Chakra (2021 film)
Chakra () is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by MS Anandan in his directorial debut. It is an stand-alone sequel to Irumbu Thirai. The film stars Vishal and Shraddha Srinath in the lead roles while Regina Cassandra played the antagonist. Themed on cybercrimes and e-commerce scams, the film follows a soldier and a police officer who work together to bring down a cyber hacker. The film was released theatrically on 19 February 2021, the film opened to mixed to positive reviews, who appreciated performance of Vishal and Regina, visuals, cinematography  and music, but criticism for writing and pace. The film was an average at the box office Plot. 50 robberies occurred on August 15th - Independence Day, with two masked robbers looting houses. The entire police force is clueless without the slightest lead or evidence. Assistant Commissioner Gayathiri (Sharaddha Srinath) is assigned to the case. She realizes that 50 houses were looted in total, with the 50th being the house of Chandru (Vishal), her former love interest. Chandru's grandmother (K. R. Vijaya) gets injured in the theft in an attempt to safeguard the Ashoka Chakra medal, which was bestowed to  Chandru's late father (Nassar). However, the thieves knocked her down and stole the medal. Now, it is Chandru's personal mission to avenge them, retrieve the medal, and solve the case. Chandru looks back at the case details and information from the victims to realize that the robbers had known the exact location of money and jewels in every house. He deduces that the robbers had visited every house beforehand and planned the theft to perfection. Hence, he writes down a list of people who can get access to people's houses and realizes that a company known as  Dial For Help, which provides household services like technicians, plumbers, etc., may be involved in the case. Hence, he heads to the headquarters and realizes that all 50 houses had been serviced by the company under a common number belonging to a man named Marimuthu. Police rush to his house, only to find him already dead. Marimuthu's widow explains that her husband was a good man who had died two years ago. Chandru, with no other clue, returns. Meanwhile, an unknown person calls the Police Commissioner (Vijay Babu) and informs him that he was responsible for all the thefts  thus far. He also challenges the entire force that no one would be able to track him down. Accepting this as a challenge, Chandru tries to provoke the unknown person, which appears to be successful as he gives a clue to his location - 00100. The police realize that it refers to a place, and they rush to the place, only to find destroyed computers. Chandru reveals that he knew the person would have left, but he only rushed to find any clue that he may have left. After some time, Chandru heads back to share his findings. He reveals that  the number 00100 was written on the walls in that place and that it was drawn in such a way that refers to the queen in chess, and that the hacker had left a partial thumbprint on the scanner used to destroy all data. He further reveals that theft would occur in 58 more houses on August 23rd due to the PM's arrival. Lastly, Chandru deducts that the hacker they were searching for was not a man, but a woman. The unknown hacker is revealed to be Leela (Regina Cassandra), who works as a chess coach. A flashback shows  that a young Leela (Baby Krithika) had loved her mother (Neelima Rani) tremendously, and both of them had a tight bond. Her alcoholic and abusive father (Aruldoss) tortures her mother every day. One day, Leela wakes up to find her mother died while in her sleep. Her father immediately marries another woman and brings with her two young sons. Later Leela's father reveals that he and his new wife had suffocated and killed Leela's mother. An enraged Leela kills both her father and stepmother using electricity and water. She uses her stepmother's two sons as baits for  her thefts. Next, a cat-and-mouse chase begins between Leela and Chandru, in which Chandru wins. The movie ends with an open end for a sequel where Leela challenges Chandru by uttering the words "The game has just begun". 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. Release. 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. Home media. The satellite rights sold by Kalaignar TV. The film was simultaneously released on 19 February 2021 along with its dubbed versions in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi as "Chakra Ka Rakshak" (English: The Protector of Chakra). Reception. Box office. "Chakra", made on a budget of 31.5 crore, collected 65 crore 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. Copyright issues. 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 actor 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.