Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
“Custody” features one of the most cringe-worthy “heroic” entrances I’ve seen in a while – the chief minister’s cavalcade is passing by a road with much pomp and show when a constable swerves through the crowd, removing barricades to allow an ambulance to pass. While he angers senior cops for halting the chief minister’s convoy, the politician appreciates his actions, praising him for prioritizing a citizen’s life over comfort. Ohoooo! This type of introductory scene is designed to elicit whistles and applause from the audience in a theater. However, it’s difficult not to feel some disdain for a politician who blocks roads for their own convenience and then feigns concern for inconveniencing the common man. But well, the film is set in the 1990s, a time when the “VIP red beacon” culture was rampant, and top politicians regularly brought entire cities’ traffic to a halt.
Directed by Venkat Prabhu, who co-wrote the script with Abburi Ravi, “Custody” stars Naga Chaitanya Akkineni as the honest constable Shiva. He finds himself pitted against the entire state police when he decides to assist CBI officer George (Sampath Raj) in transporting a notorious criminal from police custody to a court in Bengaluru. The film thuse becomes truly interesting only after the entry of Arvind Swami, who portrays Raju, the wanted criminal pursued by the CBI. Arvind is despicably entertaining as a drunk brash crime-boss, who kills people like squatting mosquitoes and is confident he’d get away with anything due to his political links.
Krithi Shetty plays Revathi, Shiva’s girlfriend, whose family forcefully arranges her marriage to Prem (Vennela Kishore). In an act of rebellion, she runs away from home on the same night Shiva is entrusted with the responsibility of escorting Raju to court. The decision to burden Shiva with Revathi’s talkative presence, while he is transporting a criminal, was unnecessary. While the creators try to provide comic-relief with her banter, it only serves to disrupt the pace of the action-thriller.
In addition to the poorly timed comedy, “Custody” suffers from an excessive number of songs throughout its runtime. These songs are mediocre and can be completely skipped. For instance, during the climax when the tension is high and the protagonists are in a life-or-death situation, Revathi coincidentally encounters a relative, and the creators insert a song that completely dispels the built-up tension and excitement that should have been maintained for the ending.
A significant number of the action sequences in “Custody” are reminiscent of a typical masala entertainer, and there is an amusing twist in the second half that resembles a scene from Kamal Hassan’s crime-thriller “Vikram.” Venkat Prabhu and the team should have trimmed at least half an hour from the 2-hour 28-minute runtime. Doing so would have made this a much more thrilling experience, instead of its current overstretched form.
You can stream the movie on Amazon Prime.
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