Bhanushali Studios Limited and Bombay Fables Motion Pictures’ Costao (UA) is the story of an honest officer of the Customs department.
Costoa Fernandes (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is a brave and upright Customs officer working in Goa. He lives with wife Maria (Priya Bapat) and two children, Marisa (Asmi Deo) and Chris (Abeer Jain). Underworld don D’Mello (Kishor Kumar G.) smuggles gold on the Goa coast. Costao’s informer (Shravan Fondekar) regularly gives him information about the gold before it lands on the Goa coast. In this way, Costao aborts the gold smuggling attempts on several occasions. In one such operation, Costao murders D’Mello’s brother, Peter (Hussain Dalal), who is running away with the smuggled gold. Costao runs away after murdering Peter in self-defence. Obviously, D’Mello seeks revenge. What happens thereafter?
Bhavesh Mandalia and Meghna Srivastava have written the story which is based on a real-life character and his story. Their screenplay is not very convincing or even entertaining. Costao running away from the scene of Peter’s murder looks weird because he has killed Peter in self-defence and hence ought to have stayed put there. The drama which follows after the murder looks stretched because it is boring. The duo’s dialogues are good, especially those spoken by Costao.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui acts brilliantly in the title role. Priya Bapat is good as his wife, Maria. Kishor Kumar G. performs well as D’Mello. Gagan Dev Riar is alright as CBI officer Narang. Hussain Dalal is okay as Peter. Shravan Fondekar lends fair support as the informer. Asmi Deo is adequate as Marisa. Mahika Sharma has her moments as Peter’s wife, Cassandra. Ashish Pradhan is so-so as Mario. Abeer Jain (as little Chris) and Shruti Puranik (as D’Mello’s sister, Alayana) are adequate. Others pass muster.
Sejal Shah’s direction is ordinary, limited as it is by the routine script. Ketan Sodha and Ajay Jayanthi’s music is ordinary. Lyrics (Ginny Diwan, Mxrzi, Ajay Jayanthi and Niren Bhatt) are commonplace. Ketan Sodha’s background music is quite impactful. Rafey Mahmood’s camerawork is nice. Abbas Ali Moghul’s action scenes and stunts are alright. Sapna Chandra’s production designing, and Abhijit Shreshth and Vijay Gupta’s art direction are okay. Unnikrishnan P.P.’s editing ought to have been sharper.
On the whole, Costao is a very ordinary fare, with Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s acting being the best point.
Released on 1-5-’25 on Zee5.