Chakravyuh: A powerful mount

Chakravyuh
Starring: Om Puri, Manoj Bajpai, Abhay Deol, Arjun Rampal
At: PVR & others
Rated: 7/10
Prakash Jha mounts are keenly awaited and mostly serenaded. Chakravyuh is no different. It has a simmering topicality, several reality bites, an expansive canvas and an issue that has gobbled up more than half of India — without a solution.
Jha tries his best to not take sides here but, in the end, much like his protagonist Abhay Deol, he gets caught in the romanticism of a struggle for the unpossessed. He does give a keen look to the system which has allowed the Maoists to spread and the report card that he brings home to the viewers is not good at all for the establishment.
Much like a firebrand Naxalite, he shows up the system for what it is — corrupt, incestuous with business and politics and ruthless with a law enforcement machinery crying for reform and sensitivity.
Arjun Rampal as the upright police officer on the trail of notorious Naxal leaders in the badlands of Madhya Pradesh, besides looking like an advert for a weight loss company, also stands out as an oddity in a police force which is a concubine of its political masters. However, Jha does well to portray the keen sense of duty that is still not dead among a few of our officers, and through that also laments the constant deaths of police officers engaged in Naxal operations.
It is one story where a balanced approach struggled to work as it is an issue which compels you to take sides — you are either with the taking-up-arms philosophy or you are against it. But if you are a tribal in this war zone, you really have no future ahead of this vicious circle of a decadent administration and a ruthless red movement.
As far as the reality bite goes, Jha is brilliant with his observations. The shades of ruthlessness and commitment that he gives to his main Naxal commander in Manoj Bajpai are speaking glimpses of what goes on in the jungles of India today. He is one man who can cold-bloodedly chop off an ear of a tribal who has been swayed by the police. He can also cry like a baby over a movement being busted by the cops.
Jha has chosen his characters with care. Abhay Deol as a police informer who turns over to the Naxal side, ditching his friend Rampal, is perfectly nuanced though you feel the need to have more of him. Esha Gupta is a mere adornment, out of place in this rugged scenario.
Chakravyuh is a powerful portrayal of the Naxal issue and why it is on a point of no-return.
Source: Published in Sunday Pioneer on 28 October, 2012

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