Custody Cast: Naga Chaitanya, Krithi Shetty, Arvind Swamy, Vennela Kishore, Priyamani, Ramki, Sampath Raj, Sarathkumar
Custody Crew:
Edited by Venkat Raajen
Music by Ilaiyaraaja, Yuvan Shankar Raja
Cinematography by SR Kathir
Written and Directed by Venkat Prabhu
Produced by Srinivasa Chitturi
Custody Movie Rating: 2.25/5
Custody is the new movie from Naga Chaitanya. He has decided to go for Telugu-Tamil bilingual for the first time with this film. Popular Tamil director Venkat Prabhu has written and directed Custody. Movie released on 12th May, worldwide. Naga Chaitanya and Krithi Shetty delivered a hit film like Bangarraju and this is their second film. Arvind Swamy after Dhruva is acting as a villain in this movie. Ilaiyaraaja and Yuvan Shankar Raja together composed for music for the first time for this film. Let’s discuss about Custody, now.
Custody Plot:
Custody starts off with a bomb blast near Sakinetipalli market in 1996. CM Dakshayani(Priyamani) expresses condolences and forms an investigation on the blast. In 1998, a young constable Shiva(Naga Chaitanya) stops CM vehicle for Ambulance. CM appreciates him and it becomes a headline news. His higher officials start to harass him for being a rebel. Meanwhile in Custody, his love interest Revathi(Krithi Shetty) asks him to marry her. Shiva takes his family to a temple to speak with her family but a spat occurs due to orthodox mentality of her father.
Revathi asks Shiva to elope with her. Shiva is upset with the behaviour of her in front of his and her families. When she puts even more pressure, he tries to take her away. On his way, due to freak accident, he takes Raazu(Arvind Swamy) into Custody. His higher officials IG(Sarathkumar) try to stop him and entire department is running for him. Why do they want to stop Shiva? Why he is running with Raazu? Watch Custody movie for the details.
Custody Analysis:
Venkat Prabhu delivered fun thrillers like Saroja and Maanaadu. To an extent Biriyani also serves as a decent thriller. He delivered his best with Mankatha. But then he is unable to get things as perfectly as he did in Mankatha. Maanaadu showcased that when writing and execution falls in place, he is still the best. In Custody, his writing is all-over the place. He seems to have been excited to present Interval Underwater sequences and some decent action sequences. But they do not have the same weight as writing. Custody needed the movie to have a perspective and clear-cut direction.
It tries too hard to be similar to Maanaadu and Biriyani. Venkat Prabhu could not get the tone right and the scenes feel like they are all-over the place. Naga Chaitanya tried his best to pull-off a character that doesn’t seem to suit him much. In action sequences, he did his best. Krithi Shetty is good. Arvind Swamy has been under-utilized while he is good. Sarathkumar and rest of the cast did not get effective roles. Editing in action sequences did not match the intensity. BGM is good but songs don’t dtay with us looking at the big names that composed them, they’re highly underwhelming. Custody could have benefitted with a more focused narrative as it brings to mind, Anaganaga Oka Roju movie. Had the writing been better and sequences haven’t been rushed, Custody could’ve been a much better thriller.
Custody Positives:
Naga Chaitanya Screen Presence
Arvind Swamy Performance
Krithi Shetty performance
Interval block
Custody Negatives:
Lethargic Screenplay
Ineffective Action scenes
Predictability
Songs
Custody Bottom-line: Too repetitive!
