Boat Movie Review

Chimbudeven’s films over the years have brought in something different, as the director has always explored genres less treaded by filmmakers, with an eye for social commentary. In his latest venture Boat, which is a similar film to Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat, Chimbudeven picks up the idea of 8 people stranded on a boat in the mid sea, in order to escape a bomb which is going to be dropped onto Madras during the 2nd world war.

The film, set in the pre-independence era, has a very earthy feel to it in the way it starts off, bringing in intrigue through the situations and characters that Chimbudeven introduces us to, at the start. The first 40 minutes of the film are put together very nicely, as we get associated with the characters in a beautiful fashion. However, from there it begins to dip with the drama between the people on the boat not executed entirely well, as Chimbudeven misses out on exploring the basic needs of the survivors, and only focuses on the drama between the characters, overdoing an angle where they get a tip about a terrorist being on board the boat. Whenever the film moves into the social commentary space, it is fine and good, but otherwise, there are so many avenues that the filmmaker could have explored to get the film into better quarters.

Yogi Babu is excellent once again in a role that needs him to have his comic angle set aside almost entirely, as there are only a few scenes where the laughter element pokes in. The actor has done exceedingly well and somewhat saves the film from being a boring affair.

However, the supporting cast all come with their limitations as the film feels too plastic at places. The runtime does not help either, as films limited to a singular space need to have more flesh in them than the others.

Technically, Boat is neat and there is not much to complain about. However, the music by Ghibran could have been even better to bring in more tension to the important sequences.

While Boat is definitely well intentioned, the film could have done with more of an engaging factor in the proceedings, and more attention to detail. The climax is superb to say the least, but somewhere down the line, it doesn’t feel enough.

Verdict: A different attempt that could be worth trying out.