Chakravyuh

All his films may not always succeed completely in what he is trying to convey but there is no denying that Prakash Jha is a brilliant, thought provoking director. In his every film, he picks up a sensitive and socially relevant issue and raises uncomfortable questions on the same by way of an engaging and interesting story around it. This time he takes up a critical and strong subject of naxalism.
The film is about an honest and brave cop who is assigned the task of fighting naxalites and his friend, who he sends amongst them as an informer to catch their leader. And how this friend eventually becomes a rebel himself while living with them and starts counter fighting the police.
While the story about friends turning rivals isn't new, what makes it interesting and different is the backdrop of naxalism that is explored probably for the first time in bollywood. For most of us living in metro cities miles away from terror affected states and districts, the film throws a balanced view on naxals and their victims. While it shows killings of hundreds of innocent policemen and the ruthlessness of naxal on one hands, it also highlights the plight, reasons and circumstances which make common villagers take up guns and law in their hands. And while it doesn't justify their killings and rightly so, it does make you think if the system, government and police are equally responsible for this big internal crisis that our country faces today.
But sadly enough, despite this strong subject, film fails being a hard hitting political drama for various reasons, the biggest being that it raises questions on naxalism but doesn't sustain long enough on them and eventually ends up being a cop and a rebel war only in the end. Also, the circumstances that lead to change of heart for someone who is against the naxals to become one of them aren't highlighted convincingly enough. The running length of two and a half hours, unnecessary songs and a romance angle also bring it down a bit.
In terms of performances, Arjun Rampal gets role of his lifetime and he does complete justice to it, Abhay Deol is as good as always. Cinematography is good and few action sequences are shot beautifully.
All in all a reasonably engaging thriller due to it's new subject but lacks the punch that you would expect a Prakash Jha film to do.