Shiva Rajkumar plays the unnamed don who enters a high-security prison on a mission. Jayaram is top cop-cum-investigation czar Chengappa who is also in the same complex to outwit the bad guys. But who are the bad guys? And if Chengappa is funny and menacing and revealing every single plan to a group of people, how on earth did he get to the position he is in? There are simply too many questions, none of which gets a satisfying reply in the screenplay.
Of course, Shiva Rajkumar looks the part, cinematographer Mahendra Simha’s frames are interesting, and composer Arjun Janya amps up the background score, but this is no taut thriller, despite the runtime not being too flabby.
The film has actors with potential — including Prashant Narayanan, who can be menacing to a fault. But, his role as Vaman never really gets the closure it needs to make the entire film work. There’s Anupam Kher too, in a blink-and-miss role, and so you don’t really identify with the character or its purpose. And, what is Archana Jois’ journalist role in all this, gushing like a fangirl when the Chief Minister calls her?