Since last couple of years it has been widely stated and discussed that Punjabi cinema is not able to come out of its vicious circle of comedy and even the viewers are more inclined towards light hearted comic movies alone instead of anything else. The statement is quite true, but it’s not the complete truth since the makers are also equally responsible for this visible mess as they deliberately incorporate comedy in almost every other film irrespective of its genre or the script’s basic theme.
For instance, here in KAPTAAN we have a decent investigative court-room drama with all elements of making it a thrilling ride, but the makers again present it in a usual comic manner, remaining trapped in the same vicious circle of comedy due to a fear of rejection, finding no courage of making any kind of major breakthrough into the Punjabi cinema. The fact gets proved right from the first scene itself when a typical, comic background score reveals the basic vision behind the film walking on the same rotten path of comedy (otherwise being condemned by one and all).
Further what can one say about a project that is loudly projected as a court room drama, whereas its court case not even begins till the intermission. So all you get to see in the first half are long introductions with the usual forced jokes, comic sequences and songs including a ‘must-add’ romance element bringing in the glamour factor. The story doesn’t even begin properly in the first half and the focus returns back to the case in the final hour only giving you some moments of entertainment as required.
No doubt the film having a better second half has much more chances of winning over the viewers, but if you are well aware of some worth watching court room dramas made both in Indian and World cinema bringing you on to edge of your seats then KAPTAAN falls way short of them all and turns out to be a quite amateurish product looking at the way the case ends in a highly laughable manner. Putting it differently, if you haven’t seen any court room drama before and ready to accept anything served in this genre in the name of entertainment then the choice is all yours, but being a die-hard fan of intense court room dramas made in our regional and world languages, for me KAPTAAN is nothing but a desperate attempt to make something different without leaving the avoidable comic tone, largely inspired from a Hit Hindi film released in the year 2013. But keeping this inspiration angle for the last, would like to give you a hard to believe information about how the courts actually function in the real life.
Last year the award winning Marathi classic film COURT had a severely shocking scene wherein the Judge refuses to hear a case as the lady coming forward is wearing inappropriate revealing dress, disrespecting the sanctity of the court (cut sleeves to be precise). The scene was included just to depict the harsh reality and ironically KAPTAAN had just the opposite in its execution maintaining the glamour quotient.
Besides when it came up with a scene where a lady witness cries, gets down from the witness box and walks out of the court without even asking the permission of the honourable judge on her own, then I could only smile with heads down and could do nothing else.
In addition or rather most importantly, the court case in KAPTAAN is about proving the identity of a person who has been already declared dead by his relatives as a conspiracy to sell his property to a builder. Now during the case, the victim accepts that he has no official papers to prove his identity. However in the end, as the name of the actual person killed in his place gets revealed, the case finishes off all of a sudden, whereas the original identity of the victim still isn’t proved by any official documents. May be the judge was eager to go home after making a quick decision or the makers were eager to finish the film in the given duration.
In the technical department, its cinematography gives you nothing exceptional and the background score remains uneven, disturbing a lot in the first half stressing upon a comical feel. The chroma sequences (of abroad) shown in the beginning get caught very easily and the average songs thrown in randomly hinder the pace as usual. Particularly the one pub song added post (appx.) 100 minutes in the film, clearly reveals that it was forcefully done on either the producer’s or Gippy’s own demand without any doubt.
Full of all casual, carefree performances given in an over confident mode, the film is one of those ‘typical hero-oriented’ projects wherein neither the director nor the writers are interested in talking about anyone else than the leading star, Gippy Grewal. And it’s this silly star system only that is actually ruining the whole Punjabi film industry if told bluntly. The ladies are just there because they have to be in a film playing the love interest and an associate is also there just to add some quick comic punches every 5-10 minutes into the film taking care of the ‘much needed’ laughter.
In short the only scene that brings in some kind of thrill in its narration is the one where Gippy finds the scribbling made on the wall by the mad witness and the only two actors who remain impressive in their short appearances are Harsharan Singh as the Inspector and Daljinder Basran as the victim claiming his stolen identity. In addition I would personally like to applaud the use of a thoughtful verse of living legend Dr. Surjit Pattar in the film’s widely seen trailer. But at the same time I wish the name was more prominently mentioned, introducing the ‘unmissable poet’ to the current net-age generation searching for their peace in drugs.
Coming to the inspired aspect of the film, this is second Punjabi clone of award winning Hindi hit JOLLY LLB (2013) in the last six months, the first being JUDGE SINGH LLB released in December 2015. And if this isn’t an alarming indication of lack of subjects in the present Punjabi cinema then I don’t know what else can be. Moreover where JUDGE SINGH LLB did have its own merits of performances and new angles incorporated in the script, KAPTAAN follows the original more blatantly in terms of characterizations and sequences, becoming a much poorer, less impressive clone in comparison.
In all, the state of Punjabi Cinema today reminds me of my visit to GUJARAT a couple of decades back, when our team was pretty surprised to see ‘sugar’ added in almost every dish unconditionally in the hotels even in ‘Sambhar’. I don’t know whether it’s still done the same way or not, but Punjabi Cinema now seems to be following a similar tradition of adding Comedy into anything and everything they make defying all the logic. With a hope that sanity returns back soon with some sensible commercial projects, just skip this film and watch JOLLY LLB instead, if you still haven’t.
Rating : 1.5 / 5
