Tag: Shahid Kapoor

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Deva: A competent investigative drama bolstered by an engaging second half

This Rosshan Andrrews directorial is inspired from the director’s own Mumbai Police but with a different touch. ‘Deva’ often plays to the gallery celebrating the rakish ways of its titular character; thankfully though the movie also critiques the inner workings of the police system
Deva (Hindi), 30-01-2025, Action, Thriller, 2 hours 36 minutes, U/A, Theatre
  • Main Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Pooja Hegde, Pavail Gulati, and Kubra Sait
  • Director: Rosshan Andrrews
  • Producer: Siddharth Roy Kapur
  • Music Director: Vishal Mishra
  • Cinematography: Amit Roy
  • Rating: 3/5

Right since the first teaser of Deva, there has been a lot of speculation on it being a remake of Rosshan Andrrews’s own Mumbai Police (2013).

Shahid and the rest of the team have reiterated that Deva isn’t Mumbai Police but after seeing the film it’s clear that Roshaan Andrrews has taken inspiration from his own movie.

Thankfully though, Deva has its own unique flavour, unlike the Kalees-directed Baby John, which had plenty of South drama.

Synopsis

For those who haven’t seen Mumbai Police, Deva focuses on inspector Dev Ambre (Shahid Kapoor). He is very arrogant along with being hot-headed.

Dev Ambre has zero tolerance for rules while carrying out his police duties within the boundaries of what he considers right. At the same time, he is seen sharing a solid brotherhood with ACP Rohan D’ Silva ( an impactful Pavail Gulati).

Pravesh Rana plays a senior officer and the boss of Dev called Farhan. Farhan often gets angry with Dev’s ways of doing his duty but still stands with him.

Pooja Hegde plays a crime journalist called Diya, she is the daughter of a constable. Dev and Diya eventually fall in love but Dev’s life takes a very dramatic turn when Rohan is shot by a mysterious killer while he is being felicitated.

This is the story in brief.

Strong and weak aspects

The beginning portions of Deva are mostly a series of sequences celebrating his machismo. Shades of Shahid Kapoor’s blockbuster and very polarizing Kabir Singh can be found in numerous instances.

But the movie picks up pace after the tragic death of Rohan. There are constant twists and turns with intricate subplots.

The interval bang showcasing the serious accident of Dev, resulting in a memory loss is a major high point as the viewers, particularly those who haven’t seen Mumbai Police would be tensed about the killer’s identity.

Deva is an action thriller

In the second half, the viewers see Shahid’s persona changing as Dev grapples with what he was once while handling an important task at hand.

There is a distinct mellowness in the way he goes about things, but at the same time, there is a quiet determination too. This has come out brilliantly in both the writing done by many like Abbas Dalal and Hussain Dalal, coupled with Shahid Kapoor’s acting performance.

Mention must also be made of the dialogues where the court criticizes Deva’s hooligan ways strictly warning him that police are not meant to behave like rowdies terrorising people.

A major problem with Deva is its women characters and a haphazard love story. Pooja Hegde as Divya looks gorgeous as always playing the honest crime journalist competently but the way her track has been integrated leaves a lot to be desired.

Kubbra Sait as a women cop doesn’t add much to the proceedings either. The character of Kubbra Sait could have added a different dimension given that we mostly see men as police officers. But she becomes more of an add-on, not serving much purpose.

Shahid’s show all the way

There is an important plot twist in the pre-climax. Many details of which cannot be revealed here but this portion gives an emotional subtext into the hyper-aggressive nature of Deva in the first half.

Shahid Kapoor in Deva
Shahid Kapoor in ‘Deva’. (x)

Shahid brings in a raw intensity brilliantly capturing the emotional turmoil of a man carrying the burden of his father’s criminal past.

The revelation of who is the killer and the motivations behind it will definitely shock the viewers. The brotherhood between Pavail Gulati and Shahid Kapoor has also come out well.

