A Sergio Leone Film Meets City of God: Siddhartha Nuni on Captain Miller’s Visual Style

Dhanush’s Captain Miller has all the trappings of an action film — a central conflict that explores colonialism and casteism in rural Tamil Nadu, dacoits revolting against injustice and deprivation, skeevy white villains (one with a Harvey Dent nod) and needless to say, impeccably choreographed stunts with quite a few explosions. But still, one may still struggle to slot the Arun Matheswaran title into the regular action film pile. Like the Phoenix, the innocent Analeesan’s transformation — to the resilient Captain Miller — happens by the roaring fire in a superb silhouette. Amidst death, despair and a heist, the camera pauses to show us blood-soaked shards of glass beside a truck that portend a dark turn ahead. The visual language of Captain Miller is an outlier in the genre and DOP Siddhartha Nuni couldn’t have asked for anything better. 

For starters, action films and violence bore Nuni. “Action films aren't something that I pay money to watch in the theatre,” the cinematographer tells us with a laugh. “I’m someone who enjoys visually strong war dramas like Apocalypse Now (1979) and Gladiator (2000). I was a little sceptical if I’d fit into this place.” But Matheswaran’s script turned out to be a game changer. “It wasn't violence for the sake of violence nor was it brutality for the sake of gratification. It was righteous anger for justice.” 

The film, which co-stars Priyanka Arul Mohan, Shiva Rajkumar, and Nivedhithaa Sathish, narrates the story of Analeesan’s call for arms to give his village their rightful entry into the temple. While the film is an extension of Arun’s earlier films — Rocky (2021) and Saani Kayidham (2022) — that explored his quest for finding visual beauty in life’s murkiest contours, Captain Miller was still a different organism in his universe, Nuni explains. “I don't know if we can compare Miller with Arun's previous two films because I feel the grammar is different. Saani Kayidham was hand-held, grungy and edgy.” 

The grammar of Captian Miller was more like Sergio Leone meets South American films like City of God (2002). “It has to be classical frames, but in a different world. That was the pitch when we started.” Take the film’s penchant for long lens shots for instance. “There is this shot of the top of the mountain, looking into the village with the far end of the temple in the background with Dhanush standing in the centre. The inspiration for such shots always come from classics such as Kurosawa's films like Yojimbo (1961), Seven Samurai (1954).” By the end of the film, they were literally talking about wide shots with long lenses. “In the epilogue shot where Aditi's character is interacting at the end of the pier, I remember Arun telling me, "Sid, let's do a wide shot with 100mm" and I laughed. A wide shot for us was a 100 mm shot. Generally a wide shot would be, say, a 15mm or a 25mm.” This came from a constant need to compress space. “There are three aspects to the village — the village itself, the hillock Mathalamparai, and the temple in the background, both of which are on different levels.”

The visual style sometimes took its own course during filming in Courtallam. “The climax was shot over 40 days. The weather there had a mind of its own, changing every five minutes, and most of the film was shot in natural light. Because of the way we were filming and the elements around us, Captain Miller found its own language. The first shot of the film where Pechiamma is talking is a classic black-and-white shot and then there's smoke going in the background. And when Pechiamma dies, there's smoke all over. These are all things we added to the film and this happened because Courtallam had a lot of wind, dust and smoke.”

Shooting an action film of this scale also meant a massive undertaking of coordination, he adds. "The camera becomes like a dance in action. Shooting the explosions were interesting because you have to record the action in front of you. If you shoot at 6pm, the fire is going to get burnt out and you're not going to get any detailing. So, I had to keep the exposure exactly so that the fire got registered on camera. And you have multiple cameras, one on a gimbal, on the right, one drone, so you have to keep an eye on everything while making sure everyone was okay. It's basically management on a creative learning."

Nuni is a big proponent of cinematography conveying what the character is going through, something that legendary English cinematographer Roger Deakins talks about. “Cinematography isn't about beautiful visuals, and this generally takes you out of the film. As much as it is the aesthetics, you never notice the cinematography. The visual poetry shouldn't disturb the flow of the film. After a point, you have to let it all come together.” But of course, letting things take its course, also means being okay with imperfections. 

“A lot of people are talking about a few out-of-focus shots in the film. But that's okay. The shot where Priyanka Mohan and five villagers are walking to the back of the temple, is a slow-motion long-lens shot. We tried this 10 times and there was no light. We were shooting at F2 and we still didn’t get it to focus. But even if there’s no focus, it becomes a painterly expression.”

Even if the cinematographer isn’t big on action, the genre seems to be fond of him — Nuni, who already shot Gautham Menon’s Vendhu Thanindhadhu Kaadu, is now filming Venkat Prabhu and Vijay’s The Greatest of All Time. “The other day, my colourist was teasing me that I've become an action DOP,” Nuni says. “The good thing is this: I don't enjoy watching action films, but I definitely enjoy shooting them. I come from documentary and independent filmmaking, where you don't know what you're getting into that day. Action is just like that. You don't know what you're getting into. And that excites me.”