Captain review - one should watch this for VP Sathyan

Jayasurya as the lead of the new biopic about Indian Football team captain VP Sathyan has managed to achieve a respectable performance. But the script of this movie penned by debutante Prajesh Sen is a letdown. Cluttered by melodrama, the focus of Mr. Sen’s script is entirely the misery in VP Sathyan’s life. The convincing performances are the major reason why this otherwise brittle film holds on.

As you all may know, VP Sathyan is the main protagonist. He has represented major teams at different levels including our national team state team and certain prestigious clubs. We get to see this eventful journey of Sathyan’s life and how the injury took a toll on him both physically and emotionally.

The compromise is the biggest issue here. We are forced to see the emotional space of Sathyan. There is real effort there to make the visuals authentic. Even the international players and the gallery multiplied by tacky visual effects are sort of giving way to unintentional comedy I would say. If you just focus on the struggle of a character who had a fair share of success, the aim to showcase him as an unsung hero won’t work out. Every major achievement here is slipped through radio news or casual references in banter. Some of the really unique and clap-worthy information doesn’t get a space in this movie interpretation.

From dialect to body language at various points in his career, Jayasurya manages to add believability to his depiction of VP Sathyan. Where he lacked conviction was in becoming that football player. Because of the practical difficulty of becoming a quality football player, the director is forced to either skip the portions or edit them in an unconvincing way. Anu Sithara as Anitha was also a good choice as she managed to perform with a control over the drama. Siddique was good in that fictional character. Deepak Parambol, Renji Panicker, Thalaivasal Vijay and Saiju Kurup are the other main characters who have less space to perform.

The focus on the destruction of VP Sathyan is the major weakness of Prajesh Sen’s writing. For people who have less information about someone like VP Sathyan, this take from Prajesh will look dull. If they showed us the rise of this sports figure, then there would have been more sensitive to the pain we see in the movie. Roby Varghese Raj tries to make it look authentic. But the cinematography alone wasn’t enough to achieve that. The edits and the scripting pattern disturb the rhythm. Visual effects are tacky and the music department doesn’t merge smoothly in to the film.

Captain has performances that might stay with you. But on a cinematic level, this movie doesn’t really achieve anything substantial. The tale of Sathyan has to reach many more people and that’s probably the only reason one should watch this film.