Captain Movie Review 

Ashwin Ram

Captain is a Predator kind of Man Vs Wild flick directed by Shakti Soundar Rajan. The film stars Arya, Simran and Aishwarya Lekshmi in the lead roles. Music is scored by D. Imman.

Premise

Arya is a Military Commander. A unique life-threatening species exists in a restricted forest area which is required for a Government project. So, Arya and his team of soldiers are in for covet operation.

Writing/ Direction

Despite the base being inspired from the famous Hollywood commercial formula, Shakti Soundar Rajan’s constant efforts to bring new genres to Tamil cinema is appreciable. The storyline structure is convincing, he even gets a few plot points right, could have been interesting if they were taken neatly. The direction is low-key, it's extremely basic and predictable, we could easily sense what’s going to happen next and even each character’s next move, and there would be no changes in our judgement. The drama here is very usual, although the unique selling points in the filmmaker’s previous flick Tik Tik Tik, Miruthan were the fresh plots, he makes sure the setting is appealing, but here his emotional angle isn’t impressive. It’s established that Arya has no family and he considers his teammates to be so and we see him being very friendly with them, it’s told that no man can live alone and he hangs out with the heroine for some time, these factors don’t come together. The screenplay is mostly weak, boring and some intended to be interesting ideas end up being underwhelming in the flow. The smallest of the curiosity factor that the first half tries to carry is shattered when the full figure of the monstrous creatures named Minotaurs are revealed, it literally looks like a toy and doesn’t seem to be of any threat to the characters involved but sadly only to the product. Some of the characteristic features and logical reasoning given to the Minotaur is interesting, but the way it’s been brought together in the packaging is poor. There is no clarity in storytelling, almost everything is shown or conveyed in a half-baked manner.

Performances

Arya is stiff as a soldier, his physique suits his Army captain role and his strict face fits his attitude, but his body language isn't strong enough to portray the character with ease, especially his gun handling style is timid. Aishwarya Lekshmi gets a very tiny role to play and she hardly comes for 10 minutes, when she appears in the climax after almost missing out on the entire movie, she only reminds us that she is also part of the cast, but somehow gets a sensible closure. Simran is that explanatory character who is in to clarify the audience's doubts about some complex concepts, she has been given an extramarital affair for no reason. Harish Uthaman's role is good to an extent, but the rest of the supporting artists just fill the screen and there's no drama for us to empathize with them.

Technicalities

Thankfully just a couple of songs, not a bad work by D. Imman with respect to that. Background score is satisfying, no nonsense job and not-so-loud as well. No big complaints with visuals, the cameraman has delivered the best he could. Crisp editing and the less than two-hours runtime is a big advantage, though the film isn’t engaging enough, at least the time spent is happily less. Sound effects are efficiently used at relevant places. VFX is the major spoilsport of the flick, the CG quality of the creature is pathetic and acts as such a show-spoiler.

Bottomline

Should have been at least a passable action thriller if the screen-writing and direction was interesting and matured respectively. Also, the terrible graphics is a huge let down.

CAPTAIN - Neither Captivating Nor Commercially Viable!

Rating - 2.25/ 5