It was Vijayakanth's recent blockbuster Vallarasu that brought back memories of the string of movies in the eighties and early nineties that had an honest cop as the protagonist. One of the best of these was another Vijayakanth movie Chatriyan. It rose above the other, typical cop movies with a fast-paced screenplay and by sticking to the task at hand. It is classy, suitably grim, has very few out-of-place distractions and an unforgettable villain.

Panneerselvam(Vijayakanth) is an ex-cop leading a peaceful, quiet life with his two kids. As the assistant commissioner, he was the man responsible for putting the all-powerful Annaachi(Thilakan) behind bars. But Annachi was powerful enough to pull a few strings even in jail and engineered a bomb blast that killed Selvam's wife Jaya(Revathi). This was enough to make Selvam quit the force. Annachi is now out of jail but Banu(Banupriya), who endears herself to Selvam's kids and falls in love with Selvam, has evidence that would put Annaachi back in jail. Annaachi also wants to see Selvam back as a policeman so he can extract revenge. For this, he is ready to go to any lengths.

Chatriyan has a set of memorable characters populating it. Vijayakanth is good as the dutiful father who resists going back to being a policeman fearing for the lives of his children. Ofcourse, the role of the honest cop fits him like a glove(probably from practice!). His bold actions as he single-handedly destroys Thilakan's regime in the flashback are nicely done. Thilakan is a worthy adversary to him. His Malayalam accent adds gloss to his role as the heartless thug and his insistence on seeing Vijayakanth back as a policeman before getting his revenge adds a new dimension to the character. He is chilling when he casually orders Vijayakanth's son to be hurt.

The movie is quite violent but offers several strong and effective sequences. Vijayakanth's flashback, which relates the background behind his becoming a policeman, is one of the best portions of the movie. His encounters with the young dadas who want his money and the scene where Vijayakumar tries to knock some sense into him, sizzle with strong dialogs. The sequence where he trains to get back in shape(Ilaiyaraja has some rousing background music here) is picturised very well. The climax is another strongpoint. Like Captain Prabhakaran, Vijayakanth is a one-man demolition squad and the way he picks the villains off one by one is thrilling.

The movie is devoid of all extra trimmings that might affect the pace. There is no comedy and Vijayakanth's character gains respect with the complete lack of duets(knowing his predilection for bright colors, a couple of duets would have indelibly lowered the class of the movie). The romance between him and Banupriya is handled very sensitively and nicely and their dialogs are very mature and decent. But the director is unable to completely keep away from commercial ingredients. All the song sequences, especially Banupriya's dream sequence for the song Maalaiyil..., are concessions the director offers for the commercially inclined.

Banupriya is chirpy and her antics with Vijayakanth's kids are enjoyable. Vijayakumar is impressive as the senior police officer who pushes Vijayakanth to become a cop. He is good in the scene where he rejects Vijayakanth for being unsuitable for a policeman's job when he comes back. Manirathnam is responsible for the story and screenplay. P.C.Sriram is behind the camera and it is immediately obvious from the muted lighting and emphasis on darkness in most of the shots.