Pavail Gulati brings in an emotional depth proving to be the perfect anthesis to Shahid’s Deva. Pravesh Rana also lends solid support as the senior inspector; he brings both authority and warmth to the part.

Mumbai, an integral part

The use of Mumbai’s rustic surroundings brings in an extra layer. The city with its many layers becomes a character in itself, the cinematography of Amith Ray is simply brilliant.

A particular mention must also be made of how he captures the action sequences designed by Parvaz Sheikh and Abbas Ali Moghul among others.

The songs don’t make much of an impression except for “Bhasad Macha”, the combination of Shahid Kapoor’s electric dance moves along with the raw energy packs in a major punch. However, Jakes Bejoy’s background score is of the highest order elevating the intense scenes.

Final take

To sum it up Deva thankfully doesn’t completely glorify the cops, something which we have seen a lot in mainstream cinema. At the same time, a much better first half would make this investigative drama a more wholesome experience.

(Views expressed here are personal.)

https://thesouthfirst.com/entertainment/deva-movie-review/

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Bollywood actors through the lens of South Indian directors

A rundown into some of the Telugu and Tamil directors who have successfully presented Bollywood actors in a different light and gave major hits       

As the wave of pan India has caught in a huge way, the crossover between Hindi film actors and South Indian directors, particularly those belonging to Telugu and Tamil cinema (also known as Tollywood and Kollywood) has resulted in some successful collaborations. One of the earlier examples is Aamir Khan’s Ghajini (2008). Director AR Murugadoss made a significant impact with this Tamil remake.

Ghajini

Ghajini opened the 100-crore club in Bollywood; it was a major money spinner in those times. For Aamir Khan Ghajini was altogether a different film from what he was doing till then, it presented him in a massy avatar. In spite of the obvious comparisons to Suriya’s stellar acting, Aamir also left his own imprint particularly the physical part of it. He looked like a wounded tiger out on an avenging spree.

In spite of the obvious comparisons to Suriya’s stellar acting Aamir also left his own imprint particularly the physical part of it.

Kabir Singh

Before Kabir Singh, again a remake of a south (Telugu) movie Arjun Singh, Shahid Kapoor did not have a major solo hit. The likes of Jab We Met, Udta Punjab and Haider were hit movies no doubt but not commercial blockbusters. Though Padmaavat did more than 300 crores Ranveer Singh walked away with all the accolades and rightly so. But Sandeep Reddy Vanga gave Shahid a big spectrum to play with in Kabir Singh and the actor didn’t disappoint. Whether it is portraying the highly toxic and passionate love of Kabir or in the breakdown scenes Shahid did his best. Although the movie was pretty much a carbon copy of the original Shahid brought his own intensity to the role. Much like Ghajini this remake also did far bigger numbers than the original. It is a separate matter that Shahid could not capitalize on this blockbuster success later in his career.  

Kabir Singh gave Shahid Kapoor a big spectrum to play with and the actor didn’t disappoint

Jawan

It is a well-known fact that Shah Rukh Khan was going through a very rough patch both professionally and personally before the release of Siddarth Anand’s Pathaan and Atlee’s Jawan. For Atlee Jawan was a huge leap given that he had mostly collaborated with Vijay Thalapathy till then. For someone like him directing a megastar like Shah Rukh Khan is not a piece of cake.

But Atlee more than rose up to the challenge, he passed with flying colours. Atlee’s presentation of SRK particularly the father character of Vikram Rathore erupted huge cheers among the moviegoers. Shah Rukh also effortlessly slipped into the universe of Atlee having a lot of fun in a movie that has essentially 50 shades of SRK.

For SRK too it was a very profitable film both in terms of expanding his fan base and box office numbers. It was almost like a king size comeback with more than 700 crores.

