‘Costao’ review: A rote tale of honesty under severe pressure

It’s been a while since Nawazuddin Siddiqui was in a film worthy of his protean talent. Costao won’t rank high in Siddiqui’s career, but it works as a placeholder until a more fulfilling project comes along.

In the ZEE5 release, Siddiqui plays a character similar to Majmudar from Raees (2017) – an honest government officer unafraid to go up against powerful adversaries. Sejal Shah’s film is based on the real-life Customs officer Costao Fernandes, who paid a heavy price for trying to prevent gold smuggling in Goa in the 1990s.

In the film, Costao (Siddiqui) takes on the racketeer D’Mello (Kishore) but faces serious trouble after he accidentally kills D’Mello’s brother Peter (Hussain Dalal). D’Mello swears revenge. Costao and his wife Maria (Priya Bapat) are hounded. Central Bureau of Investigation officer Sameer (Gagan Dev Riar) matches D’Mello in villainy.

The screenplay by Bhavesh Mandalia and Meghna Srivastava explores a generic story of honesty under pressure, rather than saying anything specific about the hero’s tormentors or the evolution of smuggling in Goa. The Hindi-language film is filled with non-Goan actors passing off as Goan, a lack of local detailing beyond cottages and beaches, and dodgy accents – Kishore’s D’Mello is particularly grating.

The movie identifies Costao early on as an inspiring...

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