Review for Chakra:
•Language: TAMIL.
•Duration: 140 MINUTES.
•Genre: CRIME THRILLER.
• REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI.R.VALIYAVEETIL.
•POSITIVES:
1: PERFORMANCE OF ACTORS.
2: CINEMATOGRAPHY.
3: BACKGROUND SCORE.
4: EDITING.
5: ACTION AND STUNTS.
•NEGATIVES:
1: AVERAGE DIRECTION.
2: PREDICTABLE STORY.
3: MEDIOCRE SCREENPLAY.
4: WRONG CHOICE OF ACTORS.
•ONE WORD: A crime thriller that failed to impress, an average movie for a time pass.
Chakra is directed by the newcomer MS Anandan who also handles the story, screenplay and dialogues. The movie is produced by the actor Vishal and the film comes under the production of Vishal’s owned production house called Vishal Film Factory. The movie has the star cast of Vishal playing as a hero and Shraddha Srinath playing as the heroine. Regina Cassandra joins the casting to play a very crucial role and Robo Shankar, Manobala, K.R Vijaya and Srushti Dange join in the further casting. Yuvan Shankar Raja composes the music and KT Balasubramaniyam handles the cinematography. After several issues faced in theatrical release, the film managed to release on the fixed date of 19th February and the Hindi version of the film is distributed by B4U Motion Pictures.
Firstly without any kind of hesitation, I would say the movie is just average in all aspects because of its predictable way of making. The movie is all about like a cat and mouse play, hero in search of his father’s stolen Ashoka Chakra where he meets with many hurdles to find it back, his various path, challenges he faces and his fights to keep his promise portrays the rest of the story. While watching it’s clear that it’s won’t be the hero, the audience will be searching for something to get engaged and to be a part of this ridiculous joinery. The movie begins with a massive robbery happening in Chennai city on Independence Day, during the day 50 robberies will be happening in a different part of the city. Due to the different duties, police officials find themselves to coordinate to stop the robberies. Nearly equivalent to 7 Crore of money and ornaments get robbed. Therefore city commissioner appoints a special team to find the culprits. Soon Encounter specialist Assistant Commissioner Gayathri is appointed to investigate, and her former lover Major Subash Chandra Bose also called Chandru joins her to investigate because his family is also a victim among the fifty massive robberies. Two of them starts their journey with a team and will they able to find the culprits or can he save the upcoming hazards are the rest of the story. To clarify in a single word it’s simple, neither hero nor anyone can save anything because the whole movie is like a sinking ship that continuing its loose journey without any hope.
From the writing to the making everything was a failure, the story was pretty ok for a crime thriller but they way the maker MS Anandan had executed the screenplay was pathetic and miserable. All the event is written in the script was completely predictable from the beginning till the end. I was wondering by the horrible direction of M.S Anandan, his making was too overdramatic and the boring way of making was awful and unpleasant to watch. The main problem is the story, the plot looks ordinary but still, it was having many chances to create moments between hero and villain but sadly nothing was used effectively to maintain the decorum. Those incidents which I saw on the screen is something that we can see on low budget short movies and teleserials all the happenings was immature and executed as silly. Hero running all over the film till it ends and he is the one who only finds the solution and also he is the one who knows the villain’s next move was found as usual without any sort of uniqueness. Another irritating and annoying thing is the writing of stages of the story, from incidents to incidents nothing seems to be genuine, no one needs to give extra strength to their brains to find the twist and turns while watching itself can realise what is going to be shown, everything is predictable as well as respective of many crime thrillers like this.
