Custody Movie review: Not so great Tamil debut for Naga Chaitanya

Cast: Akkineni Naga Chaitanya, Krithi Shetty, Arvind Swami, Priyamani, Sarathkumar, Sampath Raj, Premgi Amaren, Vennela Kishore, Premi Vishwanath, and others

Writer and Director: Venkat Prabhu

Producers: Srinivasaa Chitturi

Music Director: Ilaiyaraaja and Yuvan Shankar Raja

Cinematographer: SR Kathir

Rating: 2.5/5

Naga Chaitanya and Krithi Shetty are pairing up again for their upcoming film, “Custody.” This is their second collaboration after their previous successful film, “Bangarraju.” Famous Tamil director Venkat Prabhu is the director of the film. This film is a cop-action drama with an interesting plot line. The trailer gave a glimpse of the film’s action sequences, chases, and other elements too. The film hits the theatres and let’s see how it fares at box-office.

Story

Constable Shiva (Naga Chaitanya), a small-town guy, is deeply in love with Revathi (Krithi Shetty). The girl’s parents do not approve of their love. One day Shiva arrests gangster Raju (Arvind Swami) and a CBI officer George (Sampath) accidentally. Shiva learns through the CBI officer that Raju needs to be produced in Bangalore court. But Raju has the support of CM Dakshyani (Priyamani) and the entire government. Determined, Shiva chooses to produce Raju in the court and starts fighting against all the odds. In this journey, Revathi too joins him. Did Shiva succeed in his attempt? What challenges did Shiva undergo to protect the truth forms the crux of the story.

Analysis

The plot of “Custody,” directed by Venkat Prabhu is extremely thin. There isn’t much to the plot other than a constable and a rowdy having to work together to get to court on time. A number of Hollywood movies, including “Midnight Run” and “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” come to mind. However, Venkat Prabhu has stated that the critically acclaimed Malayalam film “Nayattu” (2021) served as inspiration for him to make this film because he wanted to reframe the theme in a more commercial way.

But whatever the case may be, “Custody” fails to deliver more than a few fleeting thrills. The plot’s single-point drive runs out of fuel before arriving at its destination.

When Arvind Swamy’s character enters the spotlight, the film truly shines. This is provided, of course, that you ignore the customary romantic track between Naga Chaitanya and Krithi Shetty at the beginning. Fantastic work in the nearly half-hour episode preceding the intermission. Action episode set in a reservoir is not only exciting but also brings a freshness to the action scenes. The interval bang raises questions about who is on which side.

But the film loses its focus and becomes tedious in the second half due to the inclusion of numerous extraneous elements. The only thing you can think of at the film’s inevitable conclusion is that it could have benefited from being a little more concise. Venkat Prabhu, as a writer and director, shows realism and his mark of direction in the middle section, but he then goes off the rails. There is also no logic in setting the story in 1996.

On a whole, “Custody” is an action drama that is captivating in the middle act but drags in the third act. A more condensed narrative would have made more sense.

Performances

Naga Chaitanya playing Shiva fits the bill perfectly of a sincere and honest cop who doesn’t go overboard on the aggressive side. It makes it look like a close-to-real portrayal. Unfortunately, that’s the best thing about the part, as it lacks depth and misses big time on the emotional side or intensity. The character of Shiva doesn’t go beyond surface-level niceties. It isn’t elevated anywhere and looks like another casually done part with no impact. The realism in the presentation and also action without depth make it look flat and ineffective. It has a sincerity about it, but that’s it. Kriti Shetty gets another lacklustre role that fails to give anything memorable to her. She is neither utilised on the glamour side nor even her performance explored. And yet the character remains present throughout. It is an ordinary-looking part that ends in a similar vein and eventually turns out as another forgettable outing despite a lengthy screen time.

Aravind Swamy’s character appears to be very intriguing at first but by the end of the movie, we realize that it was poorly written. Priyamani, who plays the Chief Minister, Sarath Kumar as a rogue police officer, and Vennela Kishore as the groom, all get lot of screen time and did justice to their given roles. Goparaju Ramana, in a small but important role as Naga Chaitanya’s father, shines. The film also has cameo appearances from Ramky, Jeeva and Anandini.

Technicalities

Writer-director Venkat Prabhu did a below-par job with “Custody.” Venkat Prabhu got it wrong with the screenplay, and lost control over the entire second half. The film never recovers post the interval, and the proceedings from thereon are pretty dull. It was also said that the latter half would have edge-of-the-seat moments, but there were none. Given his track record and the kind of subjects Venkat Prabhu came up with, one would surely have good expectations, but the film doesn’t reach them at all.

It was surprising to see such mediocre work from the great Ilaiyaraaja and Yuvan Shankar Raja. The songs are pretty bad, and the background score is also not that great. Better BGM could have helped a few scenes. The cinematography by SR Kathir is neat. The editing is below par as the film feels a bit lengthy, especially due to the second half. The VFX works are shabby.