Custody (2023) User Reviews

Fusion Film: An Unapologetic Gumbo of sorts

[harbingerhumanedane · 6/10 · 13 May 2023]

You have to admire the obvious talent and the unabashed gratuitous enjoyment of so many genres merged together with momentary comedic relief and themes for the first hour that will make you chuckle.

The leads do a nice job with delivery of comedic script and choreography.

Custody is worth your money to gain some worldly perspective of cerebrated talent and art.

Yet, the producer and director could certainly have derived three works of art from all they have to work with here.

Custody is a gumbo of entertainment that is palatable and fun for a bit but could have been enjoyed and consumed more easily had a few ingredients been saved for separate additional efforts.

Poor screenplay and outdated story

[m-ramanan · 5/10 · 1 July 2023]

RATED 5/10 Language: Tamil Source: Amazon Prime

With this cast and masala story, this could be the block buster one. But it failed miserably as a whole. Mainly because of the very poor narration and take the logic holes as granted, especially the dam fight and exhibition scenes.

Surprisingly I can see the "Saroja" Venkat Prabu on the Mortuary van dialog sequence. He utilised full and full of Aravind Swamy and Keerthi in that scene. It was so lovable to watch that scene.

But after that he failed to keep the track and confused between the mass heroism and entertainment.... Finally it become like a 80's masala movie and the art work helped much to make it look much worst....

Very bland from VP

[JakDexxter · 3/10 · 12 May 2023]

Maybe the weakest work from VP till date. Even his earlier flop movies at least had some kind of half baked content in them. But 'Custody' has nothing new to offer. I felt bored all along and very difficult to sit through.

The only thing that stood out for me is the cinematography. The water sequences are good and I am sure the makers must have gone through a lot of challenging situations to bring this output, but, what's the point in trying all these unique film making ideas without a proper story.

Chay did his best but the character itself is very ordinary. In fact all the characters in this movie are just ordinary.

Plot is very thin and routine with no conflict among the characters.

I don't know if VP got confused in dealing a bilingual or if he is genuinely out of ideas, but it didn't feel like a VP film at all.

Overall, a disappointing movie. Forgettable.

Boring and pointless.. Still, at times, a thrilling swashbuckler

[Dolchi · 4/10 · 10 July 2023]

The essence of this film can be summarised in a line delivered by Chay to Jiiva, "These serious lines are not fitting for you... You follow the normal, jolly route that works for you". If VP follows this, the director will be happier.

The problem in this film is that all twists and turns are normal, easily predictable and cliched. At least, the film makes you sweat with the nail-biting tension running throughout the film. Naga-chaitanya was given due respect, and a lot of mass build-up scenes with effects. So, we cannot say Andhra-Tamil concept was a flaw.

The heroine is a great addition to the film, with her own complex equations brought into the dynamics. Aravind Swamy's complex witty character is a welcome breeze in this otherwise intense film. Ramki's swag with an army machine gun also makes quite a scene in a tense turn.

However, all scenes give us a feel that we have already seen these somewhere else. Jiiva's character is in particular one-dimensional, with a foolhardy nature. With such a low situational awareness, how could he become a cop?! (Not noticing hazards falling in a chaotic site). Maybe this explains why the cops were so weak in this movie. One welcome break is that Premji somehow works as a villain with a disgusting, vile presence. (The politicians were like jokers in the film. Sarath's character was at least demonic in his smoking scenes. The car driver who tries to give a lift, but lusts after the heroine though - could he get any sillier?)

We have to admit that one major blunder was to let go of Aravind Swamy's character in the end, just for the sake of innovation. The following scenes were even more disastrous. With better writing, and perhaps some more character depth to all roles, this could have been different. Still, if one has nothing better to do, one can watch this film for the unique 90's style filmmaking.

Action awesome and I watched good movie after longtime in tollywood

[kranthinine-35882 · 10/10 · 14 May 2023]

Superb acting done by all Starcast I watched clean action movie after longtime in tollywood. Chay awesome action and also kriithishetty second half soooo good my rating for this movie is 10/10 but tollywood I don't know why not encouraging this kind of action movies ...only commercial movies encouraging in tollywood..

Chay and akkineni family only touch the action movies bcoz they are intellectual My suggestion to akkineni family do movies from Tamil or Malayalam directors Don't give any chance to silly directors Finally I want to say I enjoyed alot the movie custody with my family gooooood.hh.

