9 hours Ago
It was way back in 2019 when I last saw a charged Shahid Kapoor claim his space on the big screen. It was Kabir Singh , a film that was equally controversial as much as it was a commercial success. Four years after that, he came back with the crime drama Farzi , but that was on OTT.
It did well for the actor but did not give him the kind of push he needed at that point in his career. And now, close to six years later, it seems as if Kapoor has risen like a phoenix to claim his space, in Rosshan Andrrews' Deva , as a badass cop who will go to any extent to avenge his friend. Shahid Kapoor has been that one such Kapoor of his generation who has very carefully taken up projects and did his best to deliver on them, exploiting his acting chops to their fullest potential, loaded with expressive brilliance.
From Ishq Vishk in 2003 to Jab We Met four years later to Kaminey , Haider and Udta Punjab , Kapoor's made some strategic choices which have so far held him in good stead. Time and again, he's proved how his heft as a performer has worked well even where the film as a whole hasn't managed to meet expectations. In Deva , though, Kapoor actually manages to salvage a fledgling film based on the done-to-death trope of a whodunnit cop thriller with some very inconsistent and randomly placed action sequences and abrupt shots used as fillers.
However, my first impression of him after the first half was, why these blank, vacant and lost expressions all the time? It felt as if somewhere Kapoor had lost the ability to emote and converse. It was tiring to see him use the 'silent, angry, forever-looking-into-the-distance guy,' as a protagonist of machismo and strength. Deva , both the film and its eponymous character, was initially assumed to have been taken from the Malayalam thriller Mumbai Police , featuring Prithviraj Sukumaran and directed by Andrrews himself, but the makers do not accept it to be that way.
Yet, when one watches the film, one knows. The two aren’t very different from each other, except for some frames here and there. The story goes thus – Shahid Kapoor as Dev Ambre, a rebellious police officer is on a relentless quest for revenge for the murder of his fellow officer, Roshan D'Silva.
As the investigation progresses, Dev comes face-to-face with dark, unsettling revelations within his own department. During the investigation, Dev suddenly meets with an accident that leads to partial memory loss. The second half from thereon, leads to a thrilling chase, that leads our protagonist to his destination and helps him prove himself as an honest and capable investigating officer.
However, somewhere one wishes there was more screen space given to both, Kubbra Sait and Pooja Hegde, as both ladies have hardly been given the chance to show their mettle. Written by Bobby-Sanjay, Hussain Dalal, Abbas Dalal, Sumit Arora and Arshad Syed, the film fails to make the most of all the other supporting actors. Kapoor's chemistry with Hegde, who plays an investigative journalist, adds an element of humour and swag and elevates the storyline by several notches.
However, the film does not dwell on emotional depth and the layers of its characters including the protagonist. It only merely scratches the surface rather than fleshing out each character well and in its entirety. Also, the ending feels rushed.
Yet, it is a one-time watch. Film: Deva Director: Rosshan Andrrews Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Pooja Hegde, Pavail Gulati, Pravessh Rana, Kubbra Sait Rating: 2.5/5.
