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Chakravyuh

Chakravyuh is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language political action thriller directed by Prakash Jha, released on 24 October 2012, about two friends placed on opposite sides of the conflict between the Indian state and the Naxalites, the militant communist groups active in rural India¹^•². It stars Arjun Rampal as a police superintendent, Abhay Deol as the friend he sends undercover into a Naxal group, and Manoj Bajpayee as the Naxal leader Rajan¹. The film was screened as the Thrill Gala of the 2012 BFI London Film Festival before its Indian release³.

Key fact	Detail
Director and writers	Prakash Jha, with a screenplay by Jha, Anjum Rajabali, and Sagar Pandya¹
Release	24 October 2012, Hindi, India; Thrill Gala screening at the BFI London Film Festival on 11 October 2012¹^•³
Lead cast	Arjun Rampal (Adil Khan), Abhay Deol (Kabir), Manoj Bajpayee (Rajan), Esha Gupta (Rhea Menon), Om Puri (Govind Suryavanshi), Anjali Patil (Juhi)⁴
Title meaning	Chakravyuha is a military formation from the Kurukshetra battle in the Mahabharata; Jha described it as a war formation from which there is no escape, a deadlock⁵^•³
Real-world basis	The film states it is based on real people and events; a 2014 study lists the arrest of CPI (Maoist) leader Kobad Ghandy, the killing of 76 CRPF jawans in Dantewada, corporate land grab, and exploitation of natural resources among the events that inspired it⁶^•⁷
Ratings	IMDb 6.8/10 from about 3,600 votes; Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 40% from 5 reviews⁸^•⁹
Availability	Streaming on Zee5 and the Eros Now Select Apple TV channel in India; rent or buy on Apple TV Store, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, and YouTube¹⁰

Spoilers

Plot

The story follows Adil Khan (Arjun Rampal), a decorated police officer posted as SP of Nandighat after a massacre of 84 policemen, who finds that the Maoists led by the charismatic Rajan (Manoj Bajpayee) effectively control the area¹¹. His college friend Kabir (Abhay Deol), a police dropout, volunteers to infiltrate the Naxal group as an informer so that he can pass information to Adil². Inside the group, the key figures are Govind Suryavanshi (Om Puri), an ideologue and mentor to the movement; Rajan; Juhi (Anjali Patil), a Naxalite commander; and Naga (Murali Sharma), an area commander².

The turn. As Kabir gets deeper into the organization, he starts sympathizing with the group's plight and has second thoughts about his mission¹². He realizes the militants are defending local people from land-grabbers and a corrupt establishment, and he switches loyalties, leading to a confrontation with Adil¹³. At the center of the tension between the state and the Naxalites is a large plot of land that an industrialist wants to take over from the Adivasis, the tribal communities, for a pittance². Kabir, an electronics expert, wins the trust of Rajan and Juhi by tracking a radio frequency¹⁴.

Background and production

Prakash Jha, a director associated with socio-political drama films, said the idea came from his co-writer Anjum Rajabali in 2003, and that he and his team later researched the subject in the forests and prisons of central India, speaking with people inside and outside the movement³^•¹⁵. In the interview he described the setting as hilly, forested tribal country rich in minerals, where tribal communities had lost forest livelihoods, and said the conflict had spread into 200 districts of India over the previous eight to ten years³.

A claimer, not a disclaimer. Jha said that because most characters were based on real people, he decided for the first time to put a claimer at the beginning of the film stating it was based on real-life incidents and characters, instead of the usual disclaimer denying any resemblance³. The film opens with a disclaimer that the song "Mehangai", which names Birla, Tata, Ambani, and Bata, is not a reference to real people, followed by a statement that the film is based on real people and events⁷.

A 2014 discourse-analysis study in the Journal of Education and Social Policy describes Chakravyuh as the first mainstream film from Bombay to deal with the Maoist/Naxalite issue, though not the first film on the subject, and lists its inspirations as the arrest of Kobad Ghandy, the Dantewada killing of 76 CRPF jawans, corporate land grab, and the exploitation of natural resources⁶. The Naxalites take their name from Naxalbari, the West Bengal village where they staged an uprising in 1967, and their stated aim is, in the words quoted by Time Out, "to liberate India from the clutches of feudalism and imperialism"¹³.

The title refers to the chakravyuha, a complicated military formation used in the Kurukshetra battle of the Mahabharata, associated with a tragic episode in the epic⁵. Jha explained that his research team found the word fitting: a formation from which there is no escape, a deadlock in which society finds itself³.

The music was composed by Salim–Sulaiman, Aadesh Shrivastava, Sandesh Shandilya, Shantanu Moitra, and Vijay Verma, with lyrics by Irshad Kamil, Turaz, Panchhi Jalonvi, and Ashish Sahu; the songs include "Mehangai" and the item number "Kunda Khol", performed by Sameera Reddy in a special appearance¹^•². Sachin K. Krishn was the cinematographer and Santosh Mandal the editor¹.

Reception

Critical response was mixed. The Times of India gave 3.5 stars out of 5, writing that "Chakravyuh is a hard film to make and marks must be given to Jha for sticking his neck out"¹⁶. The New Indian Express called it an addictive drama bolstered by very good acting, praising Om Puri as a first-generation Naxal leader and Abhay Deol's portrayal of Kabir's guilt⁷. Reviewers repeatedly praised Manoj Bajpayee as Rajan and newcomer Anjali Patil as Juhi; India Today called Bajpayee perfect and convincing and Patil the surprise package¹⁴.

Criticism of the writing. Several reviews found the screenplay predictable. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave two stars, writing that the film's character arcs and outcome were entirely predictable and that it worked intermittently in the first half and not too well in the stretched second¹⁷^•⁹. Sukanya Verma of Rediff called it "nothing more than an average action flick in the garb of relevant cinema"¹⁸. The trade paper Film Information judged the film dull, dry, and drab, noting that it assumes the audience knows a great deal about the Naxalites, leaves the war open-ended, and makes Kabir's change of heart look hurried; it marked the film as losing at the box office, with a weak opening².

On aggregate ratings, the film holds 6.8/10 on IMDb from about 3,600 user votes and 40% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 5 critics, against a 45% audience score⁸^•⁹.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Hindi films of the 2010s › Hindi films of 2012

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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