Wowwww... unbelievable

[jakegylly · 1/10 · 10 June 2023]

Ok the people who are actually honest obedient responsible police officers are VARGHESE, GEORGE,and millitant PHILIP....but but but The sadistic CM and the criminal is DAKSHAYANI and RAJASHEKHAR aka RAJU...whyyyyy????what is the director trying to prove here???what is the conversation between the millitant officer and accused??? Director is trying to tell audience that millitary is actually killing people who has a family too... seriously????and the director deliberately inserted hindu pooja in a scene where CM is talking to her party founder...and the military officer who removes bullet and shelters the accused is xtian?????this is such a useless movie..waste of time watching...bomblast scene was totally unnecessary...and no mother would leave a child in such a traffic that is for sure....what a crap movie it is..🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Racy, engaging and entertaining

[joshuaroneet · 10/10 · 12 May 2023]

The mixture of dark humour and thriller seems to be the right fit for Venkat Prabhu. It's rare to see thrillers like this in Telugu. Welcome Venkat Prabhu sir. Thank you for filling the void.

Chay, absolutely killed it. Glad that he picked this role.

People who have been criticizing or picking out things that are trivial are just shocked or unsettled of how word of mouth is the only thing that's pulling the audience to the theaters. (At the time this review was written).

No one really expected much but this film proves yet again 'Content is King'.

Yes the music apart from the BGM had its flaws but it's a minor inconvenience. It'll be remembered as a classic in the industry for sure!

Very Bad Film

[dibosdas · 1/10 · 19 November 2023]

The movie was one of the worst decisions of my life to Watched. Seriously Very Poor direction,Poor Cinematography. No one single good things in this film. Only the casting of the movie is good. But everyone not only goes to see the stars cast of the movie,story is also needed to make a good movie.really so bad experience. One of the worst movies of Naga Chaitanya's .I will only say one thing to the audience that don't make the mistake of watching this movie. Naga Chaitanya's previous movies are far better than this movie. So guys save your time. Don't mistake to watching this movie like me.because it's a bad film.

Just another agenda promoter

[karthikbhatb · 1/10 · 26 June 2023]

Another weak movie from VP. Its just another movie to add to the list of anti-india narrative creation channels.

A guy covered with full orange dress drives and talks to a girl with bad intention, A politian talks bad ideas while doing pooja, A criminal suggests a military officer that both are killing people, and so on.

The entire movie looks like is funded by the people who want to promote anti-india ideology to the masses.

Actors.. you should choose movies carefully. Else the movie will be destined to flop, as nowadays the people smell from afar the efforts of wrong narrative creation. And viewers.. not worth watching even one minute of this movie.

Yuvasamrat Akkineni Nagachaitanya's Honest Attempt. #Custody wins the Hearts of movie lovers.#AkkineniNagachaitanya is one of those actors, who always try new concepts and sh

[sandyrockz-23544 · 9/10 · 14 May 2023]

#AkkineniNagachaitanya is one of those actors, who always try new concepts and shows his versitality when doing films 🎥.

#Custody isnone such film, where you can see and feel realistic approach of a #Constable against Polotical and Police System.

Chay has put in all his efforts and wins accolades, so as Arvind Swamy Garu. Sarah Kumar Garu and others. Songs are let down, bit U1 Fills the gap with Extraordinary BGM.

On a whole it's a different Hunt from "VP Sir", though it had it's flaws but engages the audience to the max. Go watch it guys.

Special mention to the Stunts Choreographer #MaheshMathew kickass and realistic stunts . Ot is one of the major assets of #Custody.

A soulless film

[cmcilm · 4/10 · 9 August 2023]

Custody, directed by Venkat Prabhu, is an entirely soulless movie amid huge expectations. The story follows a police officer who is assigned to take a criminal to court but the police department wants the criminal dead. The wafer-thin storyline sounded interesting on paper but the writing has ruined the execution. The writing was loosely written and it did not make sense as a whole. The screenplay has made the film go even worse, prolonging the movie. As the movie continued, the film was creating more boredom. The flashback episode was written cliche and made the film predictable. The direction went utterly wrong, despite having decent expectations of the director. The performances were decent with Aravind Swamy's performance being the best. The only highlight of the film was the action sequences, especially the underwater and police station sequences, which were stylishly designed. The music was not composed well and was not suited to the script at all. The production value was decent for the movie. Overall, the film is a lackluster film not leaving much to watch.

A good thriller with different actions

[umaramsuraj · 10/10 · 11 June 2023]

Honestly, movie is Not Bad as being "portrayed" by critics / online reviews!!! Movie definitely remind us of 90s movies...which look more realistic than current movies!!

