrested. Bukka, inflamed with the desire to avenge his father's death, hides out in an apartment with his men, and plots to kill Pratap Ravi. Pratap comes to know about his hideout devises a plan to execute him. He immediately gathers his men and calls Babu Qadri, who had sought Pratap's help in avenging his sister, to lead the execution of Bukka Reddy. He calls for the servant of Bukka Reddy and bribes him with 500,000 to aid in the execution. Babu Qadri and Pratap's men rush into the apartment, killing all Bukka's men; then killing Bukka Reddy with an axe.
Vivek Oberoi's performance in the role of Paritala Ravi drew widespread praise, while Abhimanyu Singh's devious turn as Bukka Reddy, modelled on the real-life Obul Reddy, was regarded as one of the most terrifying villainous acts captured on celluloid in a long time. Renuka Rao of DNA India gave the movie 4 stars in a scale of 5, concluding that RGV has surprisingly thrown at the audience a film that could actually evoke some emotions in you. A must, must watch." Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the movie 4 stars in a scale of 5, saying that "On the whole, RAKHT CHARITRA is not for the faint-hearted or the lily-livered. The violence, the blood and gore depicted in the film will shock and disconcert you, which only goes to establish as to how proficiently the subject material has been treated." Nikhat Kazmi of Times of India gave the movie 3 stars out of 5, stating that "Rakta Charitra holds up a brutal mirror on the muck that masquerades as democracy in India." Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave the movie 3 out of 5 stars, noting that "Rakta Charitra is a bold, disturbing film that’s bursting with the kind of confidence we haven’t seen from the filmmaker recently. If the sight of blood doesn’t make you uncomfortable, chances are you’ll enjoy this film." Kittu Singh of Rediff gave the movie 2.5 out of 5, writing that "Once the film is over you realise that all Rakta Charitra has been is a two-hour promotional fare for Rakta Charitra 2. Yes, there is more to come." Anupama Chopra of NDTV gave the movie 2.5 stars in a scale of 5 stars. Shubhra Gupta of Indian Express gave the movie 2.5 stars out of 5, and wrote that "It is an interesting story, and Oberoi, re-united with RGV after Company does a good job as Ravi. But the blood overtakes it all: Rakta Charitra is not for the faint-hearted."
