Custody

Custody, directed by Venkat Prabhu, is an entirely soulless movie amid huge expectations. The story follows a police officer who is assigned to take a criminal to court but the police department wants the criminal dead. The wafer-thin storyline sounded interesting on paper but the writing has ruined the execution. The writing was loosely written and it did not make sense as a whole. The screenplay has made the film go even worse, prolonging the movie. As the movie continued, the film was creating more boredom. The flashback episode was written cliche and made the film predictable. The direction went utterly wrong, despite having decent expectations of the director. The performances were decent with Aravind Swamy's performance being the best. The only highlight of the film was the action sequences, especially the underwater and police station sequences, which were stylishly designed. The music was not composed well and was not suited to the script at all. The production value was decent for the movie. Overall, the film is a lackluster film not leaving much to watch.

In 2023, the discourse surrounding child custody in India continued to evolve, largely shaped by judicial pronouncements and a sustained emphasis on the "best interests of the child" principle. While the legal framework for custody largely remained anchored in existing statutes like the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, and personal laws (such as the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956), the judiciary consistently interpreted and applied these laws with a child-centric approach.

A significant theme in 2023 was the increasing recognition of the child's voice in custody matters. Courts, particularly the Supreme Court, demonstrated a willingness to consider the preferences of mature minor children, recognizing that their emotional and psychological well-being is paramount. A December 2023 Supreme Court ruling specifically highlighted the significance of a 12-year-old child's strong preference to live with their father, ultimately granting custody accordingly while ensuring visitation rights for the mother. This reflects a shift from a purely parental rights perspective to one that prioritizes the child's intelligent choice and agency.

While the general principle still holds that mothers are often preferred for the custody of children below five years of age due to the "tender age" doctrine, 2023 also saw reaffirmations that this is not an absolute rule. The courts continue to assess each case individually, considering the mother's capacity, and if circumstances dictate, custody can be granted to the father or even a third party if it serves the child's welfare better. Factors such as the moral and ethical upbringing, physical and emotional well-being, and the stability of the environment offered by each parent remain crucial considerations.

Joint custody arrangements continued to gain traction in 2023 as a preferred model, reflecting a growing understanding that children benefit from maintaining strong bonds with both parents, even after separation or divorce. This doesn't necessarily imply shared physical residence but rather shared legal custody, where both parents are involved in major decisions concerning the child's education, healthcare, and overall welfare. Courts are increasingly encouraging parents to cooperate to foster this shared responsibility.

The digital age also started to play a more discernible role in custody cases in 2023. Digital evidence, including text messages, emails, and social media activity, is increasingly being presented and considered by courts to assess parental fitness and the overall environment being provided to the child. The impact of "parental alienation syndrome" through technology, where one parent attempts to manipulate a child's relationship with the other, also came under judicial scrutiny, with courts acknowledging the psychological effect on children and using digital evidence to understand such complaints.

Despite these progressive interpretations, challenges persist. The lack of a uniform codified law for child custody across all religions in India can lead to complexities when personal laws intersect with general statutes. However, the consistent judicial emphasis on the "welfare principle" serves as a guiding light, ensuring that the child's best interests override specific provisions of personal laws in cases of conflict.

In essence, 2023 solidified the trend in Indian custody jurisprudence towards a more nuanced, child-centric approach. The courts continued to move beyond traditional notions of parental rights, prioritizing the child's welfare, considering their wishes when mature, and encouraging shared parenting responsibilities wherever feasible. The increasing relevance of digital evidence also highlighted the evolving nature of family law in response to societal and technological changes.

Positives.

1. Story.

Though this movie's concept is familiar, the potential of some characters such as Nataraj (played by Sarathkumar) and Raju aka Raazu (played by Aravind Swamy), and their arcs make this a great story on paper. However, due to the messy, half-baked screenplay and the poor execution by Venkat Prabhu, the potential of this movie gets diluted making this movie feel like lost potential.

2. Visuals.

Despite the cinematography not enhancing the movie and even though there are some aspects of the production design, setting, and the lighting in some parts of the movie that are out of place, the visuals, for the most part the visuals look good.

Negatives.

1. Music.

The music of the movie is very mediocre. Neither does it sound good nor does it help enhance the emotions of the movie. Along with that, apart from Timeless Love-which was beautifully and aptly picturized IMO-none of the other songs are picturized well as the choreography was normal, the cinematography, specifically the blocking-there was a lot of generic and still blocking in the songs-was mediocre, and the editing-although was slightly different some times-was also generic so much so that it'll probably remind you of intro and duet songs of many movie set in a college backdrop. Due to this, the song picturizations were very generic and boring, Coupled with this, due to the director adding many unnecessary commercial elements to this movie, pretty much all the songs were unnecessary in the proceedings. Coming to the BGM, the BGM wasn't great at all. It didn't sound great or make the audience feel tensed throughout the movie, which it should've done for an action movie like this. And what do great mass BGMs do? They make the audience feel like badasses too, but none of the movie's BGMs did that.