Watched the movie in ott. Movie and the action scenes are very good... A good treat from Venkat Prabhu.. also actors have done good job... I feel this movie is very much underrated... Some politics. Liked action scenes esthe dam and train action scenes.. cthe damn ctritcs review did not allow the audience to go to theater.

Movie contains perfect combination of family , love and actions... Venkat Prabhu ! You definitely have done good job.

A Venkat Prabhu Misfire.

[chand-suhas · 3/10 · 7 July 2023]

Watched the Tamil version. This Venkat Prabhu's hunt deals with an honest constable stumbling upon two suspects during a night stroll. He arrests them suspecting drunk and disorderly but turns out, one of them is a dreaded criminal and the other, a CBI officer who had just arrested him. The criminal has to be produced in Bengaluru court and the state government is trying to stop that from happening. How they face all odds to make it to the court on time forms the story.

The problem with the screenplay is it barely throws any surprises. One can easily predict the main villain at the beginning itself. The love story between Naga Chaitanya and Krithi Shetty barely registers. Neither the actors of Aravind Swamy, Sarath Kumar, Ramki are given meaty roles. The bad vfx doesn't help Venkat Prabhu's vision considering the whole movie is one prolonged chase sequences hoping to be thrilling.

The flashback felt forced and simplifying the story to that extent made a certain character's death pointless and the film too ends on a joke which could've been fine if not for the main tone of the film. The signature humor one expects from Venkat Prabhu simply doesn't sync in this type of serious film.

Didn't expect this from VP

[shrikanthkk89 · 2/10 · 3 July 2023]

Planned to watch this only because it was directed by VP, but we became VP (VP in Telugu) after watching this movie. Idk how this movie gave any confidence to actors and crew. Simply waste of time and I am very much glad that I didn't watch it in the theater. A Director who created and made such great movies in the past is very disappointing to see coming up with this movie. Of course we don't expect from NagaChaithaniya but other actors not sure why they agreed for such a bad script. Now I cannot watch movies for a week to recover from this movie. Even the comedy is very very silly. VP we really did not expect this from you. Please take a break and come back stronger, we need old VP back!

Good concept, but very poorly written and directed.

[pjasti-11470 · 4/10 · 29 June 2023]

Positives.

1. Story.

Though this movie's concept is familiar, the potential of some characters such as Nataraj (played by Sarathkumar) and Raju aka Raazu (played by Aravind Swamy), and their arcs make this a great story on paper. However, due to the messy, half-baked screenplay and the poor execution by Venkat Prabhu, the potential of this movie gets diluted making this movie feel like lost potential.

2. Visuals.

Despite the cinematography not enhancing the movie and even though there are some aspects of the production design, setting, and the lighting in some parts of the movie that are out of place, the visuals, for the most part the visuals look good.

Negatives.

1. Music.

The music of the movie is very mediocre. Neither does it sound good nor does it help enhance the emotions of the movie. Along with that, apart from Timeless Love-which was beautifully and aptly picturized IMO-none of the other songs are picturized well as the choreography was normal, the cinematography, specifically the blocking-there was a lot of generic and still blocking in the songs-was mediocre, and the editing-although was slightly different some times-was also generic so much so that it'll probably remind you of intro and duet songs of many movie set in a college backdrop. Due to this, the song picturizations were very generic and boring, Coupled with this, due to the director adding many unnecessary commercial elements to this movie, pretty much all the songs were unnecessary in the proceedings. Coming to the BGM, the BGM wasn't great at all. It didn't sound great or make the audience feel tensed throughout the movie, which it should've done for an action movie like this. And what do great mass BGMs do? They make the audience feel like badasses too, but none of the movie's BGMs did that.

2. Editing.

Due to the bad editing, there isn't an organic flow between many scenes, especially in the first 45 minutes. Along with that, in the action sequences, the editing could've helped made the movie more exhilarating if there were more quick cuts instead of just the usual slo-mo shots, but since that's not the case, the movie's action sequences seem boring and generic.

