Costao Review | An Insipid, Overlong Biopic That Fails Its Subject

Starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the titular role, this biographical film could have been a taut tale of one man바카라�s heroics against a powerful smuggling syndicate. Instead, it collapses under the weight of its own indecision바카라�about tone as well as genre바카라�leaving behind a two-hour slog that feels more like a filler episode in a tired procedural TV show than a compelling feature film. Unfortunately, that can be said about most Zee5 productions.

Set in the 1990s, Sejal Shah바카라�s feature debut Costao follows Siddiqui바카라�s Fernandes, a principled customs officer who uncovers a massive gold smuggling racket and risks everything to bring the perpetrators to justice. This premise should offer ample material for a layered thriller or a moving personal story of sacrifice. The material is already there in a 바카라�truth is stranger than fiction바카라� true story that inspires the events of Costao. But the film neither leans into the adrenaline of its crime-thriller possibilities nor fleshes out the human costs of its protagonist바카라�s crusade. What we바카라�re left with is a tepid attempt at a biopic with a lone honest officer, corrupt bureaucratic pushback, a reluctant family, the threatening gang lord who is not even that intimidating, despite the music soaring at all the correct junctures to make him appear so.

Siddiqui바카라�s casting as Costao Fernandes seems promising on paper. After all, he has built a career out of portraying morally complex characters in India바카라�s underworld or adjacent systems. But here, he looks surprisingly disengaged. The script insists that he is a martyr-like figure sacrificing everything for truth, but the performance never breathes life into that narrative and neither does the rest of the story.

The rest of the cast fares no better. Kishore Kumar G as D바카라�Mello, the supposed villain of the piece, lacks any menace. Priya Bapat as Maria, Fernandes바카라� wife, has a few moments of resistance and weariness, but the character exists only to underscore the officer바카라�s moral burden.

The action sequences, few as they are, don바카라�t help either. The choreography is glaringly visible, robbing the confrontations of any stakes with rehearsed punches and obvious pauses before the commencement of each kick. To make things worse, it is also devoid of sharp wit that can be distracting enough. A scene at his children바카라�s school sports day, where Fernandes tries to freak out a fellow parent with silly banter바카라�what was supposed to inject some much-needed humour into the film ends up embarrassingly inert.

The visual palette, like the writing, is relentlessly dull. Goa바카라�one of the most vibrant, culturally rich settings available to an Indian filmmaker바카라�is reduced to a generic, anonymous backdrop. There is no flavour, very little sense of place, no texture that could have elevated Costao beyond its template approach.

Perhaps the most baffling aspect of the film is its structure. It attempts to be many things바카라�a gritty crime thriller, a family melodrama, a police procedural바카라�all at once. And what emerges is an incoherent and lacklustre patchwork. The voiceover by Fernandes바카라� young daughter바카라�who also calls him by his name바카라�meant to humanise the narrative, feels awkward and cringe. It appears sporadically, adding nothing to the emotional landscape. If anything, it draws attention to how utterly unsure the film is of its own purpose.

I do want to give Costao credit for avoiding the kind of cheap sensationalism that often plagues 바카라�based on true events바카라� dramas. It doesn't indulge in glorified violence or excessive heroism. But this restraint seems to come from a place of fear rather than a deliberate attempt to keep it from becoming a run-of-the-mill masala biopic. The film tiptoes around the political and moral complexities of Fernandes바카라� real-life decisions bookending the story with a portrait of an 바카라�awesome father바카라� not an absent one바카라�an honest hero whose heroism came at great personal cost.

What could have been an urgent story about systemic corruption and personal sacrifice becomes an exercise in missed opportunities. The filmmakers seem to believe that merely recounting the events as a highlight reel of Fernandes바카라�s life is enough. But cinema바카라�especially when dealing with real lives and real stakes바카라�requires insight and needs enthusiasm about its subject.

I gave up even pretending to be interested long before the film limps to its conclusion. Costao aspires to be a stirring portrait of an unsung hero but ultimately never musters the emotional conviction such a story demands. It becomes a gold smuggling drama that neither shines, sparkles, nor stirs.

Debiparna Chakraborty is a film, TV, and culture critic dissecting media at the intersection of gender, politics, and power