Movie Review: Kaptaan, Punjabi Movie
Movie Review: Kaptaan, Punjabi Movie

Star cast: Gippy Grewal, Pankaj Dheer, Umang Sharma, Monica Gill, Karishma Kotak, Baljinder Basran, Kanwaljit Singh, Amar Talwar, Rana Jung Bahadur, Gurinder Makna

Director: Mandeep Kumar

Producer: Tips Industries Private Limited (Kumar Taurani)

Music: DJ Flow, Jaidev Kumar, B Praak

Genre: Drama

Running Time: 142 minutes (U/A Certified)

Synopsis: Kaptaan Singh Grewal (Gippy Grewal) is a carefree advocate who has no ambition in life. Marrying an NRI girl and settling in America- that’s not an ambition! Anyways his marriage is fixed to Sam (Karishma Kotak) but Kaptaan’s father wants his son to win at least one solid case before he gets married. Preeti (Monica Gill) gets Kaptaan that much needed case. Sukha (Daljinder Basran) returns from UK to find out that he’s declared dead by law and his Shareeka has sold off his ancestry property by declaring him dead. Kaptaan takes over Sukha’s case and fights for his justice. Opposing Kaptaan in the court is Adv. Dhillon (Pankaj Dheer) who hasn’t lost a case in last 30 years. Will Kaptaan bring justice to Sukha?

Review: Kaptaan narrates the journey of truth and the system of law which judges the truth in the form of an entertainer. There have been many films made on the account of truth being hidden and then the justice system coming into play in India and even in Punjabi Cinema it’s the 2nd in 6 months after Judge Singh LLB. Director Mandeep Kumar re-unites with his Jihne Mera Dil Lutiya actor Gippy Grewal.

Kaptaan’s story and screenplay has been written by Dheeraj Rattan. Dheeraj has written a very sharp and interesting screenplay which gets too intense in various parts of the film especially the Court room scenes, the confrontation of Kaptaan and Dhillon in the pre and post interval sequences and the murder sequence. The screenplay is a mix of both – humour and seriousness and all in all its powerful enough to maintain the interest of the viewer.

Coming to the dialogues, they’ve been penned by Surmeet Maavi and Balraj Syal. Both the talented writers have complimented the screenplay well and written some witty, powerful and convincing dialogues. You laugh at some really dialogues and some you carry out with you when you walk out of the hall. All in all a good job done here as well.

Coming to Direction, Mandeep Kumar let’s his skills and screenplay do the talking. His last outing Ambarsariya may not have earned him some brownie points as a director but here it’s all there – entertainment, intensity, authoritative control, all those things a film wants from it’s director. You name it, Mandeep has provided it. The film boasts of some powerful courtroom sequences which you sit back and enjoy. Also I want to mention a flashback type of sequence which Kaptaan is narrating to Balli in the beginning minutes and that sequence shows Mandeep’s powerful stamp as a director.

When it comes to the performances, it’s none other than Gippy Grewal who steals the show. I might fall short of adjectives describing his performance as Adv. Kaptaan Singh Grewal. Gippy is supreme as an actor here and be it his coming timing, intensity, enthusiasm. With this performances, Gippy sheds the weight of some of his forgettable films in the last year and a half and delivers a compelling performance. Surprising many in this film is the Laughter Di Shaan winner Umang Sharma as Balli. He shares virtually almost every scene with Gippy Grewal and has a superb comic timing in the film.

Kaptaan also had 2 heroines – Monica Gill & Karishma Kotak. Monica still had 10-12 scenes but her performance lacks the meat and Karishma Kotak, well she was there for 2 scenes, a song, a Skype Call and the climax. The performances here came from the support cast which was filled with some talented names. Pankaj Dheer is top notch in a role that seems tailor-made for him. He is filled with arrogance, aggressiveness and over confidence. It was a delight to see Kanwaljit Singh in a Punjabi film after a long time. Daljinder Basra, last seen in Punjab 1984 delivers a good performance yet again.

Music here was all right. Oscar is a Blockbuster and Redua, 26-26 and Rabba were all right.

Overall, Kaptaan is a perfect entertainment dosage which Punjabi Cinema fans had been missing from their star ‘Gippy Grewal’. Yes, he’s back and with a BANG. You won’t be disappointed this time around. Just watch Kaptaan to believe it yourself.