Captain Miller is a Tamil-language action-adventure drama film directed by Arun Matheswaran. The film is dubbed into Telugu with the same title. The film stars Dhanush in the title role, with Shiva Rajkumar, Priyanka Arul Mohan, Aditi Balan, Sundeep Kishan, Edward Sonnenblick, John Kokken, Alexx O’Nell, Nivedhithaa Sathish, Elango Kumaravel, Vinoth Kishan, Jayaprakash, Kaali Venkat, Viji Chandrasekhar & others in supporting roles. The music is composed by G.V. Prakash Kumar and the film is produced by Sendhil Thyagarajan & Arjun Thyagarajan under Sathya Jyothi Films banner.
Story:
Agni (Dhanush) lives in a village and whiles away his time doing nothing. His elder brother, Shiva (Shiva Rajkumar), is a revolutionary who is fighting against the Britishers. One day, Agni enlists in the British Army to escape the caste oppression inflicted on his village by a feudal family, where he becomes well-known as Captain Miller. But he has a change of heart when he and his army friends are asked to kill his own Indian villagers. Miller now becomes a revolutionary himself and fights against the Britishers for a cause. What is the cause and how does he achieve it forms the rest of the film.
What about on-screen performances?
Dhanush does an excellent job in the title role. He once again does what he is best at which is expressing a whole lot of emotions with too much of ease and very little effort. He just nails all his variations in the film and he is particularly good in his Robinhood get-up.
Priyanka Arul Mohan has a meaty role as the privileged princess who turns against her own kin for the good of the people and acts well in the role of the hero’s love interest.
Kannada superstar Shiva Rajkumar as the people’s champion Shiva, wins hearts with his charismatic performance though his screen time is less.
Sundeep Kishan appears as a Muslim soldier, Rafiq who has his own goosebump moment in the climax. He is good in his cameo.
Aditi Balan plays a character who seemingly exists only to allow a sequel towards the very end of the film.
Nivedhithaa Sathish & Elango Kumaravel are pretty decent in their parts ably supporting the hero’s character.
Edward Sonnenblick, John Kokken, Alexx O’Nell, Vinoth Kishan, Jayaprakash, Kaali Venkat, Viji Chandrasekhar & others are good in their limited supporting roles.
What about off-screen talents?
The story by Arun Matheswaran is quite intense and powerful. What works best in Captain Miller is its core theme of how the people who built temples for their deities are denied entry to it and how they eventually fight to make it into the temple with the help of the hero. Here the hero’s involvement doesn’t come from his fight for the oppressed but comes from his fight for self-respect & his personal trauma.
The screenplay by Arun Matheswaran & Madhan Karky however is a total failure as the drama offers very little amount of novelty. Though the concept of narrating the film through chapters is interesting, the film falls prey to the slow-paced narrative and the lengthy action episode involving too many guns, bullets, and blasts.
Director Arun Matheswaran does a brilliant job with his craft. His presentation is very stylish and the entire world setup is authentic. The way he uses minimalist designs to create maximum impact is appreciable. He presents Dhanush in a superb manner but had the narrative complemented Dhanush, the film would have been a blockbuster.
The Telugu dialogues by Rakendu Mouli are good.
The songs by G.V. Prakash Kumar in Telugu are not up to the mark. But his background score is amazing. His Western style of score goes well with the tone and style of the film.
Siddhartha Nuni’s cinematography is extraordinary. His camera work and framing are undoubtedly one of the biggest assets of the film.
The edit by Nagooran Ramachandran is good but he should have trimmed down the action parts a bit.
Special mention to the whole art department and the costume department for their authentic setup of the period world.
Dhilip Subbarayan’s action and stunt scenes are thrilling and will be loved by the masses.
The production values by Sathya Jyothi Films are grand.
What’s Hot?
* Dhanush’s Performance
* Shiva Rajkumar & Sundeep Kishan’s Cameos
* Superb Action Blocks
* Good Background Score
* Cinematography & Production Values
* Interval Chase & Pre-Climax Sequence
What’s Not?
* Extremely Slow Paced Narrative
* Uninteresting Proceedings
* Lacks A Powerful Villain
* Forgettable Songs
* No Proper High Moments
Verdict: Overall, Captain Miller is a wasted opportunity for director Arun Matheswaran as he could not keep the interest going throughout his narrative. Even though Dhanush dominates from start to finish, the slow-paced proceedings and the overuse of guns & bullets make this a below-average film.
Telugubulletin.com Rating: 2.25/5