Plot

Chatrapathi is a predictable and stale story about Shiva, a messiah who rises up to become the savior of the oppressed. It follows the template of a hero's journey with elements of a bechari maa and her adarsh beta thrown in for melodrama. The story lacks coherence, with reasoning behind everyone's actions being flat-out absurd.

Acting

Bellamkonda Sreenivas as the lead falls short of making us root for his character, with his bland and confused performance. Nushrratt Bharuccha, playing the decorative heroine, has nothing significant to do except mollycoddling the hero. Bhagyashree as the weepy mother is given clichéd character traits and stilted dialogue. Sharad Kelkar, Freddy Daruwala and Amith Nair as the villains induce yawns more often than alarms.

Cinematography

The cinematography is grand and matches the massy vibe of the film. Ravi Basrur's background score lends some pumped-up energy during action scenes, but Tanishk Bagchi's compositions are mostly forgettable.

Direction

Director V V Vinayak's uninspired approach and A Mahadev's stale screenplay invoke a sense of unoriginality. The film strays from telling an engaging story and focuses too much on Sreenivas' action skills, resulting in an inconsistent film that tries too hard to throw in futile twists and turns.

Overall impression

Chatrapathi lacks originality and has nothing new to offer, with the film being relegated as an outdated actioner. The film's highlight is its well-designed action scenes and stunts. The story writer V. Vijayendra Prasad packs in all the ingredients of a masala watch, even though it feels dated. The screenplay and uneven editing make the film difficult to sit through, leaving you confused with continuity errors and location errors.

Overall

Chatrapathi is good on paper but deserved better execution. The film feels like it wants to be a Salman Khan massy movie with a vision of Rohit Shetty but doesn't follow through on the idea. If you're looking for a mindless action flick, Chatrapathi might suffice, but don't expect anything new or original.

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