Chakra is the only feature film by Rabindra Dharmaraj, whose death at age 33 was deeply felt in the Indian film community. A committed Marxist, he made two trips to Vietnam, in 1968 and 1970; his photographs and reports were reproduced in various international journals.
Chakra is described in Variety as “reminiscent of American Depression films in showing slum life sans breastbeating and portentiousness. It makes its statement on poverty by finely observed life alone....” The story concerns a young couple and their child who must flee when the husband kills a man attempting to rape his wife. The husband is killed when he gets mixed up in rumrunning in the city, and the wife lives on in the slums, where she endeavors to keep her son from delinquency.
The most widely acclaimed feature of Chakra is its authentic setting, enhanced by Rabindra Dharmaraj's exacting eye for atmospheric detail and Bansi Chandragupta's art direction. Unable to film in a real slum, they re-created a setting that was so real that hawkers came daily to sell their wares, and roadside shops sprang up near it.