Shah Rukh Khan also effortlessly slipped into the universe of Atlee

Animal

Animal directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga is easily the most polarizing movie of Ranbir’s career, more than even Sanju. Ranbir’s previous movies have also featured strained father and son relationships, but Animal took it to a whole new level. Animal showcased Ranbir in his darkest avatar till date, as Ranbir himself confessed that he was scared when he heard the script and had severe doubts about doing the role. However, to Ranbir’s credit he went full throttle and delivered a power packed performance though the story itself was highly controversial.   

Ranbir Kapoor’s darkest avatar till date

Kalki

Lastly there is this year’s Kalki directed by Nag Ashwin, a Telugu language epic science fiction film. The last few outings of Amitabh Bachchan have varied from just average to good. While he had solid roles in Jhund and Uunchai, in Bramhastra and Ganapath he didn’t have much to do. He was particularly wasted in Bramhastra as just a mere guru. But his fans and neutral audiences got the opportunity to see vintage Amitabh Bachchan with Kalki 2989 AD.

Bachchan had the best written role by a long margin and the senior actor just chewed the scenery with a stellar performance. The way he takes on the character of Prabhas was a sheer delight to watch. On many occasions he overshadowed the other cast members with just his towering screen presence. With his performance of Ashwatthama Bachchan showed that he can give any young actor a run for their money even at the age of 81.

For someone like Nag Ashwin too handling a film of this scale and directing someone like Amitabh Bachchan is a major achievement.

The fans and neutral audiences got the opportunity to see vintage Amitabh Bachchan in Kalki 2989 AD

Not so lucky ones

At the same time, it has to be said that working with south directors or in remakes of south films hasn’t proved to be so lucky for other Bollywood actors. Case in point is Akshay Kumar’s Sarfira, a remake of the Tamil hit Soorarai Pottru directed by Sudha Kongara. She also helmed the remake. Soorarai Pottru got both rave reviews and major awards. Suriya got the best actor award in the prestigious national awards; the movie also won an award for best film. Later Soorarai Pottru was also dubbed into Hindi with the name of Uddan. Hence it makes no business sense to remake it and not surprisingly Sarfira got added to the long list of commercial failures of Akshay post pandemic. Before Sarfira there was Bachchan Pandey, a remake of Jigarthanda. That was also a major commercial failure. Hrithik Roshan and Saif Ali Khan’s Vikram Vedha also turned out to be a box office turkey. Though Hrithik Roshan got good reviews for bringing his own touch to the role of Vedha, but it wasn’t enough for the movie to sail through.

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Bloody Daddy: Shahid Kapoor Comes Out All Guns Blazing In This Pulpy Action Thriller

Beneath all the action and thrills, the film has a relatable emotional angle — the father-son dynamic that has come out well.

Provides enough adrenaline rush!
Bloody Daddy (Hindi)
  • Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Ronit Roy, Sanjay Kapoor, and Diana Penty
  • Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
  • Producer: Jyoti Deshpande, Gaurav Bose, and Ali Abbas Zafar
  • Music: Badshah, Aditya Dev and Anuj Garg
  • Runtime: 2 hours 5 minutes
  • OTT platform: Jio Cinema

Ali Abbas Zafar’s Bloody Daddy opens with information on the country slowly getting back to its feet post the second wave of COVID-19 lockdown.

More than the story, it is the racy screenplay that makes Bloody Daddy enjoyable particularly if you are an action junkie.

Synopsis

The setting of Bloody Daddy is the milieu of North India.

In the very first scene, we see Sumair (Shahid Kapoor) and his colleague (Zeishan Quadri of Gangs of Wasseypur fame) racing down the streets of Connaught Place in pursuit of another car.

Soon enough, they manage to catch up with the car and have a fight with two men. They get their hands on cocaine worth ₹50 crore.

This action sequence sets the tone for the rest of the film. Here, it has to be mentioned that Sumair is an NCB officer but not the traditional mainstream cop, as he is not catching the criminal but robbing the cocaine.

In short, he is a dubious cop, and as viewers, we don’t understand whether he is on the right side of the law or the wrong side till the end.

