Chakra Movie Review

After his blockbuster Irumbu Thirai, Vishal is back in the military man zone playing Subash Chandra Bose in this MS Anandan directorial. The promos have made it clear that Chakra is a cyber crime thriller and a cat & mouse game between a military man and a notorious gang. The first half is quite racy and we don’t have any diversions. Straightaway we dive into the core story and the chase. Around the halfway mark, there is the film’s main revelation about the lead villain. The second half doesn’t quite live up to the promise and the film turns out to be a long drawn out, dialog-heavy confrontation between the hero and the villain. The way Vishal (a military man) totally bosses over the cops and takes charge of the case isn’t convincing. The reason for his involvement (the theft of his dad’s military gallantry medal) is also not emotionally moving.

Coming to the performances, Chakra is home territory for Vishal. He looks sharp and smart as usual, and does a fair job in all the dialogue exchanges. Action scenes are his forte, and Chakra serves a few of his robust stunt moves too. Regina gets a role which she hasn’t ever played before. It’s a bold pick but the presentation of her scenes and character graph could’ve been better. Shraddha Srinath (playing a fit and fine cop) is totally sidelined by Vishal in all the key investigation sequences. Robo Shankar’s funny interventions fall flat.

Yuvan Shankar Raja is an expert at background scoring, as we all know. The ace composer doesn’t seem to have exerted much for Chakra, and it looks like an extension of his score in the brilliant Irumbu Thirai. Balasubramaniem’s work is adequate but pales in comparison to George C Williams work in Irumbu Thirai.

Chakra looks like another rant from ‘angry young man’ and ‘social crusader’ Vishal about Digital India, the way call centers expose the personal information of the public & how miscreants can misuse all this information. The film’s crisp runtime (2 hrs 11 mins) and the team’s decision to stay away from romance scenes and song-dance routines would be a big relief for the audience. Chakra Movie Review by Only Kollywood

Chakra Movie Review Rating: 2.75/5