Deva (2025) Review!!

Synopsis – Around a brilliant yet rebellious police officer who uncovers a web of deceit and betrayal while investigating a high-profile case.

My Take – Though Malayalam cinema has deserving started getting the recognition it deserves in the past 2-3 years from non-language speaking audience worldwide due to exposure on various OTT channels.

One of the first few films to captivate me personally about the distinctive and comparatively smaller South India based industry, almost a decade ago, was the Bobby–Sanjay written and the Rosshan Andrrews directed neo-noir Mumbai Police (2013) starring Prithviraj Sukumaran. Receiving praise for its nuanced storytelling and mind-boggling end twist, the film was a decent success at the time of its release.

Now twelve years later, for his first foray into Hindi cinema, and despite being adamant about not doing so in the promotions, director Andrrews remakes his former Malayalam directorial. Though, the script makes some plot changes including the adoption of a new climax, infuses action sequences, and let’s go of the noir elements in favor of masala in order to appeal to the mass crowd, the core narrative and the major beats remain the same.

While the resulting film is a decent investigation thriller with some slick execution, sadly, it is never able to rise above the shadow of the premier Malayalam outing. Particularly, due to its insistence to avoid key factors of what made the 2013 film a stand out. By shuffling the screenplay around, the wow factor is simply lost.

However, what keeps the film immensely watchable is witnessing Shahid Kapoor deliver one of his strongest performances yet. Throughout its 156 minute runtime, the underrated actor exudes swag and oodles of roguish charm, which also surpasses the machismo that he possessed in the blockbuster Kabir Singh (2019). His rugged, tough persona adds authenticity to the character, and his transformation throughout the film keeps us glued.

The story follows ACP Dev Ambre (Shahid Kapoor), a far-from-perfect police officer who prefers to stick to his aggressive ways of handling crime cases. Having put his own criminal father in prison, he battles his own inner demons, which makes it difficult for him to abide by the judicial rules and protocols. Though he manages to show his sweeter side to Diya Sathaye (Pooja Hegde), a crime journalist, he chooses to be confrontational with every criminal and politician, irrespective of their connection and status.

Dev’s only weakness is his friendships with his colleagues and childhood friends, ACP Rohan D’Silva (Pavail Gulati) and DCP Farhan Khan (Pravessh Rana). Farhan, as his boss and brother-in-law, watches his back. Similarly, Dev covers for Rohan, the honest cop, who belongs to an affluent family and struggles with insecurities. When the three combine to finish off a dreaded gangster, Prabhat Jadhav (Manish Wadhwa), things take a strange turn when it leads to a personal tragedy.

With Diya’s guidance, Dev realizes that there is a mole within the system. But just when he has uncovered the truth, Dev suffers a life-threatening accident that wipes out his memory. Forcing him to go to lengths to unravel the truth again from the remnants of his past memory.

From here on, the screenplay, reworked by co-writers Abbas Dalal, Hussain Dalal, Arshad Syed and Sumit Arora, takes you through the various layers and shades of Dev, and the unraveling of the mystery. The writing does not waste any time to accelerate the story-line of a police investigation after a tragedy occurs. The suspects, underlying secrets, and ulterior motives of the characters make the first half extremely interesting, keeping you hooked to the narrative.

Yes, the dynamics between Dev and Rohan slightly overstretches, but their collective pursuit of the powerful gangster keeps the momentum going. The action sequences are impactful and add energy to the storytelling. Jack Bejoy’s BGM is impactful without demanding undue attention. As the mystery thickens in the second half, things gets convoluted as there is an attempt to add many twists as possible to the investigation drama.

In an attempt to tweak the original story, the script resorts to procrastination, stretching the middle and emasculating the climax. Which also doesn’t land as intended. Unlike the original, the shock value doesn’t strike as hard as it should have in the adaptation. Making the twist appears rather underwhelming after such a strong buildup.

Nevertheless, Shahid Kapoor deserves all the praise coming his way. Bringing an unmatched intensity, his performance is raw, powerful, and effortlessly terrific throughout. Proving once again his versatility and why he continues to remain relevant despite so many financial failures.

Pooja Hegde is impressive in the limited screen time she appears in, though her character remains largely unexplored despite being the first to hint at a possible mole in the police department. While Pavail Gulati and Pravessh Rana lend solid support, Kubbra Sait is frustratingly underutilized. On the whole, ‘Deva’ is a decent action thriller which works as a subpar remake due to Shahid Kapoor‘s raw performance.