Custody Movie Review

Venkat Prabhu’s films are known for their cool plots and quirky situations that they bring in. After a blockbuster Maanaadu and a very enjoyable Manmatha Leelai, the director is here making his Telugu debut with Custody. The film is a race-against-time thriller that is set in the 90s,with Naga Chaitanya playing the role of a constable.

Shiva (Naga Chaitanya) is a honest police officer who is finding it hard to get married to his love (Krithi Shetty). Enter Raju (Aravind Swami), a criminal who has just been caught by the CBI. When the CBI officer and Raju get on the crossroad with Shiva, it starts off a fun run where Raju has to be produced before the Bangalore court within the next 48 hours. The first 40 minutes of Custody are tedious with two bad songs and a boring romantic track, but the film picks up after Aravind Swamy’s entry and moves at a very good pace from there. The police station fight sequence in the first half along with the pre-interval block speed up the proceedings and make the film better than what it begins from. The second half has a surprise cameo and an emotional flashback episode that tries to come over as the core of the film, but it is again the action sequences and the speedy parts of the film which make it work to an extent.

Naga Chaitanya is fine in the lead role and has done his best in the action sequences. His Tamil dubbing is good and feels adequate throughout. Krithi Shetty offers fine support but the real show stealers in the film are Aravind Swamy and Sarath Kumar who have great contributions in making the film engaging.

The former in particular is really good, with his one liners evoking good laughter. Priyamani and the rest of the cast are fine fits.

The music by the combo of Ilaiyaraaja and Yuvan Shankar Raja is very disappointing, given the fact that they already have a good combination with Venkat Prabhu. The songs don’t feel that they’ve been composed with good intent, and the BGM is loud and over the top. Visually, the film has been treated well with impressive cinematography.

On the whole, Custody is a watchable action thriller that could have done much better if it had focused more on the speedy screenplay rather than its commercial elements such as romance and emotions which do not stand strong.  Custody Movie Review by Siddarth Srinivas

Custody Movie Review Rating: 3/5