Sathya Jyothi Films’ Captain Miller (dubbed from the Tamil film of the same name; UA) is an action film set in pre-Independence India. Easa (Dhanush) lives in a village and whiles away his time doing nothing. His elder brother, Selvel (Shiva Rajkumar), is a revolutionary who is fighting against the Britishers. One day, Easa joins the British army, where he becomes well-known as Miller. But Easa has a change of heart when he and his army-friends are asked to kill his own villagers. Easa/Miller now becomes a revolutionary himself and fights against the Britishers. What good he does for his villagers as a revolutionary forms the crux of the drama.
Arun Matheswaran has written a story which is quite interesting. The screenplay, penned by Arun Matheswaran and Madhan Karky, is fairly nice but the pace of the drama is slow in the first half. Another minus point is that the drama offers little by way of novelty. The patriotic flavour does gladden the hearts of the viewers. Comedy and emotions are almost absent. Madhan Karky’s dialogues are good.
Dhanush does an excellent job in the title role. Shiva Rajkumar shines in a brief role as Selvel. Priyanka Arul Mohan looks beautiful and acts ably in the role of Velmati. Sundeep Kishan lends good support in a brief role as Easa’s friend, Rafiq. Jayaprakash makes his presence felt as the king. John Kokken is adequate as the king’s son, Kunwar. Aditi Balan, Edward Sonnenblick, Nivedhithaa Sathish, Vinoth Kishan , Alexx O’Nell and the rest lend the desired support.
Arun Matheswaran’s direction is good. He has treated the drama with a lot of maturity and in a stylised manner. G.V. Prakash Kumar’s music is okay. Lyrics (Vivek, Arunraja Kamaraj, Uma Devi and Kaber Vasuki) are alright. Bhaskar’s choreography is quite eye-filling. Background music is lovely. Siddhartha Nuni’s cinematography is wonderful. Dhilip Subbarayan’s action and stunt scenes are thrilling and will be loved by the masses. Tha. Ramalingam’s art direction is fair. Nagooran Ramachandran’s editing is sharp. Dubbing is proper.
On the whole, Captain Miller is a well-made film but it will do very ordinary business in Hindi because of dull promotion.
Released on 12-1-’24 at Maratha Mandir (daily 2 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru AA Films. Publicity & opening: dull. …….Also released all over. Opening was below the mark at most of the places.