Trataka movie review: A gripping suspense thriller

Ratings: 3
Shivaganesh's Trataka is a murder mystery in which Rahul Ainapur, Ajith Jayaraj and Hridaya Avanti are in the leads. The film tells the story of a cop, who is in search of the killer behind his brother's death.

As the title card rolls, the story begins with the murder of Nikhil, the younger sibling of ACP Dev (Rahul Ainapur). Having solved end number of cases in his life, he finds it difficult to solve the mystery around the death of his brother.

His attempts to nab the killer goes in vain as they turn out to be innocents but to his shock, every single person, whom he suspects, dies after he meets them. Dev suffers from Complex Partial Seizure and the interval block ends with him being accused of killing his own brother. Is he the murderer? Or is there a hidden reason behind the serial killings? Find it out in theatres.

Shivaganesh builds an engrossing plot brimming over with twists. The story manages to keep the viewers on the edge-of-the-seat almost till the end. The film neatly portrays the frustrations of an ACP, who wants to avenge the death of his brother.

The movie has some fine performances from Rahul Ainapur and Ajith Jayaraj. The former had a challenging role (hardly smiles in the film) where he was supposed to display the intensity of the characters through his body language and he does it with ease.

Ajith too does his job well and Hridaya Avanti has a well-written character. The movie scores high on music and cinematography. The contribution of these departments enhances the quality of the film, which is peppered by occasional brilliant one-liners.

On the flip side, a tight screenplay is the backbone of the movies in this genre and in this film it lost the momentum at parts. Also, there is no proper justification for the movie title and the placement of the item song before the climax is a major drawback.

Overall, Trataka is a gripping suspense thriller which is easily a one-time watch.