Movie: Cobra
Rating: 2/5
Banner: Zee Studios and R4 Entertainments
Cast: Vikram, Srinidhi Shetty, Irfan Pathan, Roshan Mathew, Mirnalini Ravi, and others
Music: AR Rahman
DOP: Bhuvan Srinivasan, Harish Kannan
Editor: John Abraham
Written and directed by: Ajay Gnanamuthu
Release Date: August 31, 2022
Vikram has not delivered a solid hit after Shankar’s “I”. But still, his films are looked forward for his performances. “Cobra” is his latest film that hit theaters.
Let’s find out its merits and demerits.
Story:
A prince in Scotland gets killed on his wedding day in Church. Another killing of a high-profile minister takes place in Orissa. No trace of the identity of the killer. Who is executing these assassinations?
As an Interpol agent (Irfan Pathan) is on his mission to crack the case, he gets a file from Judith, a young math student from India, proposing her theory called Cobra about these assassinations.
The agent comes down to India. They soon find that Madhi (Vikram) is behind these killings. He is a mathematical genius. The rest of the drama is getting to know his reasons for these assassinations.
Artistes’ Performances:
Vikram is a national award-winning actor. He gave many memorable performances in his long career. But lately, he is becoming monotonous with his tendency to do different getups. “Cobra” is no different. There is nothing extraordinary act from him. Those who like him doing “Aparichitudu” kind of acting, get a piece of it one in one scene. That’s it.
“KGF” girl Srinidhi Shetty’s role is poorly written. Her thread with Vikram makes no sense.
Like Vikram, Sarjano Khalid also plays two roles, the younger versions of Vikram. Mirnalini Ravi in a flashback episode is okay.
Roshan Mathew plays a negative role but leaves no impact. Cricketer Irfan Pathan is impressive.
Technical Excellence:
The film is mounted on a lavish scale. The production design is rich. The cinematography and the action choreography are top-class. AR Rahman’s music is average.
Highlights:
Interval twist
Interrogation scene
Drawback:
Incoherent script
Illogical sequences
3-hour length
Analysis
“Cobra” begins with a series of assassinations revealing how cleverly the assassin executed them. The early scenes create interest and intrigue as they happen in different countries. A mathematical genius performing them further adds novelty. Vikram playing this part draws us into the film. The film has flashes of brilliance in the beginning when it uses mathematical theories to explain the crimes and assassinations. Some ambitious ideas are also presented.
But the director seems to be not satisfied with these ideas. He has added complexity to the simple story of the assassination. Hallucinations, flashback stories, mother sentiment, brother sentiment, and whatnot, add on as the story goes on and on. Barring “Dhoom 3” style interval bang, it goes downhill thereafter.
The director seems to have forgotten what he wanted to tell after a point. The three-hour movie drags in many directions but never comes to the original intended goal. The final hour is really silly and illogical.
In the beginning, we are made to believe that Vikram is doing all these assassinations for a corporate guy. We don’t get an answer to why the so-called villain (this corporate company’s owner) is doing what he’s doing. His real enmity or link with Vikram is never established. A lot of links have gone missing in this choppy editing.
Srinidhi Shetty and Vikram’s thread is another messy angle.
In a nutshell, “Cobra” is overlong and overloud. The film creates interest just before the interval but after that, it gets tiresome and becomes a complete bore.
Bottom line: Silly