Captain - Gives 'Predator' the juvenile treatment

Shakti Soundar Rajan has made a career of delivering rehashes of Hollywood blockbusters tagging them as India's first.  So far he has "introduced" the zombie, the space and a live teddy to Tamil cinema with varying degrees of success apart from an impressive canine thriller and an all style no substance bank heist on debut.  For 'Captain' he has trained his guns predominantly on the 'Predator' but has also shot down the 'Species' and the 'Loch Ness' in the process.  Whether his latest attempt will appeal to the OTT hooked generation remains to be seen.

Captain Vetriselvan (Arya) is an orphan who wears patriotism on his shirt, considers the army his world and those under his charge his family.  The army is flummoxed as a team of soldiers who go inside "Section 42" a forest zone that no human has entered end up dying mysteriously.   Evidence points to one of the officers going mad and finishing off his colleagues.  Enter Arya and his team who encounter a force beyond human capabilities and in the process lose his close friend Karthik (Harish Uttaman).  The powers that be pin the debacle on the deceased Karthik but Vetriselvan vows to clear his name.  Who or what is that extraterrestrial force, what is the connection between that and a mysterious scientist (Simran) and whether the hero vanquishes his powerful enemy and clear his friends name or not is what Captain is all about.

Arya after the critically acclaimed 'Sarpatta Parambarai' has fallen prey to two underwhelming appearances in 'Aranmanai 3' and 'Enemy' and sadly one should say that this is a dubious hattrick for him.  His character is so one dimensional that he can do nothing to rise above it.  Simran's scientist probably fashioned on Charlize Theron's Cypher has nothing to play and is as clueless as the others.  The less said about Aishwarya Lekshmi who plays the cliched love interest the better.  Ambuli Gokulnath impresses as the technology expert while Harish Uttaman also manages to escape unscathed.

What works best in 'Captain' is the montage that depicts the art of war's five rules that promises something great but flatters to deceive.  The core idea of a captain going against all odds to clear the name of his teammate keeps the interest for sometime in the first half. The sets of the alien lab and the military base give the ambience.  The spider creature and the idea of it being a signal transmitter grabs attention.

On the flip side the interest created in the opening is dampened by the cliched comradery song and the love track.  Though the alien VFX is a let down it could have been forgiven if some effort had been put in to its characteristics and intelligence.   The main villain the afore mentioned cross between the Species and Loch Ness is hardly shown to create any impact on the audience.  The queen alien sure would have preferred suicide than be killed the 'Captain' way.

D.Imman's music is as perfunctory as the demand of the script while by modern standards the other technicalities are on par.  Arya has also backed the project under his banner The Show People and Think Studios.  Shakti Soundar Rajan is as usual ambitious and his efforts in bringing his vision to screen with the available resources are appreciable.  If only there was a semblance of a screenplay in the proceedings it may have well turned out to be a captain's knock.

Verdict : Go for it if you are a fan of Shakti Soundar Rajan