Chakravyuh

Chakravyuh maintains an aggressive cinematic tone with sufficient stock of blood and action to dole, but is nothing more than an average action flick in the garb of relevant cinema, writes Sukanya Verma:

A dramatised account of real events is effective so long it is both expressive and informative in a sensible measure. But Prakash Jha's Chakravyuh, which builds its nucleus around the Naxalite activities in East of India, employs familiar ploys and plot points to credibly work as either.

Unlike Lal Salaam or Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, (human stories set against the same milieu) Chakravyuh maintains an aggressive cinematic tone with sufficient stock of blood and action to dole.

Explosive shoot-out sequences supplemented with a dose of filmi fury -- bleeding faces, snarling noses, gnashing teeth, grunting sounds, threatening looks and a bombastic background score, Chakravyuh has it all.

Sure, a couple of motivational speeches are offered in the stoic baritone of Arjun Rampal and articulate resolve of Manoj Bajpai [ Images ] to ascertain the ideology of both the inconsistent protectors of law as well as the voice of unreasonable revolution respectively.

But Jha, while undoubtedly well-informed about the troubles that plague these parts, fails to fashion a script that would truly document the complexity of the Naxal principles or their everyday struggle, the anxieties of a feeble law and order or the hardships of the tribal population caught in the conflict.

Except for skimming past this intense mass of difficulties against believable scenery, the director of Gangaajal, Apaharan, Raajneti and Aarakshan [ Images ] crams the film with foreseeable stereotypes of power hungry politicians, greedy industrialists, rapist cops and some insignificant characters such as Esha Gupta.
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