Cobra Movie review : Needs Doses of Anti-Venom!

Chiyaan Vikram’s career took off to a different level with Shankar’s Anniyan/Aparichitudu. The anticipation in audiences regarding his every other film has been to see him perform again in such kind of a thriller that satisfies all kinds of audiences. Some worked out and some did not but his efforts never seemed to be low or regarded as taken for granted. He came up with Ajay Gnanamuthu’s Cobra, a psychological thriller set in the same budget as Anniyan and with a promise to deliver a similar experience on an even large scale. AR Rahman’s music for the film also reached the audiences creating hype around the project. After delays caused due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the movie was released on 31st August, 2022. Let’s discuss about the film…

Scotland Prince’s assassination provokes Interpol to find the suspect. Some hacker gives an anonymous tip about the killer but he manages to escape. Interpol officer Aslan (Irrfan Pathan) from Turkey gets the job to track him down. He gets a theory from Judith Samson (Meenakshi) calling the killer Cobra and equating the Prince assassination to Odisha Chief Minister’s murder. He dismisses her thesis but then when he finds out that mathematics is indeed used in both cases through her, he decides to hunt for the Maths Genius, Cobra.

Madhiarasan or Madhi (Chiyaan Vikram) is working as a Mathematics professor and another professor from the university, Bhavana (Srinidhi Shetty) loves him. He somehow keeps her away even though he likes her. Madhiarasan is indeed revealed to be Cobra and he is connected with an underground nexus of assassinations that work for a young billionaire Rishi (Roshan Matthews). Can Aslan and Judith track down Madhi? Who is the hacker who is giving tips to police and Interpol about Madhi/Cobra? Why Madhi is working as an assassin even though he is a genius? Watch the movie to know more…

Chiyaan Vikram proved again that he is a talent who is criminally being underused in Indian Cinema. In this film, which can be categorised as a gigantic maze of a mess, he could hold character and the performance he delivered in the interrogation sequence as a schizophrenic patient who is hallucinating is as good as his Aparichitudu/Anniyan movie. One can easily say that this one sequence is worth for him to act in this movie. Srinidhi Shetty, Meenakshi, Mrinalni Ravi, Robo Shankar, Miya George, Anandaraj, K.S. Ravikumar did perform well. Sarjano Khalid needs to be praised for matching Vikram as young Madhi/Kadhir. But most of the cast are underutilised for their characters in the film and potential. Irrfan Pathan looked confident and convincing. Roshan Andrews did well but did not get a proper character.

AR Rahman’s BGM and music can be called a major asset of the film. He created unique and International sounds for BGM and they elevate a few sequences very well. Cinematography, production design and VFX did their job aptly. Editing is also good as per the script and the director’s vision. The main pillar of the film that all these performances and technical support depend on – Writing, that is the major minus in this film. Screenplay tends to jump from one sequence to another without proper establishment or continuity. It tries to jumble it all up like a puzzle while it hopes to be a psychological thriller. Writers tried to tell the story like a maze that audiences should be interested in solving but they managed to just drag out the established sequences to somehow explain the mathematical concepts that are left out in the second half for “emotional connect”. It feels like a gigantic mess with slow narration as romance and high-level action sequences don’t gel up perfectly. Had the writing worked out well and better scenes have been developed around the same plotline, with the talent on board, this movie would have been a must-watch. Now, only for Vikram’s performance, we can bare to watch it.

Positives :
Chiyaan Vikram’s
Performance
Interrogation sequence
Interval Twist
AR Rahman’s music
Production Values

Negatives:
Unconvincing Narrative
Too many drag points
Too Slow for a thriller
Confusing
Melodrama
Underdeveloped and Overdeveloped Sequences

Cast: Chiyaan Vikram, Srinidhi Shetty, Irfan Pathan, Mrinalini Ravi, Roshan Matthews, Robo Shankar, K.S. Ravikumar, Miya George, Meenakshi Govindarajan
Crew: Cinematography by Bhuvan Srinivasan, Harish Kannan
Edited by Bhuvan Srinivasan, John Abraham
Music Composed by A.R. Rahman
Written & Directed by Ajay Gnanamuthu
Produced by S.S. Lalit Kumar
Release Date: 31st August 2022