Laal Kaptaan

Worth watcing movie.....a journey of revenge....Good acting...story could be strong...

I am very generous with 10 as I am a sucker for Western films n it's rare to come across a Western film from Bollywood.

The story is set in the 18th century India n it is about a disturbed sadhu/ascetic who is on the hunt to seek revenge. The disturbed bounty hunter is on a killing spree n has spent two decades chasing his enemy. For the first time in Bollywood history, we r introduced to a man with no name.

We also have our desi tracker a la David Gulpilil, who can find out the whereabouts of any man or animal by just following his scent n he is aided by two ferocious hunting dogs.

After Sonchiriya, this is the second western to come out from Bollywood and while revenge is a common theme in Westerns, it is the harsh/rugged terrain which is a character itself in Western films. This film too has some splendid sun soaked dry settings like Sonchiriya. The cinematography brings the bleakest of environments to frightening life, aided by the fact that the locations were every bit as bleak as they appeared on screen in both the films.

This is not a conventional action film or a regular period film as such, its just a fiction mixed with some assumed real incidents. So for a different entertainment and flavor, this is good stuff.. Just sit back and enjoy the film and the shades, and the acting.. No judgments. If all try to be critics then who will be the audience. Just keep the pen and paper aside without writing down the good and the bad stuff.. And be a raw viewer for a better experience.

8/10

Plot: Around 1789 a Naga sadhu (Saif Ali Khan) who works as a bounty hunter gets wind of Rehmat Khan, a man he has been trying to find and kill for 25 years.

A Naga sadhu (Saif Ali Khan) Addressed in the film as Gossain has built a legend by bounty hunting. Some even calls him a ghost. He covers huge land and difficulties to find his target Rehmat Khan. The film revolves around the question who is he and why is he obsessed with this particular target.

Laal Kaptaan starts with a bang. We get to see some cool actions and amazing dialogues. Saif looks awesome in his Naga sadhu avatar. The whole first part is awesome. I enjoyed it.

The best part of the film is the tracker played by Deepak Dobriyal. His character is amazing so is his performance. His catch phrase is Howdodoo! For few gold coins he can track anyone. If this was The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, he would be the ugly.

For this type of film to succeed incredible acting is required, Deepak Dobriyal did and for the most part Saif Ali Khan did it too. The young man in beginning awaiting to be hanged was amazing too. Rest of the cast did not add much.

I found the music to be great as well, it accompanied with some amazing visual.

The self destruction of Rehmat Khan begs the question how he managed to live for so many years. The character of our Bad guy is incoherent and feels dead like the eyes of the actor who played it. But the worst actor credit goes to the widow (Zoya Hussain). It is a pain to see her ruining a superb film. Her character had to had the most depth but she ruined it. A cardboard has more emotional range. In the second part many unnecessary things were shown. And the film felt long.

I enjoyed the first half immensely also the climax. It is an enjoyable film. Also some of the dialogues are very impactful. Over all a very well written film.

Yes, there is revenge in the movie but the plot that leads is something different. Watch it if you like to watch different movies. The plot starts very slow but ends with thrill.