Deva

When was the last time the hero in an Indian commercial film was introduced without any fanfare? Deva opens with downbeat credits composed of fractured surveillance images. And then its titular character just appears, riding his bike down a tunnel. No buildup. No flying bodies. No ‘Sparkling Star Shahid Kapoor’. Ten minutes later, Kapoor is, in effect, reintroduced: there are sundry hero shenanigans and a dance number. But the opening is enough to guess that this is a rare contemporary Hindi commercial film whose rhythms aren’t those of Tamil or Telugu cinema. Then again, its hurt, sombre rhythms aren’t classic Bollywood either—despite Dev being positioned before a mural of Deewaar while ‘Main Hoon Don’ plays.

There’s an instruction from Deputy Commissioner of Police Farhan Khan (Pravesh Rana) to junior Dev Ambre (Shahid Kapoor) that goes, “Get answers to three questions: who, how and why.” He is referring to the assassination of ACP Rohan D’silva (Paval Gulati) who was shot dead on an open ground at a Mumbai Police event where he was receiving a gallantry award. The viewer feels like asking the same three questions. Who made this film? A director from Malayalam cinema called Rosshan Andrrews, making his Hindi debut with a remake of his own 2013 film Mumbai Police.

After a long wait, we have a mainstream flick where the hero makes you forget the lapses in the logic of the screenplay as director Rosshan Andrrews mounts his Malayalam blockbuster Mumbai Police for the Hindi heartland, a decade after its release. Among the current crop of Bollywood actors, Shahid Kapoor has the wherewithal to generate the wildfire out of the masala moments that recipes from the South spark. A rare breed in this generation who can be believable and lovable in the high register, Shahid excels in roles rooted in the duality of character. Here he is a ferocious Animal in uniform who slays with style in the first half. Armed with the licence of daddy issues, as Dev, the star flaunts the angst-ridden charm of Kabir Singh and the chutzpah of Haider and mauls everyone who comes in his path for fun.

फिल्म ‘देवा’ का ट्रेलर बताता है कि किसी ने पुलिस के फंक्शन में घुस कर किसी पुलिस वाले को मारा है, अब पुलिस वाला यानी देवा उनके यहां घुस कर उनको मारेगा। जी हां, इस इतना-सा ही ट्रेलर है। दरअसल इस फिल्म को बनाने वालों के पास इससे ज़्यादा बताने लायक कुछ था ही नहीं। चलिए, आगे का हम से सुनिए। फिल्म की शुरुआत दिखाती है कि देवा ने यह केस सुलझा लिया है कि उसके दोस्त पुलिस वाले को किस ने मारा। लेकिन इससे पहले कि वह किसी को कुछ बताए, उसका एक्सिडैंट हो जाता है और उसकी काफी सारी याद्दाश्त चली जाती है। लेकिन वह इस केस पर काम करता रहता है और आखिर पता लगा ही लेता है कि कातिल आखिर कौन है। 2013 में आई अपनी ही बनाई मलयालम फिल्म ‘मुंबई पुलिस’ का 12 साल बाद हिन्दी में रीमेक लेकर आए वहां के निर्देशक रोशन एन्ड्रयूज़ ने मूल फिल्म की कहानी में कुछ एक बदलाव करके कत्ल के एंगल को बदला है जो विश्वसनीय भी लगता है। लेकिन इस फिल्म की हिन्दी में पटकथा लिखने के लिए लेखकों की टीम ने जो मसालेदार हलवा तैयार किया है, उसने जलवा कम बिखेरा है, बलवा ज़्यादा मचाया है। इस फिल्म को देखते हुए पहला अहसास तो यह होता है कि इसे लिखने, बनाने वालों को न तो पुलिस डिपार्टमैंट की गहरी जानकारी है और न ही उनके काम करने के तौर-तरीकों की। अब चूंकि फिल्म लिखनी ही थी तो इन लोगों ने मिल कर अपनी सहूलियत के हिसाब से सीन गढ़े। जहां चाहा फिल्म में आधुनिक गैजेट्स दिखा दिए, जहां चाहा सी.सी.टी.वी. तक गायब करवा दिया। पुलिस वाले कभी बिना बुलैट प्रूफ जैकेट के एनकाऊंटर पर चल दिए तो कभी उन्हें बेसिक समझ से भी पैदल दिखा दिया।

Directed by Rosshan Andrrews led by Shahid Kapoor, the action thriller brings back the actor in his action avatar. The music and Shahid’s presence keep the movie going for most of its runtime. The writing in the first half is one of the biggest plus points for the first half but the second half falters taking away the film’s impact, but it doesn’t take away from Shahid’s performance. Deva’s silent hero remains a simplistic dialogue that doesn’t force punchlines but lets the actors put their best foot forward. The film begins with Deva revealing that he has found the killer and the case has been solved but before he can share more information he meets with an accident and loses his memory. Upon waking up he finds out he is a cop who was working on a very important case and now he is the only one who can trace back and find the killer.

A bunch of cops in Mumbai track down the killer of a fellow officer, opening up several cans of worms. That, more or less, was the thrust of the Roshhan Andrrews-directed Mumbai Police (2013), headlined by Prithviraj Sukumaran. Another bunch of cops in Mumbai do the same, broadly, in the 2025 ‘Deva’, also by the same director. From what I remember of the original, there seem to be several scenes which are exact replicas, but for some strange reason, the filmmakers have taken great pains to prevent themselves, as well as anyone else, dubbing the Shahid Kapoor starrer a remake.