Laal Kaptaan Movie Review: Saif Ali Khan Is Brilliant, But Unfortunately In The Wrong Film
The feeling of watching this is similar to sitting in a dark room, without your phone and without any reason.
Laal Kaptaan Movie Review Rating: 2/5 Stars (Two stars)
Star Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Zoya Hussain, Manav Vij, Deepak Dobriyal, Simone Singh, Sonakshi Sinha
Director: Navdeep Singh
What’s Good: Apart from how bizarre (in a good way) this movie looks and how chilling Saif Ali Khan is, there’s nothing to look forward to
What’s Bad: It hurts more than anything when you’ve everything on your platter but not the plate to hold the things
Loo Break: That would really depend on will you still watch the film after reading this & if you still do, you seriously need a break! (not in the film, literally)
Watch or Not?: Refer to the section ‘loo break’ above, if you still haven’t for some reason
This revenge drama is plotted around the life of a Naga Sadhu named Gossain (Saif Ali Khan), who is also a bounty hunter killing for Gold coins. Set in the late 1700s, there are flashes of Battle Of Buxar, the initial years of Britisher’s East India Company and beyond all this, we’ve Gossain look for his revenge. He gets hired by Noor Bai (Sonakshi Sinha) who has scars like Joker on her face but just one-sided (because if they were on both sides, it would’ve been considered as a copy).
It’s tough being a bounty hunter (and super-tough watching Saif being one in Laal Kaptaan), there are some ghosts (not literal) from the past haunting Gossain. He’s been followed by few men with the help of a tracker (Deepak Dobriyal) who can smell horse’s sh*t & find people. Saif is in the quest of reaching Rehmat Khan (Manav Vij) and the rest of the story is above how and when he finds him.
Laal Kaptaan Movie Review: Script Analysis
Navdeep Singh along with Deepak Venkatesha fail to land this outlandish tale of elongated boringness. The film starts on a brilliant note and you feel something interesting will pop up but that remains a wish till the end. With over 150 minutes, there are many decisive moments in the film which give out that it’s a mess hereon.
Shanker Raman’s cinematography is stunning, and I loved how well he has coordinated with Navdeep to make the action sequences very believable. Creepy characters, poetic dialogues, the mysterious setting doesn’t work for the duration of the film. As Saif exhausts and falls down in the last scene, my hopes soared because I knew it’s the end of the film. The feeling of watching this is similar to sitting in a dark room, without your phone and without any reason.
Laal Kaptaan Movie Review: Star Performance
Saif Ali Khan’s look has been worked on more than the story of the film. He hides behind that thick beard & deep-kohled eyes to intact the mystery around his character. This would’ve been a masterpiece performance if moulded with a different storyline. He’s brilliant but unfortunately in the wrong film.
Manav Vij’s controlled performance chills you at times but kills you at others. He portrays his character with utmost honesty but the development is just not interesting. Zoya Hussain embarked her first brilliant impression in Mukkabaaz and she’s very good here too. Simone Singh is effective. Deepak Dobriyal masters the unique traits of his character in the most animated way possible.
Laal Kaptaan Movie Review: Direction, Music
Navdeep Singh focuses a little too much to make this film look visually abstract. The raw and rustic locations are used well & Navdeep laces them beautifully with aerial drone shots. Action sequences shot in the dark use the fluorescent light and they look very good. The story is so routine that it just couldn’t hold you for a longer time.
Benedict Taylor & Naren Chandavarkar, the combo behind the BGM of movies like Newton, The Ship Of Theseus know how to use the silences. The score is here is subtle when required and gets loud when needed. A couple of songs are just used in the background and are no distraction.
Laal Kaptaan Movie Review: The Last Word
All said and done, Laal Kaptaan is just like that eccentric-looking person who you admire at first, but realise he’s extremely dull as soon as you have an interaction. SKIP IT!
Laal Kaptaan Trailer
Laal Kaptaan releases on 18th October 2019.