Chakravyuha: Barely bearable

Chakravyuha

is the

Kannada

remake of

Tamil

film

Ivan Veramathiri

. In hindsight, one wishes the old Ambareesh movie Chakravyuha was rebooted instead. Nonetheless, the film directed by M Saravanan is not a pushover. The fast-paced narration and stunning action sequences make it an interesting watch. If you expected Chakravyuha to be a landmark film because it was supposed to be Puneeth's 25th film, a little disappointment is to be endured.



The plot of Chakravyuha is straightforward and is revealed very early in the film. Our hero, a 'common man', is incensed enough at the corruption and murderous ways of the law minister that he abducts the minister's younger brother.He succeeds in getting the corrupt minister to resign and he is later jailed. The hero is faced with a tough task when the tide turns and he becomes the hunted. As gangsters led by the minister's younger brother close in on the hero's identity, he has to not only save himself but his mother and girlfriend. No prizes for guessing that he would eventually succeed, but not before engaging the baddies in gratuitous bouts of violence. The first half is almost realistic and there is no unnecessary demonstration of heroism. As the love track gets intertwined, it turns to being one more run-of-the-mill commercial masala film. The screenplay suffers from failing to establish whose point of view the story is seen from.

With the plot already revealed to the audience, it seems funny the lead character's name is not used till the very end.There is nothing left to unravel in the second half so it had to be filled with more action.

What compensates for the weak screenplay are the action sequences. Rangayana Raghu gets a real role after a long time and makes it count. Rachita Ram becomes integral to the story rather than a prop. Technically, the film is top class, but you expect more than that in a Puneeth film.