Lal Kaptan: Directors Ripp Off Of A Good Story

Director Naveed Singh’s Lal Kaptaan seems to be heavily inspired by Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western, at least for the first half.  The 120-minute long film produces more yawns than gasp. 

Like Sergio Leone’s film the protagonist of Lal Kaptaan has no name, he is referred to as Gosain. Dressed in a British coat,  lunghi, dreadlocks and of course, the ashes, Gosain (Saif Ali Khan) is a man thirsty for the blood of Rehmat Khan (Manav Vij). Why is he looking for revenge is something the movie hold till the end credits roll. Till then we just left to wonder with Gosain’s utterly boring quest to find Rehmat Khan. And it has nothing to do with Saif’s acting but everything to do with an extremely underwritten character sketch, something which is common throughout the film.

Don’t get us wrong the director tried to ignite interest using background score or closeup like Sergio. But there is only one issue Sergio’s background score is specially tailored or the character and the moment and his close up shows introspecting faces. They are not just any random noise used to give a dramatic effect. 

In the first half, we see Gosain as a bounty hunter. All of a sudden the character’s motives are changed when he meets a woman named Noor Bai. Woman who happens to have the location of where the Rehmat Khan. We are slowly introduced the interesting entourage of characters like, of a mad man and his band of handsome dogs who trace out any person you want by their smell. The core dynamics of these characters remains unexplored. Their actions fail to correspond their desire, their motive layed out in plain sight. By the second half Gosain, all he wants to do is kill Rehmat khan but every time he comes close to it he gives it away as easily as possible.

This all just indicates to the poorly written characters. Everything is given way easily and lack of subplot make the main plot as bland as it gets. The story in its totality because the director is not sure what is that one motive or factors that are driving the plot forward.

The film is full of continuity error; a spear vanishes from the dead body, actress teleport herself from one side of the boat to the other. However the cinematography of Shanker Raman burst with colours, night scenes look fake but their beauty will convince you to overlook the poor CGI attempt. 

All these factors contribute to the film’s failure to engage the audience emotionally. However, the films like the Star Wars had the potential to be saved in the edit. Also because one of the major reason that the film failed to make an emotional connect was it is rapid editing. The viewer were not given enough time to sink in. The disconnect in the story and lack of emotional conviction strongly indicate that the film might not do well on the box office.

Star: 1.5/5