Stolen Review: Tense and Violent, Yes, But Not Quite There
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
If nothing else, the Bollywood film “Stolen” ironically ends up as a strong cautionary tale against butting into other people’s business. See someone poor, distraught, and dying on the road late at night from maybe a hit-and-run case? What would happen if you help? Best case scenario: you rush them to the hospital in your car, someone manages to record all of it on their phone, it goes viral, you make it to the news, and maybe even win a ‘good Samaritan’ award. Worst case scenario: as you approach to help them, they attack you, beat you black and blue, steal your wallet and drive away with your car. And there are 100 other possibilities in between.
Directed by Karan Tejpal, who co-wrote Stolen with Gaurav Dhingra and Swapnil Salkar, the film operates on a “worst-case scenario” premise, following two brothers who get caught up in the case of a stolen baby due to unfortunate circumstances, leading to violent consequences for the siblings. Abhishek Banerjee plays Gautam Bansal, a wealthy man who goes to the railway station to pick up his younger brother Raman (Shubham Vardhan) for a family wedding, only to find Raman surrounded by an angry mob, with a poor woman named Jhumpa (Mia Maelzer) accusing him of stealing her baby.
The pragmatic Gautam instantly offers to pay off the cops and steer clear from the mess, but his more sensitive brother Raman is moved by Jhumpa’s piercing cries for her child, so he offers to assist the cops to help find her baby. And thus begins the brothers’ quest to locate the stolen child, complicated by a misinformation and viral video accusing the affluent brothers of being child traffickers. The trio is soon chased by an enraged mob who’re convinced they are criminals. It might remind some viewers of the film Afwaah, which also explores the tragic consequences of rumor-mongering, fake news, and viral videos.
The first half makes it hard to be invested in Gautam and Raman’s world, who, despite their evidently clashing personalities, smack of upper-class privilege in their general attitude. Raman’s ‘sensitive Samaritan’ act stems more from a misplaced sense of savior syndrome, exposed in the exceedingly arrogant way he converses with the cops investigating the stolen baby case. He is the ‘main character’ of his world, unbothered by Gautam’s initial warnings that they shouldn’t get too involved in Jhumpa’s business, a suspicious stranger they know nothing about. The sibling chemistry is completely missing between the brothers; they seem to be estranged, but perhaps some sort of familiar banter would’ve lent their relationship more credibility.
It’s Mia Maelzer who stands out as Jhumpa in Stolen. First introduced as a distraught mother who lost her child, her cries in the first few minutes are heart-rending. But when reports start to circulate that maybe the baby wasn’t even hers to begin with, there’s significant suspense in the film over what her real deal is. Is she really a child trafficker, or the victim of some conspiracy like she claims? Mia is raw and unfiltered in her performance as Jhumpa, keeping the viewer suspicious of her motives until the truth is revealed in the end. Until then, the plot keeps the lines blurred between the victims and villains.
Abhishek Banerjee as Gautam wasn’t convincingly cosmopolitan. His character is supposed to serve as a contrast against the impoverished construction worker Jhumpa, but the ‘rich person’ veneer is missing. Yes, he wears the right kind of expressions, be it casual nonchalance, disgust, rage, frustration, or an eventual benevolence. The bothers, especially Gautam, are brutally beaten into eating the humble pie in the film, starting out as brash, bold, then cowering in fear for their lives towards the climax. A series of convenient co-incidences play a crucial role in resolving many unanswered questions in the climax.
The pace of “Stolen” is slightly sluggish in the beginning, but soon moves at a satisfactory speed, the the lead trio going on a nightmarish road-trip of a lifetime. The cinematography too was hit and miss, especially since the first half was so dimly lit, it scuttled the viewing experience, even horror movies aren’t so poorly lit. If the intention was to make the scenes seem darker, gloomier, they could’ve achieved with better lighting.
Part thriller, part horror movie, this film largely depends on the viewer’s perception of the lead characters, if unlike me, you take a shining to Ratan’s ‘knight in not so shiny armor’ act, you’ll enjoy this film a lot more than I did.
Rating: 2.5 on 5 stars. Watch “Stolen” on Prime Video.
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