2. Editing.

Due to the bad editing, there isn't an organic flow between many scenes, especially in the first 45 minutes. Along with that, in the action sequences, the editing could've helped made the movie more exhilarating if there were more quick cuts instead of just the usual slo-mo shots, but since that's not the case, the movie's action sequences seem boring and generic.

3. Screenplay.

The structure of this movie goes like this. The director introduces the movie's main character, Shiva (played by Naga Chaitanya), then shows us his life, who he loves, and the conflicts and relationships between him and other characters before introducing the main conflict of the movie. Though it's understandable that the director took this decision to get us to care about Shiva and Revathi (played by Krithi Shetty), the director stretches this part of the movie for around 30-45 min. When it should've been shorter. Due to the length of the first act, we don't care about the aforementioned characters enough to be engaged in the movie later on. Later on into the movie, there are many logical issues throughout the screenplay and some stupid jokes that dilute the tension. Along with that, Venkat Prabhu stretches some scenes for way too long slowing down the pacing even more making the screenplay of the movie even messier. Coming to the characters, Nataraj and Raju are characters that I thought were different than your usual antagonists, but that's only on paper, Shiva and Revathi were characters which needed more emotional connect for us to be engaged with them on their journey, as they're generically written, and other important characters such as CM Dakshayani (played by Priyamani) and Shiva's father (played by Gopuraju Ramana) were very underwritten and as a result, some scenes become diluted. Also, there were many unnecessary commercial elements in the movie that became speed-breakers and made the slightly unbearable at times.

4. Direction.

Despite the poorly written screenplay, if Venkat Prabhu had directed the movie well, the movie probably would've been an average watch if not a decent one. However, that's not the case. Due to many decisions he took throughout the movie, such as the decision to not cut too much in action sequences, add commercial elements in the story, and to get Sarathkumar to dub with his own voice, ruined the movie quite a bit. If you want to go about it a bit deeper, many action sequences could've used better direction and editing, but due to the decision aforementioned, the action sequences become less exhilarating and a bit boring. Coming to the performances, the director brought mediocre performances from pretty much everyone, including Aravind Swamy. Though this may be due to the writing, everybody gave average performances that weren't good enough to engage us in the movie or even try to save it.

Overall: This movie, which is probably one of Venkat Prabhu's weakest works, could've been a lot better if the writing and technical aspects were as good as the visuals.

The essence of this film can be summarised in a line delivered by Chay to Jiiva, "These serious lines are not fitting for you... You follow the normal, jolly route that works for you". If VP follows this, the director will be happier.

The problem in this film is that all twists and turns are normal, easily predictable and cliched. At least, the film makes you sweat with the nail-biting tension running throughout the film. Naga-chaitanya was given due respect, and a lot of mass build-up scenes with effects. So, we cannot say Andhra-Tamil concept was a flaw.

The heroine is a great addition to the film, with her own complex equations brought into the dynamics. Aravind Swamy's complex witty character is a welcome breeze in this otherwise intense film. Ramki's swag with an army machine gun also makes quite a scene in a tense turn.

However, all scenes give us a feel that we have already seen these somewhere else. Jiiva's character is in particular one-dimensional, with a foolhardy nature. With such a low situational awareness, how could he become a cop?! (Not noticing hazards falling in a chaotic site). Maybe this explains why the cops were so weak in this movie. One welcome break is that Premji somehow works as a villain with a disgusting, vile presence. (The politicians were like jokers in the film. Sarath's character was at least demonic in his smoking scenes. The car driver who tries to give a lift, but lusts after the heroine though - could he get any sillier?)

We have to admit that one major blunder was to let go of Aravind Swamy's character in the end, just for the sake of innovation. The following scenes were even more disastrous. With better writing, and perhaps some more character depth to all roles, this could have been different. Still, if one has nothing better to do, one can watch this film for the unique 90's style filmmaking.

You have to admire the obvious talent and the unabashed gratuitous enjoyment of so many genres merged together with momentary comedic relief and themes for the first hour that will make you chuckle.

The leads do a nice job with delivery of comedic script and choreography.

Custody is worth your money to gain some worldly perspective of cerebrated talent and art.

Yet, the producer and director could certainly have derived three works of art from all they have to work with here.

Custody is a gumbo of entertainment that is palatable and fun for a bit but could have been enjoyed and consumed more easily had a few ingredients been saved for separate additional efforts.