Chakra (2021 film)

Chakra is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language action techno-thriller film written and directed by M. S. Anandan in his directorial debut. The film stars Vishal, Shraddha Srinath, and Regina Cassandra. The film's theme is based on cybercrime and e-commerce scams. where it revolves around two officers, who investigate the robberies that occurred on Independence Day. The film was perceived to be an unofficial stand-alone sequel to Irumbu Thirai due to the similar theme and ending between the two films.

The film was released theatrically on 19 February and received mixed reviews. The film became a moderate success at the box office.

Plot
Fifty robberies occurred on Independence Day, with two masked robbers looting houses and stealing expensive items totalling ₹70 million. The entire police force is clueless, without the slightest lead or evidence. The police assign ACP Gayathiri to the case investigation. Gayathri learns that the 50th house belongs to her ex-boyfriend Major Chandru. Chandru's grandmother gets injured in the theft in an attempt to safeguard the Ashoka Chakra medal, which the government bestowed on Chandru's late father. But the thieves stole the award.

Chandru joins Gayathri in the investigation to retrieve the medal and solve the case. Chandru checked the case details and information from the victims, only to realise that the robbers knew the exact location of jewellery and money in every house and swiftly carried out each robbery. Chandru lists the people who can access the homes and discovers that a company known as 'Dial For Help' may be involved in the case. They found a recurrent number belonging to Marimuthu servicing all 50 houses. The police rush to Marimuthu's house, only to find his wife there. Marimuthu's widow explains that her husband had died two years ago. Chandru, with no other clue, returns.

Meanwhile, a mysterious person calls the Commissioner and informs him that he is responsible for all the thefts thus far and challenges the entire force that no one can track him down. Accepting this as a challenge, Chandru tries to provoke the unknown person, who gives a clue to his location. They realise it refers to a place. They rush to the site only to find destroyed computers. Chandru heads back to share the clues. He reveals that the clue refers to the queen in chess and that the hacker had left a partial thumbprint on the scanner used to destroy all data. Chandru further informs that theft would occur in 58 more houses on August 23 due to the PM's arrival. So he cleverly places police officers inside the houses to be robbed. He informs that the hacker is a woman named Leela, a chess coach.

In a flashback, a young Leela loved her mother tremendously and had a strong bond with each other, but her alcoholic and abusive father tortured her mother. One day, Leela woke up to find her mother died while asleep. Her father immediately married another woman and arrived home with her two young sons. Later, she comes home one day to hear Leela's father reveal that he and his new wife had suffocated and killed Leela's mother while she was sleeping. Her mother tried to call an asleep Leela but failed to do so. An enraged Leela killed her father and stepmother by leaking water and electrocuting them, and she used her stepmother's two sons as baits for her thefts. She became an intelligent hacker by studying computer science. It was Leela who informed the brothers not to rob the houses, and she was the main mastermind behind the robberies.

Gayathri and Chandru repair their relationship after he apologises to Gayathri's uncle for slapping him. Chandru's grandmother gains consciousness and explains that she pleaded with the robbers not to take the medal. She even gave her nose ring, but the hard-hearted robbers kicked her against the robbers and took the nose stud. The brothers get arrested for bike theft. Gayathri beats up the brothers in an attempt for them to make them say their stepsister's name. However, the two brothers die after police shoot them for attacking and injuring Gayathri. A cat-and-mouse chase begins between Leela and Chandru, where Leela makes several attempts to kill Chandru, Gayathri and his team. Chandru manages to capture Leela, recover the stolen jewellery and money hidden in schoolbags at her friend Ganesh's house and hands her over to the police. He also retrieves his father's medal, which Leela buried in Chandru's garden. Chandru gets a call from Leela, who escapes and challenges him to another game.

Production
The film was initially touted to be the sequel of Vishal's previous action thriller hacker film Irumbu Thirai, which became a success at the box office in 2018. The film was rumored to be titled Irumbu Thirai 2 as the film genre was quite similar to the former. However the film was later titled as Chakra by the filmmakers as the film story revolves around Ashoka Chakra which is the highest peacetime military decoration in India. Veteran actress K. R. Vijaya made a comeback through this film after a sabbatical of three years. In preparation for their roles, both Shraddha Srinath and Regina Cassandra underwent training in martial arts and motorcycle riding, respectively.

Music
The film score has been composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja.
 * Harla Farla - Yuvan Shankar Raja, Sanjana Kalmanje
 * Amma - Chinmayi, Prarthana
 * Scream of darkness(Theme)

Theatrical
The film was initially supposed to have its theatrical release on 1 May 2020 coinciding with the May Day but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The film was released on 19 February 2021.

Box office
Chakra, made on a budget of ₹31.5 crore, collected ₹65 crore in its theatrical run. The film was a moderate success, despite reportedly incurring a loss of ₹3.5 crore.

Critical response
M Suganth of The Times of India gave the film 2.5/5, stating that the film was focused on momentary thrills, and it "feels rather tame." Sugandh added that weak writing let down Chakra. A reviewer from Sify termed the film "An average action thriller," rating it 2.5/5. On technical aspects, the reviewer wrote, "the background score of Yuvan Shankar Raja and visuals of Balasubramaniam are average." They opined that the MS Anandan's dialogues on Digital India and how the current generation losing their privacy through mobile phones and online shopping were done and dusted in Irumbu Thirai, and Robo Shankar's comic track was a needless addition.

The Hindu critic Srinivasa Ramanujan opined that the film "cashes in on a timely subject, but does little justice to it." He added: "The absence of a major romantic track and songs is a huge relief, as is the character arc of the villain, but certain key emotional elements get in the way a tad too many times,".

Controversies
The Madras High Court issued a temporary stay order preventing the release of the film over copyright claims. Trident Arts studio which was initially offered to produce the film filed complaint at the High Court stating that the story of the film was initially narrated to them by the film director. It was revealed that the producer of Trident Arts, Ravi entered a contract with the director Anandan to produce the film. However, the production was later handed over to Vishal Film Factory without the consent of Trident Arts. In addition, Madras HC urged Vishal to pay compensation for the losses incurred by the producer of his previous film Action. The dispute between Trident Arts and Vishal Film Factory was solved just days before the film's release.