Costao is a tepid fictionalized story of Customs officer

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We are back to names being changed—of some real-life main characters. This is a dramatized recount of a real devoted Customs officer in Goa, Costao Fernandes, whose eight years of personal trauma ended in a win at the Supreme Court, and was all along doing his job with exemplary courage. And yet the film is claimed as “inspired fiction”!

The personal trauma was about Costao living separately from his wife (played here by Priya Bapat) and three children, for that long period, in Mumbai on the advice of his supportive senior. Ergo, the story is narrated through the eyes of his daughter, who calls him by his first name. And the real Costao, now aged 83 (the story is set in the 1990s), is still alive.

The story begins with Costao being tipped off by an informer that 1500 kilos of gold is to land in Goa as contraband. Costao decides not to share this information with his team. The result, to cut a slightly long story short, is a car chase and Costao getting into the vehicle of the smuggler’s brother, Peter D’Mello (Hussain Dalal) in a village. In the skirmish, Peter is accidentally stabbed and dies. Costao opens the boot of the car, and shows the villagers the gold and reveals his identity. However, he is taken to court as a ‘murderer’ as there are no willing witnesses to testify for him, and the contraband has now disappeared.

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And while his department is solidly behind him, the CBI officer (Gagan Dev Riar) seems to be in the pay of Peter’s influential brother, D’Mello (Kishore Kumar G.), and the two intend to make Costao’s life completely miserable. Costao is attacked both in hospital while being treated for his wounds, and also outside the court by “women” in burqas, who seem to be mostly men. His family is intimidated and harassed too, amd so finally, Costao moves out of Goa.

The lower courts find him guilty, but Costao, backed by his fellow officers, fights all the way to the Supreme Court, unwilling to reveal the name of his informer as the villains can kill him and this can demotivate all such future people in helping the forces of the law. All along, Costao is aware that hiding this truth may earn him the death penalty.

But finally good triumphs over evil and Costao, in 1996, was even awarded the President’s Medal for gallantry.

Though based on real life, it is a shade difficult to imagine that D’Mello does not take any vengeful action against Costao’s family or even him, after all the initial threats and decisions, for so many years. The film’s pace drags despite a mere 125 minutes’ running time and, well, if it is finally termed fiction (though the end-credits show the real Costao!), some drama could have been added to make it gripping!

The script is thus dull and quite repetitious in parts. And there are ridiculous sequences like the night bus stop sequence. The sports day episode is pointless, though I found Costao’s confrontation with the school principal sequence effective and crisp.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui, thanks to his method acting and extensive (and I believe pre-shoot) interactions with the real Costao, is effective if not extraordinary—honestly, he had no scope to be that! Priya Bapat is again decent—this is not really a character that deserves an actress of her high caliber. Costao’s boss is played by a good actor, whose name is unknown to me. Hussain Dalal (I think this is the first film in which he has acted that does not have him as co-writer!) impresses in his brief role, though Kishore Kumar G. as D’Mello is just alright. Gagan Dev Riar as the hostile CBI officer and Ravi Shankar Jaiswal as the informer both pack a punch. The children are okay.

Technically, the film is alright. But the script needed to be punchy and dramatic. Director Sejal Shah is alright in places, but her need to be realistic as much as a possible overshadows the more vital issue of keeping audiences riveted.

Rating: **1/2

ZEE5 presents Bhanushali Studios’, Bombay Fables Motion Pictures’ & Side Hero Entertainment’s  Costao Produced by: Vinod Bhanushali, Kamlesh Bhanushali, Bhavesh Mandalia, Sejal Shah, Shyam Sunder & Faizuddin Siddiqui Directed by: Sejal Shah  Written by: Bhavesh Mandalia & Meghna Srivastava Music: Parth Pandya Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Priya Bapat, Kishore Kumar G, Hussain Dalal, Mahika Sharma, Sumali Khaniwale & others

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