Purveyors of good Indian cinema rejoice; Prakash Jha's latest directorial venture "Chakravyuh" has just hit the hustings and given an added fillip to the rank and file of meaningful and socially relevant cinema after the recent Barfi! and English Vinglish.....
Essentially a tale of three really close friends Adil (Arjun Rampal), Kabir (Abhay Deol) and Rhea (Esha Gupta); this two hour and twenty minute poignant, stark yet heart rending saga begins with a prologue that succintly narrates how the naxalite movement is spreading it's roots amidst our rural societies and thereby constantly eroding the existing mores of our social fabric and structure.......
This incessant war that has spread to almost six hundred or then was it nine hundred plus districts over twenty states is one that is being fought between the government machinery and state administration (read police both state as well as central para military forces) and the have nots or deprived sections of our society represented by the Naxalites........
This movement that was initially restricted to a few pocket boroughs spread across the states of Bihar, Bengal and Chhattisgarh has steadily assumed massive and gargantuan poroprtions and cannot be ignored by the government in particular and nation in general any longer.........
Coming back to the plot, the three close friends enroll themselves in the national police academy, but as is his wont the hot headed Abhay Deol soon finds himself on the wrong side of the powers that be within the same and terminates his romance with the police force even before it can begin to blossom.....
The film then traces the budding romantic liasion between the two other leading protagonists, their acceptance into and progression within the ranks of the police force and normal everyday routines before matters come to a head with Kabir's re-entry into their tepid lives during a college reunion.....
As a mark of his friendship and undying devotion towards his friends, the innocent and non suspecting Kabir volunteers his services as an undercover "COP" who will penetrate the ranks of the dreaded Naxalites thereby netting the much vaunted scalp of the much wanted Naxalite chief Rajan (Manoj Bajpai) whom Adil has failed to ensnare despite numerous efforts in this direction........
The action then shifts to the rural hinterland or more precisely a location called Nandighat; Kabir's constant and increasingly growing interactions with the Naxalites forces him into questioning his motives and shifting this sympathies towards the other side, so much so, that he soon develops a romantic (?) relationship with newbie Anjali Patil, a female naxalite who can lay claim to the scalps of 49 nine police wallahs.......
What follows is a vortex of violence and human emotions, the limits of friendship and devotion to duty and nation are thereby severely tested, with the underlying tension building up towards a rather poignant and heart rending climax that well and truly does tear the heart asunder.......
A word about the cast is surely in order: Abhay Deol and newbie Anjali Patil surely take the cake if not the entire bakery and Arjun Rampal and Ms. Esha Gupta are just a couple of steps behind; the ensemble supporting cast comprising of such stalwarts like Om Puri and Manoj Bajpai is what really makes this monumental effort the tour de force that it goes on to become within a span of a little over two and a quarter hours....
The lilting and topical music, lyrics and stark yet rivetting cimemtaography add an added dimension to the fast unfolding proceedings and essay the role of an added character in the narration of events......
Jha's biggest triumph lies in the fact that he has not romatcicised his characters and made them larger than life in the bargain; the amount of research that went into the making of this magnum opus is truly commendable and this epochal effort will well and truly go down in history as one of the finest efforts to have emerged from Prakash Jha's stables in the last decade and more.......
RATING:4/5........SURELY A MUST WATCH FOR ALL PURVEYORS OF SOCIO-POLITICAL CINEMA AND ALL STUDENTS OF GOOD CINEMA, IRRESPECTIVE OF EITHER THE LANGUAGE OR GENRE................
Essentially a tale of three really close friends Adil (Arjun Rampal), Kabir (Abhay Deol) and Rhea (Esha Gupta); this two hour and twenty minute poignant, stark yet heart rending saga begins with a prologue that succintly narrates how the naxalite movement is spreading it's roots amidst our rural societies and thereby constantly eroding the existing mores of our social fabric and structure.......
This incessant war that has spread to almost six hundred or then was it nine hundred plus districts over twenty states is one that is being fought between the government machinery and state administration (read police both state as well as central para military forces) and the have nots or deprived sections of our society represented by the Naxalites........
This movement that was initially restricted to a few pocket boroughs spread across the states of Bihar, Bengal and Chhattisgarh has steadily assumed massive and gargantuan poroprtions and cannot be ignored by the government in particular and nation in general any longer.........
Coming back to the plot, the three close friends enroll themselves in the national police academy, but as is his wont the hot headed Abhay Deol soon finds himself on the wrong side of the powers that be within the same and terminates his romance with the police force even before it can begin to blossom.....
The film then traces the budding romantic liasion between the two other leading protagonists, their acceptance into and progression within the ranks of the police force and normal everyday routines before matters come to a head with Kabir's re-entry into their tepid lives during a college reunion.....
As a mark of his friendship and undying devotion towards his friends, the innocent and non suspecting Kabir volunteers his services as an undercover "COP" who will penetrate the ranks of the dreaded Naxalites thereby netting the much vaunted scalp of the much wanted Naxalite chief Rajan (Manoj Bajpai) whom Adil has failed to ensnare despite numerous efforts in this direction........
The action then shifts to the rural hinterland or more precisely a location called Nandighat; Kabir's constant and increasingly growing interactions with the Naxalites forces him into questioning his motives and shifting this sympathies towards the other side, so much so, that he soon develops a romantic (?) relationship with newbie Anjali Patil, a female naxalite who can lay claim to the scalps of 49 nine police wallahs.......
What follows is a vortex of violence and human emotions, the limits of friendship and devotion to duty and nation are thereby severely tested, with the underlying tension building up towards a rather poignant and heart rending climax that well and truly does tear the heart asunder.......
A word about the cast is surely in order: Abhay Deol and newbie Anjali Patil surely take the cake if not the entire bakery and Arjun Rampal and Ms. Esha Gupta are just a couple of steps behind; the ensemble supporting cast comprising of such stalwarts like Om Puri and Manoj Bajpai is what really makes this monumental effort the tour de force that it goes on to become within a span of a little over two and a quarter hours....
The lilting and topical music, lyrics and stark yet rivetting cimemtaography add an added dimension to the fast unfolding proceedings and essay the role of an added character in the narration of events......
Jha's biggest triumph lies in the fact that he has not romatcicised his characters and made them larger than life in the bargain; the amount of research that went into the making of this magnum opus is truly commendable and this epochal effort will well and truly go down in history as one of the finest efforts to have emerged from Prakash Jha's stables in the last decade and more.......
RATING:4/5........SURELY A MUST WATCH FOR ALL PURVEYORS OF SOCIO-POLITICAL CINEMA AND ALL STUDENTS OF GOOD CINEMA, IRRESPECTIVE OF EITHER THE LANGUAGE OR GENRE................
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