Laal Kaptaan

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.

I havent posted a review for 7 -8 years.. This forced my hand. First of all Saif may not be important at the Box office but boy is he doing some good stuff. This movie completely bowled me over.. An absolute masterpiece. Woh Zakhm hi kya jo dikh jaye..

Finally, we get to see our Cinema experimenting outside traditional boundaries.

People who didn't like this movie will probably hate iconic films such as good bad and ugly, taxi driver or raging bull, but these films are showcased as examples of fine film making around the world.

IMO, Lal Kaptaan is an extremely well made film that deserves it's recognition in our industry. Indian cinema needs more creative projects like this, or else we will be stuck with another four installments of mindless "Dhoom's" and "War's"!

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.

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