Costao Movie Review: Nawazuddin Siddiqui Holds It Together In A Predictable And Formulaic Biopic
In the end, Costao is watchable mostly for Nawazuddin’s dependable performance, but it doesn’t offer much beyond the surface of yet another corruption drama.
CostaoU/A
Costao Movie Review: Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Costao, the biopic based on the life of customs officer Costao Fernandes, attempts to deliver a gritty tale of one man’s fight against an entrenched gold smuggling network in 1990s Goa. It’s based on the life of customs officer Costao Fernandes, who killed the Goa CM’s brother over gold smuggling. His real name was Antonio Fwaminy da Costa Fernandes, an Angolan politician who served as an ambassador to Egypt, India, and the UK.
Starring Nawazuddin in the titular role, the film begins on a strong note, presenting Fernandes as a no-nonsense Customs Officer who is deeply committed to his job. He leaves no stone unturned to ensure Goa’s ports and borders remain free of contraband. With a network of informers and an instinct for sensing trouble, he’s the kind of officer who makes smugglers nervous — and the audience, curious.
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The plot thickens when Fernandes receives a tip-off about a massive smuggling operation involving nearly 1,500 kilos of gold. What follows is a tense, large-scale search operation. But the mission takes a dramatic turn when Fernandes accidentally kills Peter DeMello (Hussain Dalal) — the brother of a powerful Goan political figure. That one action spirals into a political storm. Costao becomes a marked man, and soon, the very system he once served turns against him.
What unfolds is a classic tale of a lone righteous man versus a deeply corrupted state apparatus. The film attempts to portray the layers of political influence, bureaucratic apathy and the dangerous collusion between power and crime. But while the themes are important and timely, the treatment lacks freshness. The system is shown to be predictably murky, with every CBI and police officer behaving exactly the way they’ve done in countless films before. There’s no element of surprise into how these corrupt structures operate, despite the biographical potential of the subject.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, of course, holds the film together. As Costao, he delivers a performance filled with quiet intensity and restrained aggression. This isn’t new territory for him — he’s played similar roles before — but his portrayal still feels convincing. There’s steel in his body language and a sense of personal conviction in his gaze, especially in scenes where he confronts the system. He also gets a few comic relief lines which land well.
Priya Bapat, as Costao Fernandes’ wife, gives one of the film’s more grounded performances. A homemaker juggling three children and a husband whose work constantly pulls him away — and eventually into hiding — she brings emotional heft to the story. A particularly well-enacted showdown between her and Nawazuddin is one of the film’s strongest scenes. Hussain Dalal is convincing as Peter.
Unfortunately, Costao tries to tackle too many things at once — political drama, family turmoil, action thriller — and ends up with a script that feels disjointed. Despite being based on a real-life hero who exposed the cracks in the system, the film’s storytelling lacks nuance and originality.
In the end, Costao is watchable mostly for Nawazuddin’s dependable performance, but it doesn’t offer much beyond the surface of yet another corruption drama.
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