After the principal of a law college refuses to give admission to 20-odd students ‘recommended’ by the law minister under what he calls a ‘minister’s quota’, an angry minister engineers a riot in the college. Gruesome violence ensues.
Enter Lohith (Puneeth Rajkumar), a passerby who takes one of the students to the hospital. When his friend suggests that he shouldn’t get involved, Lohith simply says that as a citizen, he cannot watch such injustice.
Without any context or introduction to his characters, M. Saravanan’s Chakravyuha thus plunges us into a common man-versus-the system plot. Saravanan’s characters are mere types - the minister is the most evil man on earth and his common man is a born vigilante.
In order to force the law minister to surrender to the police, Lohith kidnaps his younger brother, Omkar (Arun Vijay). The minister surrenders and Omkar is released but Lohith now has to handle the wrath of the minister family.
Just as one is wondering what the police and the legal machinery is up to, enters an Assistant Commissioner of Police (Rangayana Raghu), who joins the chase-cum-revenge saga. In classic cinematic timing, he reaches way after Lohith has done what he has to do. In a problematic climax, we see the police officer saluting Lohith, whose ticket to glory is the fact that he took the law into his own hands.
Somewhere in the middle of all this is a love story too between Lohith and Anjali (Rachita Ram).
Anjali falls for his vigilantism (because like her even we do not know anything else about him) and then pursues Lohith. She is also the catalyst for the final climax and Saravanan casts her as a damsel in distress waiting to be rescued by Lohith.
What Chakravyuha deserves credit for is the action and chase sequences which are well-crafted. Rachita Ram plays the stereotypical sweet heroine. Puneeth as the no-nonsense vigilante has a no-nonsense expression most of the time. To ensure a regular dose of misogyny in the masala film, Sadhu Kokila plays a lecherous man. Chakravyuha aspires to be a ‘message film’- that as citizens of a society, we have a responsibility to do good. But the fact that ‘good’ involves taking the law into one’s hands is a little difficult to digest. Yes, don’t underestimate the power of the common man, but don’t overestimate it too, right?
Chakravyuha (Kannada)
Director: M. Saravanan
Cast: Puneeth Rajkumar, Rachita Ram, Rangayana Raghu, Arun Vijay, Sadhu Kokila
