The most enjoyable bits of Custody emerge from its self-aware writing. The film might be set in 1998 but songs and dialogues from recent films and at one point, a hilarious reference to Vikram (2022) are planted to evoke humour. Sure, we, the audience, know that they are anachronistic elements. Even Venkat Prabhu, who wrote and directed the film, is aware of this fact. Yet, he doesn’t refrain from sprinkling this self-aware, fourth-wall-breaking humour that urges us to not take the film seriously, even if some unexpected turns indicate otherwise. But this quality is a double-edged sword. For instance, in the second half, the jump from a playful sequence to an important character’s death feels incredibly curt because Custody becomes a completely different film for a few brief moments. Although the protagonist is pushed into dire situations and the threat is omnipresent, the playful undertone of the writing blinds us from foreseeing the serious turn the film takes at this point. The sad song, crooned by Ilaiyaraaja, unfortunately, comes across as unintentionally hilarious because it sounds like it has no business being in a fun, action thriller like this. Despite such hiccups, the film retains its quirk till the very end, and this commitment is what I found the most admirable about Custody.
The premise of Custody is simple in its design. Shiva (Naga Chaitanya), a constable has to protect an influential hooligan named Raju (Arvind Swamy) from being murdered because he is the key witness in a big legal battle that’s connected to the political bigshots. Now, there are no massive surprises here and you know that the chief minister (Priyamani, in a one-note character) is orchestrating the operation while Sarathkumar’s Natarajan is spearheading the manhunt. It’s an extremely successful template of an underdog battling the odds to accomplish his mission. There’s something innately ‘massy’ about such underdog stories and it’s once again proven in Custody.
