Keerthi Chakra

<p>Mahadevan is an officer deputed to the (NSG). His native place is in . He has been assigned to counter-terrorism duties in and commands an elite group of NSG . He is always supported and encouraged by his superior officer, Ravi Dutta who is an honest officer. He calls back his buddy Jaikumar from his honeymoon because he has information about major activities of the militants; he feels Jai is needed for the team. Jai’s native place is in . The commandos raid a mosque in civilian dress and seize a big collection of arms and explosives. Havildar Jai’s wife Sandhya informs him over telephone, that she is pregnant with his child. Later, during an operation focused on some cottages near the , a commando Kishori Lal in the team is killed and an outraged Jai shoots down a captured terrorist who challenges the commandos. Athira, a human rights activist learns about this and threatens to file a complaint with the government. She later understands the situation and the sincerity of the commandos and decides not to proceed with the complaint. Meanwhile, a group of terrorists from and conspire to hit the with a missile as they think this will create unrest in the region and that the Indian army will be blamed. They hijack a house that offers a good vantage point on the shrine and plants the missile there. Some of them rape a girl in the house in front of her family and shoot a boy who protests. A military patrolling vehicle hears the gunshot; as they approach the house, they are fired upon. The patrolling team intimates the NSG, and Mahadevan and his team immediately join the battle. After a long operation, the team kills the terrorists, frees the civilian hostages and disarms the missile. But a civilian informs that one more terrorist is not to be seen among the corpses, and the commandos goes to find him in the house. They locate the terrorist, who is the leader and Mahadevan recognises him as the same perosn who killed his wife Sreekutty and daughter. Mahadevan overpowers and subdues him. The terrorist tries to shoot Mahadevan, but Jai covers him, who gets hit by the bullet and dies. The terrorist gets killed by the commandos and Jai is awarded the posthumously. Later, Sandhya gives birth to his son. She visits Jai’s grave, along with his son. , a retired officer of the , planned a film on based on real-life incidents while he was under duty in counter-terrorism activities in Punjab & Kashmir. He wrote the film which reveals the actual mode of working of groups within India: their recruitment, training, target choosing, terror strikes, propaganda, and how Indian armed forces tackle the attacks via its special services forces. The movie develops with this backdrop and tries to convey the dedication and selfless service defence personnel exhibit while on duty. Ravi got R. B. Chaudhary of Super Good Films, a major production house in , to produce the film. The film was re-shot and released Tamil as well. Chaudhary’s son was cast in a major role in the film. A few additional scenes were shot for the Tamil version, . The filming was predominantly done in and . The soundtrack has songs composed by and , penned by , Sajid-Farhad and The film was released on 4 August 2006. received generally positive reviews. The reviewer describes the casting of Mohanlal as “near perfect” and comments, “though people may complain that his bulky physique doesn’t suit the role of a commando… Mohanlal overcomes this shortcoming by the agility and the emotional roundness he gives to his character.” He also thought Major Ravi was “successful in keeping the feel of the film authentic most of the time.” On the negative side, he found that “there are certain times when the narrative lapses into the stereotypical terrain.” He also thought the film “lacks in pace” and that “except for the main characters; the others are cardboardish.” The reviewer wraps up his review by commenting that “the effort that went behind making Kirtichakra is commendable.” Indiaglitz.com review calls the film one that parallels national standards. The reviewer goes on to state that “proving to be an effective story teller and a crafty film maker, the film and the director holds the viewers till the end with very little short comings.” The major actors and the cinematographer were also praised. The reviewer did not find too many negative points about the film and described it as a “technically sound, visually striking flick largely based on reality.” performed well at the box office, becoming the third highest-grossing Malayalam film of the year (behind and ). The film also had a great opening. However, – the Tamil version, which had additional footage of , , , , , and ; comedy tracks with , ; and song montages featuring Jeeva and , was not well received, with the additional scenes being lamented as the reason. Mohanlal disowned since his voice had been dubbed by another artist, , without his consent. The satellite right of the original movie was acquired by while the rights for Tamil dubbed version was obtained by . The film spawned two sequels— (2008), (2010) and one prequel (2017)—directed by Major Ravi and Mohanlal reprising his role with new supporting cast in each film. While was a commercial success at the box office, the other two was not that well received critically and commercially.</p>