3. Screenplay.

The structure of this movie goes like this. The director introduces the movie's main character, Shiva (played by Naga Chaitanya), then shows us his life, who he loves, and the conflicts and relationships between him and other characters before introducing the main conflict of the movie. Though it's understandable that the director took this decision to get us to care about Shiva and Revathi (played by Krithi Shetty), the director stretches this part of the movie for around 30-45 min. When it should've been shorter. Due to the length of the first act, we don't care about the aforementioned characters enough to be engaged in the movie later on. Later on into the movie, there are many logical issues throughout the screenplay and some stupid jokes that dilute the tension. Along with that, Venkat Prabhu stretches some scenes for way too long slowing down the pacing even more making the screenplay of the movie even messier. Coming to the characters, Nataraj and Raju are characters that I thought were different than your usual antagonists, but that's only on paper, Shiva and Revathi were characters which needed more emotional connect for us to be engaged with them on their journey, as they're generically written, and other important characters such as CM Dakshayani (played by Priyamani) and Shiva's father (played by Gopuraju Ramana) were very underwritten and as a result, some scenes become diluted. Also, there were many unnecessary commercial elements in the movie that became speed-breakers and made the slightly unbearable at times.

4. Direction.

Despite the poorly written screenplay, if Venkat Prabhu had directed the movie well, the movie probably would've been an average watch if not a decent one. However, that's not the case. Due to many decisions he took throughout the movie, such as the decision to not cut too much in action sequences, add commercial elements in the story, and to get Sarathkumar to dub with his own voice, ruined the movie quite a bit. If you want to go about it a bit deeper, many action sequences could've used better direction and editing, but due to the decision aforementioned, the action sequences become less exhilarating and a bit boring. Coming to the performances, the director brought mediocre performances from pretty much everyone, including Aravind Swamy. Though this may be due to the writing, everybody gave average performances that weren't good enough to engage us in the movie or even try to save it.

Overall: This movie, which is probably one of Venkat Prabhu's weakest works, could've been a lot better if the writing and technical aspects were as good as the visuals.

A very good attempt

[visuvenkykrish · 8/10 · 13 June 2023]

The film story happens in 2 days man In 2 days- what story and revenge story you need.

Screenplay is very good Action scenes are very very good

The 3 minute single shot action episode in first half is one of the best action episodes we can get in south films(although you can see the punches are missing in couple of places). We can rarely seen in our movies where Protagonist gets beaten and fight with grit and spirit. This single shot sequence is my favorite.

Supporting characters have a good role Heroine got a meaningful Character No exaggeration action sequences-90%

My negatives: Why Aravind Swamy(RAJU) discontinued working with CM and how the case was opened against CM and by Who?

Shiva's tribute missing to his dad, police officers.

Many characters are died for his mission but they didn't get due to at the end.

These are my major views regarding Draw backs. They should have focused on detailing

It is much better than Regular Commercial films with good presentation BGM, characters and Cinematography When we can encourage these kind of films?

It deserves atleast a minimum box office numbers.

A Bad Thriller

[aravindnandakumar · 3/10 · 18 June 2023]

A very bad thriller with no good starting and a very predictable ending. The 3 stars which i gave is only for aravind swamy , he is the only good thing in this movie. Unwanted romance and introduction killed the first 45 minutes. Getting inspired is okay but too much inspiration is not good it has all the elements in vikram and kaithi . Sarathkumar was not given a proper role . This film is nothing but kaithi 144P . If you cant make good movies why do you go for such things . Everything around the film world is changing but some people still things people like it in old ways. Once again a very bad and boring movie .

Very nice movie

[mehedihasanrakib-21621 · 10/10 · 15 July 2023]

Read somewhere in twitter, If this movie doesn't work at the box office, this would be one of the most underrated movies. Well said. The action scenes, acting by the lead cast, bgm are one of the best in recent times. Seeing a lot of negative reviews, don't understand what the so called critics are going for. I agree that the movie can be trimmed at some unnecessary scenes, but those unnecessary scenes have minimum screen time. Venkat Prabhu has created such a plot for the action sequences where you want more and more of them. Naga Chaitanya and Arvind swamy did a tremendous job for their roles. I wonder how much Venkat prabhu believed in this movie, he had a lot cameos which surprises us in the movie. Every cameo that is intruced gives us chills. Well made, kudos to the custody team.

Brainless

[chellaton-05036 · 2/10 · 29 June 2023]

You could skip the full first 30 minutes of this brainless excuse. Unbelievable storyline and character build up. The dialog writing is all over the place.

The formula is similar to the mindless Bollywood attempts - need comedy, romance, action, item songs, blah blah. And the voice dialog seems so disjointed with the ambience like it were recorded inside a soundproof studio rather than during the shoot. There is no track from the actual shoot.

The constable is actually in charge at the police station. The CBI officer doesn't bother to carry identification.

The actors in this movie are so starved of good material that they have to show their poor acting along with a very weak story line.

Happens when the entire industry is a sparkling example of nepotism.