Film: "Kaptaan"(Punjabi); Director: Mandeep Singh; Cast: Gippy Grewal, Monica Gill, Karishma Kotak; Rating: **
In "Kaptaan", Gippy Grewal plays a languishing, rudderless lawyer, who is in the profession for a lark. Then he gets a case that changes his life.
Director Mandeep Singh does nothing to steer the plot out of the familiar territory. He seems so enamoured of his leading man's aura of stardom that many scenes threaten to slip into embarrassing self-congratulation with Gippy taking over the show like megastar Amitabh Bachchan in "Namak Halaal" or Ranbir Kapoor in "Rockstar" -- films where the director allowed their lead actor to take over the plot.
To his credit Gippy holds back in many scenes, bringing the plot back into character, and his character back into the plot. The narrative seems to run into two different directions. It at once tries to be facetious and relevant, sometimes within the same sequence. Such an ambitious amalgamation of moods is far beyond the abilities of the film.
Sadly, the salient theme of an NRI being usurped of his own property is lost in tons of tomfoolery designed to please Gippy's fans. Oh yes, he also gets to romance two actresses who seem to be happy to have got a chance to play leading ladies with brains (they walk around with official files and talk on Skype).
This is a film about a careless lawyer who gets his groove back while getting a swindled man his property back. If only "Kaptaan" didn't lose the plot in trying to please as many of Gippy's fans as possible.
The courtroom sequences, entertaining and thought provoking in a film like "Jolly LLB", are here reduced to an inconsistent and incoherent stream of loose-limbed legalese with 'judge' Kanwaljeet Singh trying hard to hide his boredom.
--IANS
skj/ank/bg
