Captain Miller

"Captain Miller" delivers an action-packed thrill ride with a unique blend of Indian flair and intense sequences reminiscent of "John Wick." Dhanush shines as the titular character, bringing depth and authenticity to the role. The film's emotional depth adds richness to the story, while the background score creates goosebumps-inducing moments throughout. Director Arun Matheswaran impresses with his ability to balance action and emotion, making every scene captivating. Despite its lengthy runtime, the movie's pacing may feel slow for some, especially in action-heavy sequences. However, the gripping plot and surprising twists keep viewers engaged until the very end. The female characters also shine with their brutal and action-packed performances, adding to the film's intensity. While the violence may not be for everyone, it adds to the overall impact of the story. With a tantalizing hint at a potential sequel or spin-off in the final moments, "Captain Miller" leaves audiences eager for more adventures in its thrilling world.

It is more like a 6.5. It's a good, raw, rustic period action adventure film. Ofcourse Dhanush's performance is great as usual and one of the main attractions of the film. Cinematography is nice. BGM is nice. Action is nice. Locations are nice. Technically the film stands strong. The portrayal of British is appropriately evil and surprisingly, the white actors do a great job. The performances are all solid. But the plot itself causes an emotional disconnect. Overall, it is a well made film. I don't mind the depiction of casteism in post-colonial India but I can't get behind this narrative of Indian "upper-caste" kings enslaving the tribals/"lower-caste" people and not allowing them to enter the temples built by them before British. Actually, before British, there were Mughals/Is.lamic invaders.

Easa basically compares the brutality of British colonialism to being enslaved by Hindu kings and questions who will actually get the independence from the British if they joined the independence movement. The word caste comes from Portuguese. British race scientist Herbert Hope Risley is notable for the formal application of the caste system to the entire Hindu population of British India in the 1901 census, of which he was in charge. As an exponent of scientific racism, he used anthropometric data to divide Indians into seven races. The villagers oppressed by "upper-caste" Indians win when they are able to enter the temple after Miller kills one nasty, sadist "upper-caste" Indian who couldn't bear the villagers stepping inside the temple. In the epilogue, we are led to believe that the "upper-caste" rulers along with the pie.ce of sh.it sycophant who managed to escape want to take revenge against Captain Miller for the king's death. I don't want to see more sadist brown sepoys, casteist rulers against tribals during peak colonial India. In movies like these, there should not be any Indian villains. The only villains should be the British like in RRR. At least this movie is much better than Shamshera. I loved Captain Miller kil.ling all the British men. Imagine a movie set during Na.zi Germany where some Je.ws are conspiring with the Na.zis and then we get a franchise about Je.ws vs Je.ws.

It's one of those movies. The type of ones Dhanush has a tendency to take on. And you can't fault him for it... It has worked well for him in the past, and it continues to work well today, except maybe with a few hiccups here and there. Captain Miller is a little more on the blockbuster side of it, and it sees Dhanush playing the eponymous character; a guilt ridden soldier turned bandit/ revolutionary during the British occupation of India.

Themes of caste, patriotism, rights, exploitation and revolution are pretty heavy handed in this movie, and while that can allow the script to get a little carried away into comical territories at times, it still manages to keep things consistently loud, raw and pacy. It's not a ground-breaking exploration of these issues, but it's nonetheless entertaining. It's technically sound and visually impressive too. The actors all did their part in bringing this movie to life, and all of that contributes towards the success of this movie.

Also, shoutout to the random stranger seated behind me in the cinema hall, who was so invested in the film that he screamed "saavuda sakkiliyane" when Dhanush commits his first act of revenge against his British captain.

My first theater watch of the year and it does use the big screen and sound impressively. But there are few movies that despite finding it to be very predictable, with so many moments that feel wasted, the emotions not hitting as they should and still come out satisfied with the end product like this. There are so many things going on in this movie, that it could have taken a lot of directions. Here, they chose to focus the most on the action and there are some great setpieces. Arun Matheshwaran knows how to make a frame look incredible and he does that brilliantly throughout the movie. There's so much that is told through framing and composition alone without actually saying anything. But unlike Rocky which followed an arthouse approach, this is a fully commercial approach without going overboard.

The problem with the movie is that there are so many characters and events happening that the emotions they are trying to convey are not fully realized on screen as they want to be. It felt like there might be a much longer cut that would properly justify and convey the emotions and if there is, that could be truly great.

Shiva Rajkumar was nice in his role. But his and Sundeep Kishan's roles really felt like they needed more screen time to give the full impact that was intended. Even Priyanka Mohan's character who had decent screen time lacked the proper writing for a lot of things to make sense.

In a way, it also felt like the familiarity of the way the story unfolds was also utilized to not explain a lot of things too much.

The dialogue about why the protagonist is joining the British army despite the freedom struggle happening was the high point in terms of writing in my opinion. That was used as a pivot point to start the journey. The action-packed nature of the movie also kind of lessened the impact of some of the more horrific stuff happening. But still, the action was terrific and even if the director falters when he tries to use the star elements of the actors, it doesn't go too much into the star worship level things that these types of films do.

GV Prakash Kumar's music is also a huge part of the movie as it really elevated a lot of the scenes and at times also made apparent why some aspects needed better writing.

It is unnecessary to say that Dhanush did a fantastic job but a lot of times the character became more than what is written because of his acting. He brought depth through performance that was not explored enough through writing and direction.

Ashraf Mallissery speaking Malayalam instead of Tamil when he's agitated is something I enjoyed in both this and Rocky. But the Malayalam audience in the theatre sure loved that dialogue.

Despite all of its problems, I enjoyed the movie a lot. The theatre experience was a blast and I really hope they have an extended cut for this.

One of the best action movie ever made, just brought in mad max frames into it. A kinda of mixed with both real and imagination story. A movie well crafted and written. Arun has just nailed it, his writting is basically picturisation, which has worked in this movie perfectly. The guns and actions which is not overdosed and at an average phase. The hype mass element was suttle and accepting . My kinda action movie, it has a strong writting and an amazing screenplay. Arun matheshwaran style. Dhanush, oh man he always rocks with his performances, he is a man on a mission. An amazing performance. He brought the glipmses of veerappan. Songs were ok but bgm was rock hard from gv. All the others did their role to perfect. My fav one was shivaraj cameo which has worked so well. One of the best mass entertainer ever. Overall an amazingly crafted movie. Please do watch in theaters. Dhanushs best.