Kaptaan Movie Review: Gippy Garewal’s New Film Is A Not So Jolly Version Of Jolly LLB

Kaptaan (Punjabi)

Starring: Gippy Garewal, Monica Gill , Karishma Kotak

Directed by: Mandeep Singh

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Movie Review: With due apologies to Yo Yo Honey Singh there are only two stars in Punjabi cinema .They are Diljit Dosanjh andGippy Garewal . Both are expected to do certain things in all their films to please their fans. Movies starring the two are more showcases for their antics than actual vehicles for them to play characters.

In Kaptaan his new release Gippy comes closer to playing a  character than all his recent films. He is a languishing rudderless lawyer who is in the profession for a lark.

Then he gets a case that changes his life.

Jolly LLB? Director Mandeep Singh does nothing to steer the plot out of the familiar territory. He seems so enamoured of his leading man’s aura of stardom that many scenes threaten to slip into embarrassing  self-congratulation with Gippy taking over the show like Amitabh Bachchan in Namak Halaal or Ranbir KapoorRockstar, films where the director allowed their lead actor to take over the plot.

To his credit Gippy holds back in many scenes, bringing the plot back into character, and his character back into the plot. The narrative seems to run into two different directions. It at once ties to be facetious and relevant, sometimes within the same sequence. Such an ambitious amalgamation of moods is far  beyond the abilities of the film.

Sadly the salient theme of an NRI being usurped of his own property is lost in tons of tomfoolery designed to please Gippy’s fans. Oh yes, he also gets to romance two pretty kudiyan who seem to be happy to have got a chance to play leading ladies with brains(they walk around with officials files and talk on Skype, so there).

This is a film about a careless lawyer who gets his groove back while getting a swindled man his rightful property back. If only Kaptaan didn’t lost the plot in trying to please as many of Gippy’s fans as possible. The courtroom sequences , entertaining and thoughtprovoking in Jolly LLB are here reduced to an inconsistent and incoherent stream of loose-limbed legalese with ‘judge’ Kanwaljeet Singh trying hard to hide his boredom.