Sathyuki (Manoj) is a senior graduating student and the son of a police-lawyer couple. Nicknamed Onte, he spends a lot of time at the police station after falling out with rival groups in college. When a series of suicide cases among young women, including one from Sathyuki University, surface, the police ask him to act as an informant in case he stumbles upon anything related to the investigation. When Sathyuki's neighbor and close family friend Deepa goes missing, she becomes personal to him and he sets out to track down the criminals behind the operation that is leaving women dead.
Takkar is the launch pad for Manoj Kumar, the son of Challenging Star Darshan's cousin, who bears an uncanny resemblance to his superstar uncle. And that, it seems, is the only thing recorded by director Raghu Shastry, who put together a film that is based on his protagonist's connection and resemblance to Darshan. Every shot is supposed to tell you that it's someone from the DBoss family, and if you don't get it right away, there's enough dialogue to play on "Challenging" and "Darshan Garadi Hudugaru."
Director: Karthik G. Krish
Writer: Karthik G. Krish
Stars: Abhimanyu Singh, Siddharth, Yogi Babu
So even though Manoj is meant to be a college student, the short time he's on campus, he's just getting into fights. Poor Ranjani Raghavan, as his love interest Punya, is supposedly a second-year medical student, whose only training and course of treatment seems to be administering blood to the men Satyuki beats up. Sigh! If the educational or professional background of the leads doesn't matter in the narrative, I wonder why the filmmakers bother to mention it.
At its core, though, Takkar is a cybercrime story that insists that women are victims of hackers who take control of the cameras on their devices and record them in "compromising" situations. The videos are then sent to the unsuspecting victims with threats to make them public if they do not comply and do as they are told, in this case, forced prostitution. Those who refuse end up taking their own lives or are killed by the gang behind this mafia.
Satyuki is apparently quite smart and discovers the connection between the spate of suicides and this extortion. For some strange reason, the police commissioner decides to entrust him with the responsibility of ending this gang, with the promise of departmental support. It amazes me why the cops don't do it themselves, when they have sophisticated technology to track and crack cybercrime cases, and instead trust the protagonist, who has the help of a hacker.
Most of the film is dedicated to Manoj. He has the height, the looks, but not the voice and he has a long way to go to really make a mark. He also needs to step out of the shadow of his illustrious uncle and show the public what else he brings to the table. Ranjani Raghavan tries her best to do justice to his poorly written role. She deserved better. The best thing about the film was the villain Saurav Lokesh, who has better screen presence and a menacing voice, but gets the standard antagonist treatment in the end.
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