Ritesh Mohapatra
January 12, 2024
**Captain Miller is Dhanush's most rugged and raw film cinematically with promising conflicts and spectacular staging from Arun Matheswaran**
My Score : 78/100
Captain Miller is undoubtedly the most jagged and gritty staging of Dhanush in a long time. Arun Matheswaran rightfully integrates dacoity, fight for independence and well staged conflicts within the film. He has added brutal gunfights and action choreography is well done throughout while keeping the core emotions elevated at rightful intervals. The presentation of Britishers is pretty stereotypical and repetitive but we can't complain. The music by GV Prakash Kumar is gripping and the background score is efficiently edited into the screenplay. Captain Miller song and its timing is a piece of mass we crave for. The film's runtime is a bit long at 160mins which could have been crisply edited to make more impact. However the cameos are the highlight which sets us up for a rewarding climax.
Dhanush is presented as a resilient ruffian against the Britishers who has done his job brilliantly. He has presented all his emotions be it rage , agony, fear and his insecurities with such conviction that he still stays in my list of most hard-work actors of this generation. He is spectacular in the action scenes and equally magical in his vulnerable scenes. Shivrajkumar even though present for short screentime is given the magical staging he deserves. Sundeep Kishan underutilized but solid while he is on screen. Priyanka Arul Mohan gives an promising performance with scope for improvement. John Kokken seriously needs acting lessons as he was very distracting and annoying.
Overall, Captain Miller is a promising start for Arun Matheswaran antiques in mass movies. His excellence lies in how well he establishes conflicts and stages raw violence in his films without going overboard. Dhanush's 3 year long sweat is undoubtedly worthy of a watch as this is just the beginning of a devil that Britishers haven't fathomed. The best is yet to come. Kudos to rooted and grounded cinema by Arun which deserves applause.
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