Shahid's heft is the only thing that keeps up the momentum in a mediocre rehash, dumbed down by flimsy motive and mindless bravado, sighs Sukanya Verma.
Just when you thought Shahid Kapoor's appetite for rowdy, reckless characters had its fill in Kabir Singh, Rosshan Andrrews casts him as a boorish cop in and as Deva.
Left with no memory of his former furious self after a road accident, he tries to retrace a story of bromance and betrayal that's integral to solving the case he was about to lift the lid on until that ill-fated moment.
Deva is a remake of Andrrews' 2013 Malayalam drama, Mumbai Police -- with a Ship of Theseus paradox (if all the parts of a ship are replaced, is it still the same ship?).
But with its big tweaks and small, shuffled chronology and pig-headed attitude, it undermines the moral dilemma and irony of the original by asserting its hypermasculinity to the hilt.
Mumbai Police, which was a code name for the camaraderie shared by a trio of cops, achieved its punch by delving deeper into the emotion of fear and defence mechanism. It's not coming out of the closet but the scrutiny it invites, triggering one's panicking impulses to a devastating effect that rendered the drama its distinction.
There's almost an element of Shakespearean tragedy, writers Bobby-Sanjay weave into this police procedural governed by the consequences of rash actions, something Shahid under Vishal Bhardwaj's skilful eye in Haider has mastered and manifested in the likes of Udta Punjab and Kabir Singh.
Except Deva's Pushpa-fied tone doesn't have time to brood on the psychological upheavals as it brandishes its swaggering action by the numbers.
Shahid's rippling physicality and unhinged vigour is the only thing that keeps the momentum going in a mediocre rehash dumbed down by flimsy motive and mindless bravado.
Too often Deva's hyper aesthetics feel like a dialled up remake of a Telugu potboiler, forsaking the nuances in the Malayalam school of filmmaking for boisterous song and dance and slow-motion machismo.
For homey touches, Don's title song and Amitabh Bachchan's iconic Deewaar pose aspire to find angry young man echoes in Deva's outdated daddy issues and social complexities. Sans the Vijay brand of vulnerability though, Deva's aggression is all the more empty and glaring.
Set inside the Mumbai police, which is portrayed like a dangerously wayward organisation bereft of law and order, the Amar Akbar Anthony of khaki verse -- Dev Ambre (Shahid Kapoor), Farhan Khan (Pravesh Rana) and Rohan DSilva (Pavail Gulati) -- ruffle a shady politician's feathers as well as make a dent in mafia monopoly even as Pooja Hegde checks off the righteous journalist stereotype and obligatory love interest in a bit role.
Whatever little intrigue the movie has to offer kicks off following Dev's amnesia and the mysterious death of a colleague.
As slick and glossy Deva tries to be when not resorting to sloppy VFX for fake looking monsoon or vehicle collisions, its elaborate setup neglects to establish the basics.
Not only does the BFF troika seem unlikely recipients of the Jai-Veeru trophy but even their flimsily conveyed predicament is all too wishy-washy -- be it Deva's hostility stemming from the scars of an ugly past, Rohan's mixed feelings on dishonesty and dosti or Farhan cleaning after his friend's mess.
You'd expect better when the people behind the changes are the creators of the original.
Alas, like many Hindi remakes of acclaimed South movies, a bold, clever, layered thriller takes the shape of a safe playing vanity project.
Quite needless when you already know the extent of Shahid Kapoor's talent.
The only person who needs reminding, in a movie, ironically, about remembering, is him.
- MOVIE REVIEWS
