Boat Movie Review: A boatload of issues keeps it from staying afloat

Ten lives, one boat, and a desperate gamble for survival. At the outset, the premise of Chimbudeven’s Boat seems like a promising survival drama. But like a ship tossed by a tempest, Boat is a film caught in a maelstrom of its own making. With characters that are written to cross several boxes in a checklist and conflicts that are established for too long but are resolved with absolutely no payoff, Boat neither reaches the destination it aims for nor manages to stay afloat. 

Cast: Yogi Babu, Chinni Jayanth, Chaams, Gouri Kishan, Madhumitha, MS Bhaskar, Shiva Sha Ra

Director: Chimbudeven

Beyond the immediate threat of the sinking vessel, Boat introduces additional layers of conflict. A terrorist among the passengers and the presence of a British police officer in the 1943 setting, promises a complex interplay of tensions. However, these elements are squandered as the characters themselves remain disappointingly one-dimensional. Rather than delving into the nuances of their personalities and motivations, the film resorts to broad strokes and predictable archetypes.

Boat assembles a microcosm of Indian society, including a Muslim (Shiva Sha Ra), an upper caste man and his daughter (Chinni Jayanth and Gouri Kishan), a British police officer, a pregnant woman (Madhumitha) and her son, a North Indian man (Chaams), a fisherman (Yogi Babu) and his grandmother from the marginalised caste, and a learned man who believes in social equality (MS Bhaskar). Unfortunately, these characters are mere caricatures, mouthpieces for simplistic social commentary, making it a preachy journey. For example, the film shows that Chinni Jayanth’s Narayana has taken forte in Kumaran’s (Yogi Babu) boat to escape death. In the pursuit of commenting on social evils like casteism, the film takes certain logical leaps. It seems far-fetched to see a man throw casteist insults at someone, in whose boat he has taken refuge. Narayana says, “Unga saamiye kari sapadrache, neenga apdi dhaan irupel. Adhunaala dhaan ungala enga kovil kulla laam vidradhu illa.”

Just like how the boat is affected by a hole, the screenplay also has several loopholes. When it is announced mid-sea that a terrorist is onboard, a character, who previously introduced himself as a librarian, says he is a CB-CID officer, who has taken the journey to find the terrorist. He also reveals that even though he doesn't know who the terrorist is, he is sure that he is one of the passengers. However, at the beginning of the film, we see that all the characters climb into the boat at random. This character too does the same, and there’s no possibility that he would have a clue about the passengers of the boat. Now, after this revelation, none of the characters question him regarding this.

If the film’s screenplay is the hole in the boat, then the cast is the life jacket that prevents it from sinking. The ensemble delivers commendable performances, offering a glimmer of hope amidst the film’s shortcomings. With a promising premise and talented actors, Boat had the potential to be a gripping survival drama. Instead, it’s a vessel overloaded with preachy dialogues and uneven pacing. The film’s relentless moralising drowns out any potential suspense, turning a potentially thrilling experience into a tedious ordeal. The audience, like the characters trapped on the sinking vessel, yearns for a rescue from the film’s endless sermonizing.

Ultimately, Boat promises a thrilling voyage but instead finds itself adrift in a sea of cliches. The director, as the captain, steers the vessel towards a rocky shore of heavy-handed social commentary, rather than the open sea of human complexity. While the ocean of possibilities was vast, Boat remains a small, leaky vessel, unable to withstand the tempestuous waves of its own ambition.