Sikander (Ronit Roy) plays a drug lord-cum-hotelier. He comes to know that Sumair has beaten up his men and is in possession of his cocaine. He abducts Sumair’s son Athrav.

Crux of Bloody Daddy

The one-line story is about how Sumair manages to get back his son. But what makes this drama interesting is the various subplots that director Ali Abbas Zafar integrates.

For example, you have another drug dealer Hamid (Sanjay Kapoor), and two anti-corruption officials, Aditi and Sameer (Diana Penty and Rajeev Khandelwal), who are also on the job.

Soon a cat-and-mouse chase starts, but there is much more than what meets the eye.

Parallel to this, Sumair has a messy relationship with his ex-wife Riya and son Athrav.

The biggest strength of Bloody Daddy is how Ali Abbas Zafar designed the character of Shahid Kapoor.

Sumair isn’t perfect by any means and on certain occasions, he also comes across as a selfish and irresponsible dad.

His moral compass also seems to be oscillating and this keeps the viewers guessing whether he is the good guy or the anti-hero till the very end.

Positive aspects

There is certain believability to the fight sequences that the director and his leading man bring to the table. Sumair’s scenes with his son Athrav are few in number, but they do make an impact.

A special mention must be made of the phone conversation when Sumair instils confidence in his son that he will come out safe.

Bloody Daddy has also some wonderful laugh-out-loud moments.

A good example of this is the hilarious interaction Sumair has with a Nepali cook in the hotel. Some of the other laugh-out-loud moments come from the interactions between Sikander and Hamid.

Beneath all the action and thrills, Bloody Daddy has a relatable emotional angle.

You have a father who eventually wants to make his son understand that he isn’t the irresponsible and indifferent dad that the boy assumes him to be. This has come out well.

What also makes Bloody Daddy even more intriguing is the characterisation of Rajeev Khandelwal. On the surface, he appears to be an honest tough cop but there is a solid twist to his character.

Ali Abbas Zafar also uses the background of COVID-19 smartly to make important points about the growing inflation and the crime rate.

Low points

The second half of Bloody Daddy feels a little stretched because of the long drawn-out cat-and-mouse game.

Diana Penty as the solo female official needed to be better etched. It looks more like an add-on to the story rather than being organic.

Performances

As Bloody Daddy, Shahid Kapoor exudes power and vulnerability in equal measure. He brings a palpable intensity which makes the viewers root for him.

Apart from the intense scenes, Shahid shines bright in the lighter ones, too.

The duo of Ronit Roy and Sanjay Kapoor are also in fine form, particularly Ronit Roy. Rajeev Khandelwal is another actor who makes a strong impression.

The cinematography by Marcin Laskaweic matches the vision of Ali Abbas Zafar. On more than one occasion, the viewers feel that this film should have been released on the big screen.

Final take

Bloody Daddy is a highly watchable action thriller that provides enough adrenaline rush.

(Views expressed are personal.)

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Farzi: Another Global Crime Tackled With Finesse

A perfect package of entertainment

Summary

Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Vijay Sethupati, Rashi Khanna, Ragina Cassandra, Amol Palekar, Bhuvan Arora, and Zakir Hussain.
Director: Raj and DK
Producer: Raj and DK
Music: Sachin- Jigar, Tanishk Bagchi, and Ketan Sodha
Genre: Crime thriller
OTT platform: Amazon prime
Episodes: 8

The director duo of Raj and DK specialise in taking global issues and looking at them through a humanistic lens.

For example, in The Family Man Season 2, Through the character Raji — a hardened LTTE militant — played by Samantha they made a point that a freedom fighter for some could become a terrorist for others.

The crime — counterfeit currency

Most of the characters in The Family Man series had their share of moral ambiguities.

In Farzi, Raj and DK looked at the issue of counterfeit money.

Counterfeit currency — as everyone knows — is a currency that is not genuine but made to look exactly genuine to deceive people.

