The Naxal Movement is one of the
burning issues facing India at the moment. When I was 12, I read a Malayalam
translation of a Bengali novel on the Naxal uprising in West Bengal in the late
1960’s. The story of those failed rebels was something which stayed on in my
mind as a dull ache. So when a leading director like Prakash Jha, picks it up as
the subject of his movie, there is no way I could miss it.
Mr Jha’s ‘Hip Hip Hurray' was
one movie which I loved watching while growing up during those Doordarshan
days. The more recent Rajneeti is perhaps my favourite Prakash Jha movie.
In Chakravyuh, Adil Khan (Arjun Rampal) is posted as the Superintendent
of Police in Nadhighat, one of the key areas where the Naxal Movement has deep
roots. Manoj Bajpai is the much feared Naxal leader Rajan. When Adil Khan tries
to find his foothold in his new job, his best friend and dropout from the
Police Academy, Kabir (played by Abhay Deol) offers to infiltrate the Naxal
ranks and become a police informer.
As Kabir treads a dangerous path,
he slowly starts to understand the anguish of the villagers, who are on the verge
of being evicted from their own land by the aspirations of the industrialist
Mahanta (Kabir Bedi). Mahanta’s mining group and the politicians who props him up
are only concerned about digging up the land the villagers have lived in for
eons. Kabir starts sympathising with the naxals, especially with Juhi (Anjali
Patil) another firebrand naxalite.
Mr Jha takes on the role of a neutral
observer as the drama unfolds in the forests of Chattisgarh. It is commendable how he still remains
unbiased even till the end of the movie. To enter the dark forests where Naxals
reside and to tell their complex story, a cocktail of ideals interspersed with
violence and weapons, is no mean task. Jha’s wide angle shots, often with
hundreds of actors, are often intense and his control and craft of the medium
is terrific to watch.
Of the various actors, the best performance
would be of that of Om Puri, who plays the role of an LSE, Oxford educated
activist leader and of Manoj Bajpai as Rajan. Arjun Rampal has perhaps got the
best role in his career so far. I think he has done justice to it as Adil Khan.
It must be tough to play an often harsh police officer with such impossibly
good looks (!). Anjali Patil is authentic and she reminded me at times of the
late Smitha Patil. Abhay Deol is good, but I feel he is capable of better
acting. Esha Gupta was rather unconvincing as a police officer.