The poor writing also affects the viewing experience, at many times I found the movie is getting and giving boring, had to keep on telling myself to sit back and hold to know the ultimate ending. Now I regret it, the worst climax was equally made, was shocked to see the silly climax. The character development was also below average, the motives and life lack depth. Hero and heroine exchanging words and telling that they love each other, no clarification or neither any sort of development was made, explanation on how they fell love each other was too cliche as well unthinkable, felt like the maker is forcing the audience to believe what they are intended to. Also, a routine formula that follows on investigating film were supporting police officers cracking jokes in a serious situation and trying to laugh the viewers follows here without any reluctance which was intolerable and painful to watch. The most illogical factor in the writing is the writers get confused on who is the real investigator, to conduct the investigation heroine as the ASP only have the ordinance but here its opposite heroine is always been as an assistant to help the hero. Hero telling her not to do that, not to think like that, not to go there like that, have to do like this etc are the things happening throughout the film and also every police officers including higher officials are obeying and doing what he just says, was totally absurd and disgusting to watch. Even if the hero is from the military and has a major rank which government or missionary allows this, is he the only brained person in the Tamil Nadu state, should go ask the director whether it’s intentionally made or not, if it purposely then it’s complete funny.
Sometimes the hero or heroine can fail to influence a and a cunning villain can impress, I was expecting a power-packed smart and badass villain but all those expectations were killed by the very first appearance, it was not about the revealed person it is all about the actions which the character portrayed. A proper justification on why she does, just like the same reason everything ends up on money, the motive is all for being rich. The past story of the villain was interesting but the reasons why she turned out to be a villain in future lacks depth and intensity because the events that are shown in the past haven’t got any connections to justify the present life and reason why to have a life like this. So like said the character development was written poorly and the usual formula is still following without any reluctance. I also wonder why the director had avoided the songs, they were a couple of spaces to add songs but was not used, if the tracks were added it would have improved to show the romance and life events of hero and heroine. Moreover, this can’t be skipped off, the director had also fallen in choosing the right actors.
Shraddha Sreenath is an awesome actress and her recent films and performance were beautiful to watch but sadly not in this movie. She had undertaken the character of an Assistant Commissioner who is also an Encounter specialist, honestly, she was not the right person to do the job. She tried her best, but the attitude and qualities which a police officer needs was not seen in her skills. She is a very good actress in recent time who does unique selective characters but this selection was wrong, the director could have approached someone or she should have avoided it. Still, she manages to do her best and the actions were quite ok but overall the performance needs more profoundness and depth. Vishal as Chandru, the Major from the military did a nice job. His dialogue delivery was impressive and also scores brilliantly at actions. The style he had in his fights were thrilling to watch and the overall performance was amazing. Robo Shankar’s assisting police character was felt overdramatic, a role for smacking unwanted jokes and sadly none of the humour was worked out to bring the laugh. Srushti Dange comes with a cameo role with over make on her face, the person who did her dubbing made her performance dull, still, she survived to give a decent performance. Manobala as the guardian of the heroine was just average, the supporting role was just fine, with nothing much to elaborate on. K.R Vijaya as the mother did a great job, her emotional performance with Vishal showed love and affection.
The technical department had tried its maximum to hold the movie from its fall. The cinematography of
KT Balasubramaniyam was excellent. There are many stunning frames, especially at the action sequences. The movements he had done for capturing the fight sequences were incredible. Also, the close up frames in actions were amazing, the action sequence in the climax was taken brilliantly. As a night scene, the lighting methods which he had implemented was favourable to set the scene. Some of the close-up shots of Shraddha Srinath was also taken beautifully and the wide-angle frames of city shots were fair. The background score tuned by Yuvan Shankar Raja was extraordinary, even though the impact was less on most crucial scenes his background score had helped to endure the grasp. Also, the background tunes at action sequences were flawlessly executed to chill, the emotional background tunes were also matching for the scenes. The editing of Thiyagu was crisp and clear, the cuts were accurate without giving mismatches, a slight fault was felt at the scene where he trimmed when the song was going to began.
So overall to conclude Chakra had given me a disappointing viewing experience in all manner, the predictable way of making, the usual way of writing the plot and the unworked screenplay made the whole viewing experience dull and boring. I won’t personally recommend this film, but if you have one fifty rupees or more than to spend for a time pass you can take the tickets but still remember to watch with fewer expectations.
• VERDICT: BELOW AVERAGE.
• RATING: 2/5.
