Laal Kaptaan is a vengeance drama desperately banking on tumult and mystery

Saif Ali Khan-starrer Laal Kaptaan is a period vengeance drama desperately banking on tumult and mystery, finds Nikita Puri

There are some brief moments in Laal Kaptaan when one begins to wonder if the film is actually a Western, given all the gun-toting men riding on horseback across hilly ravines. But then Saif Ali Khan reappears on the screen with long dreadlocks. And then one notices his perfectly-groomed beard, which seems like a subtle advertisement for men’s grooming products. All-organic products, of course, because Khan’s character is essentially that of a Naga sadhu.

Traditionally, Naga sadhus are Hindu ascetics best seen today in all their ash-smeared glory during the Kumbh Mela, but director Navdeep Singh’s Laal Kaptaan takes place