Chakra Movie Review

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Actor Vishal’s mass action entertainer Chakra has finally hit the screens. Usually his films run in to financial tussle before its release. But this time around there was much drama equally outside the flick as well. Of late making a sequel for a hit film has become a trend in Tamil cinema. It seems like actor Vishal has also been infected by that trend. When the trailer of Chakra first hit the internet, the audience passed comments that it looks similar to Irumbu Thirai. And now their speculations have turned partially right! Irumbu Thirai was the actor’s last film that enjoyed a decent commercial success. Unfortunately the flicks followed that did not do well in terms of business. Hence the action star has resorted to one of his hit flicks to sail back to the winning zone. Thus, he has made a film that looks like a sequel to Irumbu Thirai. But statistically sequels have not worked well in Tamil cinema. But is actor Vishal’s Chakra solid enough to beat that statistics? To know let us get in to the movie review.

The film opens to a busy and auspicious day of Chennai city. The city is gearing up to celebrate the Independence Day of India and the entire police department is focused in offering security measures to the political leaders. Using this as an opportunity a clearly sketched robbery takes place targeting the residence with elderly people. Same two masked robbers enter each house with one taking care of robbing while the other keeps the people of the house under control. After the robbery every resident attempts to reach the police leading to a chaos in the control room. The police officials arrive to the robbery points to learn that a total of 50 houses have been robbed in the similar fashion. The commissioner of police appoints Gayathri (Shraddha Srinath), a cop known for her case solving ability to the case. On further investigation Gayathri comes to know that her ex-boyfriend Chandru’s (Vishal) house was also one among the houses that were robbed. Part of robbery was the Ashoka Chakra medal awarded to Chandru’s father which the family considers prestigious.

Chandru is a military officer posted away from Chennai. When his grandmother misses to pick up his casual call, his instincts tells him that something is wrong. He flies to Chennai. He is informed of the robbery. And when he learns that his grandmother has been injured during the robbery, naturally his blood pressure shoots up. He swears to find the robber and in process break few bones. Now you might question the credibility of a military man being part of the investigation. For those of you Chakra could be a real nuisance. The mastermind behind the robbery eliminates all possible clues that might lead back to him/her through cyber technology and challenges the police department to find him/her. Chandru and Gayathri team up to do what the entire police force could not do.

Will Chandru and Gayathri be successful in their attempt, will Chandru get back his father’s Ashoka Chakra medal, who is the mastermind for the robbery and how they managed to pull off such a robbery, is what makes the rest of the flick.

By seeing the trailer most people were under the impression that they were in for Irumbu Thirai 2. But after watching Chakra, it looks like actor Vishal wanted to make a film like Irumbu Thirai but with typical elements of a Vishal flick – unnecessarily loud and less intelligence. Chakra wants to be an edge of the seat cyber crime thriller but ends up merely being a loud action film. Director Anandan’s writing has let down the film to a level that is beyond saving. There are too many loopholes and an army officer heading a police investigation is the least to bother about. Tamil cinema industry is a medium where women characters are generally weakly written. Chakra upholds that quite firmly. When there is an action hero in the movie, a heroine cannot save the city on her own even when she is an incumbent police officer. Just like Irumbu Thirai, Chakra had the possibility of sketching a powerful antagonist but for some reasons the story teller has not gone for it.

Actor Vishal is apt to don the role of a military officer and as usual shines in his favorite action department. Actress Shraddha Srinath has bagged a weak role and even her absence in the film would not have reflected in the plot in any way. Actress Regina Cassandra has put herself in a promising role but could have done better with her performance. Comedian Robo Shankar’s one-liners are not comedy but a tragedy. The rest of the cast is adequate for the entertainer.

On the technical front, music director Yuvan Shankar Raja is not at his best and his tracks and BGM’s are not effective. Cinematographer KT Balasubramaniyam’s visuals are middling. Editor Thiyagu has made efforts to make the flick pacy with his sharp editing.

On the whole Chakra lacks a solid plot as well as the necessary cleverness to be an entertaining cyber crime thriller.