Farzi has similarities with both seasons of The Family Man, in the sense that here also a cat-and-mouse game along with a troubled personal life does exist.

Farzi is not as tight as the two seasons of The Family Man but there still is a lot to like here.

Farzi captures the journey of an antihero Sunny (Shahid Kapoor).

Sunny is a small-scale sketch artist with a lot of pent-up anger towards the system.

Sunny’s grandfather — played by veteran actor Amol Palekar — is an old-time journalist.

He runs a revolutionary magazine called Kranti, which does not sell much similar to most magazines of that genre.

As a result, a situation arises where the magazine has to be shut down following huge debts.

The tale around the crime

To revive the magazine, Sunny and his best friend Firoz (Bhuvan Arora) start designing counterfeit money.

Soon, Sunny and Firoz come to the notice of Mansoor (Kay Kay Menon), who is the biggest name in the world of counterfeiting, and become part of Mansoor’s business.

Initially, it is all about saving Nanu’s Kranti magazine but soon it becomes more of a self-destruction.

Parallel to this you have Michael (Vijay Sethupati) who is a fiery task force officer, hell-bent on eradicating fake currency in India.

He shares an interesting equation with the central minister played by Zakir Hussain. In this mix, there is also Megha (Rashi Khanna). Megha is an important cog in the team of Michael.

The rest of the story focuses on whether Michael will be successful in his mission or not and more importantly how Sunny’s life changes because of this illegal business.

The best of an anti-hero

The best part of Farzi is how the directors make you empathise with its anti-hero.

Audiences know that Sunny’s actions are not right but at the same time, they understand where Sunny is coming from.

There are many layers to Sunny, and through him, the director presents a psychological portrait of a man who is consumed by greed.

During the course, Sunny’s personality changes so much that even his loved ones fail to recognise him anymore.

Vijay Sethupati at his best

Farzi also dwells deeply into the topic of the production of fake notes and their infiltration into the economy. These details have a certain shock value and keep the audiences engrossed.

By its very nature, Farzi falls under gritty space but at the same time, there are also some highly entertaining moments.

The best of them involves Vijay Sethupati’s Michael and the central minister.

Their banter is filled with many entertaining lines that bring much-needed relief.

Raj and DK also deserve credit for the portrayal of Rashi Khanna’s Megha who can be seen in different spaces, not just her professional life.

Khanna plays Megha with the right amount of spunk even after standing opposite more experienced actors like Vijay Sethupati and Shahid Kapoor.

The rest of the cast’s performance

Sunny’s equation with grandpa has also got some tender moments.

There is a quiet dignity that Amol Palekar lends to his part as an idealistic journalist.

However, a little more info about the objectives of Kranti magazine would have made his character even more memorable.

The same applies to Michael’s troubled personal life. His moments with his wife (Ragina Cassandra) and the son are sweet but in the scheme of things they come across as more of an add-on.

There are a couple of scenes where Vijay Sethupati converses with Manoj Bajpai’s Srikant Tiwari from The Family Man series. This hints at a possible crossover between the two agents in season two of Farzi.

Shahid Kapoor’s knock-out performance

Shahid Kapoor as Sunny delivers a knockout performance. Shahid has always been good at playing conflicted heroes and in Farzi too he lives up to it. He captures the various shades of Sunny with the required finesse.

Vijay Sethupati is a treat to watch as the fiery task force officer.

It takes a little time to get used to hearing Vijay Sethupati speak Hindi but he grows on you as the series progresses.

He is at his best, particularly in the lighter moments. Kay Kay Menon is someone who doesn’t need a particular introduction and here too the veteran is in solid form.

Last but not least Bhuvan Arora gives solid support. He instantly makes you fall in love with Firoz.

The verdict

The technical departments led by cinematographer Pankaj Kumar are also in perfect sync with the gritty nature of the series.

In a nutshell, Raj and DK continue their streak of delivering solid content with a perfect package of important issues and entertainment.