‘Chakra’ is the Tamil action thriller, produced and the lead role played by Vishal and written and directed by debutant MS Anandan. Shraddha Srinath pairs Vishal and the antagonist is Regina Cassandra. Srushti Dange, Robo Shankar, Nassar and Manobala play important roles and KR Vijaya, after a long time, plays the role of Vishal’s grandmother in the movie.
The story is about cyber crimes and robbery. On Independence Day, 50 houses of Chennai are robbed by a team and the 50th house being Vishal’s, who is an army officer. The stolen properties include the Ashok Chakra Medal of Vishal’s late father and the case is taken up by Assistant Commissioner Gayathri (Shraddha Srinath). Vishal joins with Shraddha Srinath in catching the thieves and whether they are able to succeed in the mission, is the rest of the story.
As Vishal suits to any kind of action stories, he suits well in this military officer role too. His tall personality is convincing and his neat performance without any exaggeration makes the movie worth watching. Shraddha Srinath, after ‘Nerkonda Paarvai’ and ‘Maara’, once again impresses us with her neat performance. Though Vishal does most of the actions meant for her, she utilizes the opportunities well and makes it delightful to watch her perform.
Regina Cassandra plays the antagonist, characterized as an unbeatable chess coach and a computer hacker, enters in the second half. She performs well and when we start getting attracted towards her character, the director disappoints us by not flushing out the character further. After a while, her skills are lost and the invincible chess coach is easily beaten by Vishal.
Srushti Dange has only a single scene. The character of Robo Shankar, the cop who doesn’t have any respect towards his higher officials, in the name of comedy, spoils the seriousness of certain scenes. The cop makes fun of the Commissioner, in front of him and the reality is tossed for fun.
The beautiful background score of Yuvan Shankar Raja is one of the pluses of the movie which makes us forget the length of the movie. There is only one song in the movie and that the narration is not hampered. The cinematography of Balasubramaniam is pleasant but not that effective in certain scenes.
The story seems to be inspired by Vishal’s earlier movie ‘Irumbuthirai’, but the writing is comparatively week at many places. The screenplay is not engaging and many scenes lag professionalism.
The movie is watchable, but lags engagement in the second half.
