Cobra -  Genius stretched to retardment

Chiyaan Vikram, inarguably one of the greatest actors around, is badly in need of a commercial hit.   His joining hands with Ajay Gnanamuthu of the ingenious 'Demonte Colony' fame playing a mathematical genius assassin is enough to pull in the audience. Whether this stylishly packed overly stretched time pass entertainer justifies the expectations from the combo remains to be seen.

A series of murders of high profile personalities such as the Odisha Chief Minister, Prince of Scotland and the Russian Defence Minister are committed by an assasin who is a master of disguise.  Interpol officer Aslan (Irfan Pathan) is assigned the case and is perplexed as a hacker keeps sending fragmented information on the killer.  The interpol is at a loss until a Chennai student Judith Samson (Meenakshi Govindarajan) deduces (!?) that it is the work of a mathematical genius and sends a thesis on it.  Cut to Chennai where Mathiyazhagan (Chiyaan Vikram) a maths teacher who spurns the advances of a young professor Bhavna (Srinidhi Shetty) becomes the prime suspect.  Meanwhile Rishi (Roshan Mathew) a shady business magnate is also after the assassin for reasons of his own.  Why Mathi has turned into the Cobra and is committing the crime and will he get caught or not is what the film is all about with a couple of interesting twists that work.

In spite of all the hype the roles of Mathiyazhagan/Cobra and one more suspense character are not challenging enough for Chiyaan Vikram's caliber.  There is one interrogation scene in which his mental state is revealed and the interesting picturization gives something for the Chiyaan fans to cheer for.   Regarding the multiple getups that Vikram dons, the black priest and the rockstar work while the others are not good enough to escape international security.  'KGF' fame Srinidhi Shetty sadly gets a regressive role as a woman who pines for her man, come what may.  Irfan Pathan as Aslan the interpol officer has a lot of running around to do and his character spirals downwards once he starts taking instructions from the college kid.  Roshan Mathew is impressive playing the sadistic young main villain.  Mrinalini Ravi and Mia George fill in for the flashback love interest and mother respectively and so do K.S. Ravikumar and Robo Shankar as the mentor and sidekick of the hero respectively.

The scenes that work in 'Cobra' are the initial setup of the characters and the plots, the flashback involving Mathi and his sibling, the portion depicting the schizophrenic mindscape of the hero and the interval twist.  The emotion in the climax works to a certain extent comparatively. 

On the pretty steep downside the two love portions and the youth flashback of the hero suck the energy out of the rest of the action.  The dialogues are contrived and hollow especially in the love stories.  While nothing much happens in the first half too much information is crammed into the second in the name of detailing.  Logical loopholes abound and the reason given for the murderous enmity between the brothers is not convincing at all.  The screenplay seems built on one wow idea mixed with random doses of inspiration from 'A Beautiful Mind', 'Juno', 'Die Hard 4' and our very own 'Gentleman' and 'Aalavandaan'. 

A.R. Rahman's songs give a boost of energy to the proceedings while his background score tries to maintain it in the scenes. Bhuvan Srinivasan's cinematography is of international standards and so is the production design with each action set piece outdoing the other.  Seven Screen Studio's high budget  production value is evident in every frame.  Ajay Gnanamuthu has worked real hard in making a Shankar level film in imagination and grandeur.  If only his plotting and characterizations were better and clichés done away with 'Cobra' could have become a milestone film in Tamil cinema.

Verdict : Go for it for the grandeur filmmaking and Chiyaan Vikram's performance