In his hero’s entry scene in Deva, Shahid Kapoor, with shaved hair and a stubble beard, moves his pelvis to the tune of “Are Diwano Mujhe Pehchano” from Don (1978). On a mural, Vijay, played by Amitabh Bachchan, another Salim-Javed anti-hero, lounges in the background. In his desperation for mass appeal, the young, angry Bachchan has become the new cardboard cutout for all the deviant and volatile protagonists in Hindi cinema.
In Jigra (2024), Alia Bhatt is full of shit, preparing for an odyssey as Agneepath (1990) plays on TV. Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal reveals his name to be Rann “Vijay.” Every creator seems to be portraying their characters as the angry young men or women of the modern era, but no one is imbibing their essence.
Director: Rosshan Andrrews
Writers: Sumit Arora, Bobby, Abbas Dalal
Stars: Shahid Kapoor, Pooja Hegde, Kubbra Sait
In an interview, Javed Akhtar eloquently described his creation: “The angry young man was not just angry. He was deeply hurt.” I don’t know what is wrong with today’s on-screen rebel. What hurts him? Who is he angry at? Why is he angry?
Directed by Rosshan Andrews, Deva is a simple, convoluted retooling of the director’s 2013 neo-noir psychological thriller Mumbai Police. Given the source material and putting aside PR (which projected Deva as a mainstream film), the film was expected to be a suspense thriller. With a chain-smoking Shahid sporting sunglasses and rugged jeans, Deva clings to style while stripping away substance.
It beats the drum of its raw sensitivity, but soon enough the emotions at its core begin to ring hollow. The case is solved as the film begins (but there is a catch). Dev Ambre (Shahid Kapoor) has found the killer of his friend and colleague Rohan D’Silva (Pavail Gulati), a kindly policeman who was shot by an unknown sniper at a police felicitation event.
Dev meets with an accident before he can reveal the culprit’s name to his superior Farhan Khan (Parvessh Rana). Dev wakes up with amnesia and remembers neither his identity nor that of the killer. As he begins to piece together the puzzle, the audience is introduced to Dev’s mercurial personality before the accident.
He never puts on the police uniform because he doesn’t want to defame the khaki colour while doing the policeman’s “dirty work”. He sleeps with a married woman. He is rude, arrogant and insubordinate, but his colleagues and superiors tolerate him because he is a shrewd cop. Kabir Singh with a gun.
But Dev is not just a character study. This is not a “look at this animal’s antics” kind of film. Following in the footsteps of the original 2013 Malayalam film Mumbai Police, it attempts to be a gripping mystery, relying heavily on the timely outcome of the plot. However, Deva is so unimaginatively set up that it misses the train of excitement.
In Mumbai Police, viewers were as clueless as its amnesiac protagonist and things fall into place bit by bit. But in Deva, the viewer is always ahead of the central character.
The story unfolds clearly, the narrative is slower than a slow-burn film and revelations are diluted. Mumbai Police questioned the appeal of the macho cop and the toxicity of male friendships, but Deva is limited to rebelling against ideologically devoid politicians. We also don’t spend time with the supporting characters to bond with them and thus motivations are half-baked and actions feel abrupt. Deva is entirely dependent on its lead Shahid Kapoor, who must be praised for both his acting prowess and choice of roles. And Shahid tries to lift the slack narrative with his energetic performances, but it is not enough.
With a runtime of two hours and 36 minutes, Deva becomes boring. Upendra Limaye's cameo as a sniper is the highlight of the film. Rohan, played by Pavail Gulati, should have been the conscience, the beating heart of the film, like his counterpart in Mumbai Police (Jayasurya), but he remains a stereotypical character, nothing more than the hero's best friend.
In Deva there is a feeble attempt to humanise its angry protagonist, to give this rebel a cause. There are frequent mentions of how Dev put his own father in jail, of how his father once came home drunk and broke his leg. Daddy issues as the reason behind flawed personalities have become a thing of the past. Dev sums it up perfectly when Rohan mentions his own disappointed father during an argument: "Why are you crying, dad, dad, dad? Let all dads die."
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