Chakra

About the film

Chakra (transl. Cycle) is a 1981 Hindi movie directed by Rabindra Dharmaraj. The film is the first and last directorial attempt of Rabindra Dharmaraj. The film stars Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil and Kulbhushan Kharbanda.

Plot

Amma and her son Benwa become Mumbai's slum-dwellers after running away from their village after her husband kills a moneylender who tried to rape her. The husband is then shot trying to steal some tin to build a hut.

In Mumbai, Amma has a lover who provides for her and her son. Since the lover is a truck driver who travels most of the time, Amma takes on another lover – a vain pimp and petty crook, Lukka, who becomes Benwa's idol. Lukka is on parole and ordered to be present before the police every day.

Benwa marries the young Amli. Amma meanwhile becomes pregnant, though it is never clear whose child it is. Amma, of course, lets Anna know that it is his because she knows that of her two lovers, he alone is capable and responsible enough to take care of her and her child.

Reviews

Indiatoday praised the performances of the actors calling the performances "virtuoso". It wrote "And the prima donna for playing the role of the oppressed with her beauty-amidst dirt looks and her dark expressive eyes, which can project the hopeless exploitation of a thousand years and a raw promiscuous sexuality without a blink, is Smita Patil. Her latest award-winning performance in Chakra as Amma, an emigrant Andrhaite slumdweller in Bombay, follows her much acclaimed roles in Aakrosh as an Adivasi and as a village girl in Benegal's Manthan".

Additional information

Kundan Shah was the chief assistant director, and Rajkumar Santoshi was the special assistant to the director on this movie. The art direction was by Bansi Chandragupta.

Key details