Laal Kaptaan deserves a watch just for Saif’s spunk.

Laal Kaptaan is the sort of film I wish there were more of – an exploration of the richness and weirdness of old India, one which doesn’t try to smooth the edges or create a Disney-esque franchise. Recent films have used our nation’s distant past as a reflecting pool of orthodoxy (Padmaavat) and proto-nationalism (Manikarnika). Singh, on the other hand, admits that we’ve always been a complicated, fractured country, and that entire lives can be defined by nothing more than a desire for revenge.

Sensational; but a stretch, sadly…In Laal Kaptaan we effectively experience a valiant attempt at merging the East, with the Western

ensational; but a stretch, sadly…In Laal Kaptaan we effectively experience a valiant attempt at merging the East, with the Western

Singh, the director, had all the pieces to craft an effectual Indian western: the terrain, the long-suffering sadhu, an age of flux, elements of magic realism, and touches of Shakespearean tragedy. But Laal Kaptaan falters on an over-written script and visually over-told story.

‘Laal Kaptaan’ is strictly for Khan’s fans who dig his cerebral conversations in person and therefore will be easy on him.

All the interesting disparate elements in the film don’t come together well enough to build it into a compelling whole

There are flashes when you feel the film will finally say something important, but then it lapses back into stodgy set-pieces which go on and on.

Saif Ali Khan’s slow-burning period Western beautifully sets up its period and ambition, only to peter off at the most crucial juncture.

Laal Kaptaan is a boring and self-absorbed period drama – one that is so obsessed with historical detailing, eccentric characters, bare physicality and country-style pace that it forgets to be narratively and humanely absorbing.

Somewhere, ‘Laal Kaptaan’ was perhaps attempting to be a Western movie, with horses, dust, guns and the works, but ultimately, a tedious narrative and a very lengthy runtime pull it down.

Even though Singh keeps away from the sentimentality common to Hindi cinema, Laal Kaptaan lacks pace and certain scenes feel unbearably long. Dialogues, so essential for a historical thriller like this one, falter and flail in critical scenes, puncturing the impact of a unique story. As far as Hindi films go, Laal Kaptaan treads a path less trodden, but it meanders and spectacularly loses steam. It should have cut to the chase, literally and figuratively, but instead, it becomes an unbearably long and pointless pursuit.