Chakra is an action thriller written and directed by MS Anandan, starring Vishal and Shraddha Srinath in the lead roles, while Regina Cassandra plays the antagonist. The film is bankrolled by Vishal himself under the banner Vishal Film Factory, and has Yuvan Shankar Raja as the music director.
Chakra is a film that deals with the concept of cyber crimes and hacking and Vishal has already acted in a movie similar to this - Irumbuthirai, and comparison to that is inevitable. One of the reasons why Irumbuthirai worked well was that Vishal had a formidable antagonist in the form of Arjun, and both their characters were well sketched. And this is exactly what didn't excite much in Chakra.
Vishal plays the role of an Army Officer, who returns to Chennai after a robbery on Independence day leads to his father's Ashoka Chakra medal being stolen, along with jewels and cash from 49 other houses. Shraddha Srinath plays a cop, and she's the one handling the theft case. How they both catch the thief forms the rest of the plot.
Regina Cassandra as Leela, a chess coach and computer hacker is the villain here. The name given to her character is quite interesting, because Leela is also the name of the world's strongest chess computer. Though she acts well and tries to make us invest into the character, her arc is shaky and isn't fleshed out well. After a certain point, we don't see any of her hacking skills, which raises the question, why was she characterised like that in the first place.
It's okay for a commercial film like this to take cinematic liberties but in this case, the writing is not very strong and too convenient. We don't see any transformation in the characters, they are one note right from the start, and this suspends realism in the film. For instance, it is registered that Leela (Regina Cassandra) is a strong chess player and is almost invincible. But what makes Chandru (Vishal) defeat her so easily hangs as a big question mark.
Vishal has acted as army/police officers in the past and he looks convincing as Chandru. He comes up with a neat, measured performance and that's one of the biggest positives. Huge physique also lends a lot of credibility to the role. Shraddha Srinath once again comes up with a clean performance, as Gayathri. She has her own moments in the film and she completely owns them like a boss. Not a complaint, but she could have had more screen time just for the joy of watching her act.
Yuvan Shankar Raja's background score is one of the reasons why we are able to sit through the entire runtime of the film. The minimal number of songs also helps the film's cause. Balasubramaniam's cinematography complements the film well, but could have been better in a couple of scenes, like Vishal's introduction scene.
The runtime of the film is also one of the major issues, as it should have ended at least 15-20 minutes before where it actually ends. The film runs out of steam in the fag end and it's visible. As mentioned earlier, all this is a result of lack of interesting points in the writing, that causes a huge drop in engagement.
The film has an open ending that's very similar to Irumbuthirai. However it's hard to understand the need for it. It looks like it's been added just for the sake of it. With some above par technical work and good actors as a part of the cast, Chakra should have been a great film, but then great films also require solid writing and that reduces Chakra to a strict one-time watch.