Custody Movie Review

Naga Chaitanya signed up for a full-length action movie Custody for the first time and he joined hands with Tamil director Vikram Prabhu. The trailer looked intense with Aravind Swamy, Sarath Kumar, and Priyamani as important characters. The movie was released today in theaters. Here is the review. 

What Is It About? 

An ordinary police constable Shiva (Naga Chaitanya) who is struggling to get married to his girlfriend Revathi (Krithi Shetty) gets into a big conspiracy. Shiva vows to bring a notorious criminal Raju (Aravind Swamy) to court but the whole department of his does not want him to, including the state CM Dakshayani (Priyamani). What did Raju do and why is Shiva so stubborn to bring him to justice? The answer to these questions is Custody. 

Performances

Naga Chaitanya is alright in the movie. He did fine in the action parts and that is all. Aravind Swamy did well and he engages whenever he appears in the frame. The narration is a mess and even the talented actor like Aravind Swamy could not keep the audience connected to it. Krithi Shetty is routine. Sarath Kumar is boring. Vennela Kishore brings some laughs here and there. Priyamani played a guest role and she is fine. Ramki’s character is not needed at all. Jiiva and Anandhi did fine in their roles. 

Technicalities

Except for the refreshing plotline, Custody has nothing that works. The execution is so poor that it gets more irritating as it advances. The screenplay is uneven. Too many action scenes and chases that are boasted about did not help Custody in any way. The background music doesn’t make an impact and the songs are the biggest minus for the movie. None of the songs are good, in fact, they are the biggest hurdles for the audience. 

Thumbs Up

Plotline
Aravind Swamy

Thumbs Down

Narration
Songs & BGM
Lack of depth

Analysis

Custody is one powerful title Naga Chaitanya got and also the plot line is interesting. It all falls flat with the weak narration, repeated chase scenes, and mainly the songs. Custody has a good plot of a constable’s relentless effort to bring a criminal to justice while all influential forces are standing against him on his way. For starters, the story is heavily ‘inspired’ by the Hollywood movies Safe House and Assault At Precinct 13.

First things first, the first half of Custody is mostly boring with two songs and a dead slow love track in the first half. The story appears to pick up at the pre-interval but again turns boring with the unnecessary and lengthy fights at the interval. While the story is predictable, it could still be gripping and enthralling with the emotions and conversations between the lead characters. The narrative graph goes flat with a ton of chases, and action sequences that don’t let us connect to the important characters. 

The second half also moves forward in the same tone again with more fights and chase sequences. At one point, it appears like a set of sequences coming and going one after the other, but none build the intensity in it. Many times when Sarath Kumar enters, Naga Chaitanya’s character appears completely sidelined. In yet another boring repeat, the directors brought up the bullet-raining gun episode that has been overused of late, except it looks like a cheaper version in Custody. It is not an exaggeration that a chaotic wedding song between the chase, and a predictable flashback with a bonding song literally test the patience of the audience. The love track resurfaces now and then but it looks more and more artificial towards the end. 

The director tried to maintain the curiosity behind the story of Raju’s character which is needed, but after a point, it gets boring due to the lack of its depth in the story. The suspense element of Raju should be becoming strong as the story progresses, instead, it turns stale. Apart from the poor screenplay, the dialogues also played the spoilsport. Some dialogues and scenes are directly brought from the movie Safe House. The emotional flashback of Shiva is utmost boring and his citing the reason for what he is doing contradicts his professional reasons with the personal. 

A layered story like Custody needs effective acting, good dialogues, and direction. Unfortunately, Custody has none of them. Though Aravind Swamy does his part, the lack of depth in his character cuffs his hands. Also, the love track that runs along the main story is also a culprit as it never lets the audience get acquainted with the seriousness of it. Not just that, the director’s liking for comedy barges in some scenes where it is not needed. With more of Telugu-native Tamil actors like Jiiva, Vaibhav, Aravind Swamy, and Anandhi, Custody looks like a dubbed movie in many instances. 

During an action part, Aravind Swamy gives expression of being fed up to see and fight Sarath Kumar again. The audience could relate to that expression very well. Overall, Custody is a travel of a rookie cop and a high-profile fugitive that could have had a lot of intensity and emotions but is filled with repetitive extended fights and routine narrative instead. 

Bottomline: Escape From Custody

Rating: 2.25/5