Deva review: Deva re Deva, even an in-form Shahid Kapoor couldn’t save this predictable story

Deva review: While Shahid Kapoor shines as Dev, the film's second half falters with convoluted twists, leaving potential arcs incomplete.

Deva review: Underwhelming. That’s the one word review of Deva. And here’s why.

Deva review: Shahid Kapoor plays a ruthless cop in the movie.

Whacky cops have always been a hit with the audiences, be it Salman Khan in Dabangg, Akshay Kumar in Rowdy Rathore or Ranveer Singh in Simmba. And Dev Ambre has all the makings to join that league. Except the film is a total let down.

Interestingly, the film’s title spells it Deva, when his name isn’t that. Is the extra ‘a’ from the surname Ambre? Or is it a clever wordplay on a critical plot point? Unfortunately, that’s where the smartness of this film gets wrapped up.

What is it about?

The story revolves around Dev, a hotheaded star cop in Mumbai, who doesn’t fear anyone. One day, he kills a dreaded gangster Prabhat Jadhav (Manish Wadhwa) in an encounter, and lets his best friend ACP Rohan D’Silva (Pavail Gulatie) take the credit. At a felicitation ceremony, Rohan is shot dead. An angry Dev starts investigation, cracks the case… and then loses his memory. What happens next is the rest of the story.

The film was about to start on a good note when it is marred by amateur VFX in the first scene itself. Choosing to ignore it, one waits for Shahid to channel his Haider hairstyle-meets-Kabir Singh’s anger mode. And he delivers from the word go. The swag is on point, and may I also add that he makes for a damn good-looking cop on screen.

Roshan Andrews, the director, has captured Mumbai really well, consciously avoiding the famous landmarks such as the Gateway of India, and choosing to focus on the chawls and destinations like the Crawford market. That lends an earthy feel to the scenes.

Roshan also clearly loves Amitabh Bachchan’s famous mural, dressed in a blue shirt from the film Deewaar. It isn’t a mere coincidence that he includes it in more frames than one. Amitabh’s character in that film was convinced about his actions, however wrong they might have been for others. Dev is similar.

And things fall apart

As we near the intermission point, things look promising. But the second half tests your patience. Shahid does justice to what the story requires from him- but we can’t say the same vice versa.

Post interval, things gets convoluted as there is an attempt to add many twists as possible to the investigation drama. And the climax doesn’t land as intended. Pooja Hegde as Dev’s girlfriend and journalist Diya Sathaye doesn’t have a lot to do here. Pavail is passable, so is Pravessh Rana as DCP Farhan Khan.

What Deva needed is more action perhaps? And less of the layers. If the treatment is massy, with some truly stand out moments, why burden the story? Some promising arcs too feel left incomplete.

The music has only one track, the title song, which is peppy. The dialogues by Abbas Dalal and Hussain Dalal are okay too.

Overall, Deva had so much potential to give us a massy character, who is always on the edge, truly unpredictable. What we get is a predictable story with an in-form Shahid.