The Hindu : Kerala News : A tale of revenge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 19, 2006

Kerala

Kerala

A tale of revenge

Chess

It all started, probably, with the Hollywood super-hit Deathwish and four of its sequels in the mid-Seventies, setting a trend of the hero taking revenge against perpetrators of brutalities against his family by killing them. The police do not come into the picture.

Chess follows that trend. Vijayakrishnan (Dileep) is a dance master. He and his mother, Rajlakhshmi (same name of Shankarabharanam fame), live a peaceful life, though abandoned by his father, Krishnadas (Sai Kumar), a retired director-general of police, as the son was born out of the wedlock.

The father has a change of heart and asks his wife and son to live with him. But his nephew, Devraj (Vijayaraghavan), a city police commissioner, does not relish it, as his dream to inherit the property of Krishnadas is spoiled. Devraj kills his uncle and sets his wife ablaze. Dileep makes an effort to change his image from that of a comedian to an action hero in the film. Bhawana, as doctor, dancer and lover of Dileep, is the heroine. Salimkumar and Harishree Ashokan generate humour. Jagathy Sreekumar is also in the cast. Ashish Vidhyarthi is impressive as a deputy commissioner of police, acting as a hare-brained and laughable officer.

The hero killing all his enemies and announcing their death timings in advance seem hard to believe. Being an action film, expectedly, there is hardly any room for songs and dances.

Rajbabu, director, has presented a thriller with no suspense. All the moves made by the hero are predictable. However, the film runs at a fast pace. In a game of chess, the opponents try to defeat each other, making deft moves. In this film, the hero makes all the moves, and others pay the price, one by one, for the brutalities unleashed by them against his relatives.

R.R.S.

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