Direction: Chintan
Cast: Darshan, Deepa Sannidhi, Dinakar Thoogudeepa, Aditya, Shivadwaj, Srujan Lokesh, Sharath Lohitashwa, Kumar Bangarappa.
Even for a moment if you thought that 'Chakravarthy' has something to do with the reincarnation of an emperor in the 80s and is based in Bengaluru for the fact that it is a sort of reunion of blockbuster 'Saarathi' film team including Chintan, who has written and directed this one, then you are up for a big surprise. In here, the director takes back the audience to those days!
Yes, to 'those days' of 'Aa Dinagalu' when Bengaluru was Bangalore with men wearing bell bottom pants and shirts with extra long collars were in fashion, and mostly Ambassadors and Fiats were seen on the city roads.
It was an era which saw the emergence of so called dons, the underworld dons who would go on to become the most popular real dons repeatedly featured in several films in future including this very film titled 'Chakravarthy'. There is one more in the making by Ram Gopal Varma called 'Rai'.
Let's get back to those days. This one is quite a challenging one as it involves Challenging Star Darshan himself donning the lead role. For a change, unlike some of the heroes who are so much in love with their own stardom that they involve in self-aggrandisement in films too, but Darshan is just an 'honest' don here and does complete justice to the character. That apart and the gorgeous lady Deepa Sannidhi's more than a bit of cameo appearance, including the first scenes of Dinakar Thoogudeepa giving the feel of his legendary father late Thoogudeepa Srinivas, Chintan's 'Chakravarthy' barely conquers anything.
Picking the tale of first few underworld dons of 'Bangalore' and reformatting it from 'those days' by highlighting one of the popular dons who later becomes a crucial part of 'D' company, before finally breaking away from it for a 'national' cause, proves to be an ordinary affair.
The recreation of 'Bangalore', restricting it to a single street with the image of public utility in the backdrop, and using a few old vehicles makes no big difference. There is also a bar which usually plays the same old classic cabaret Kannada song.
Just like any other don who claims to be innocent, Shankar played by Darshan too, is a man with social concern. He later gets the support of police to finish off the reigning don who was troubling them and the city a lot. The classic of using a thorn to get rid of another thorn is the crux.
Darshan has poured his acting skills to his best, but largely the making of it and probably a similar film made in the past, which was 'quite' impressive, spoils the fun of watching this one.
