In an industry dominated by vanity projects, nepo nonsense, and state-sponsored propaganda, nothing is more annoying than a film that aims to impart a ‘message’ to the audience. As with everything else in Hindi cinema, this message is typically delivered at such a volume that Sonu Nigam might take offence. Laxman Utekar’s Mimi concludes not with climactic catharsis, but with a chunk of statistics about adoption. How cinematic. The horror film Chhori, on the other hand, ends with data points about female infanticide. Neither film had enough faith in the audience to know, without being told, that killing babies (or abandoning them) is wrong. It was quite refreshing to discover that the new Amazon Prime Video film Stolen, despite being a ‘message’ movie itself, chooses to let the plot and characters do the talking instead of literal text.Directed by Karan Tejpal, Stolen’s true agenda — and there is an agenda, make no mistake — reveals itself only at the end. This revelation is smartly timed to coincide with the redemption of a truly terrible character, played by Abhishek Banerjee. His name is Gautam, and we first meet him as he’s waiting outside a small-ish railway station for his younger brother, Raman. It’s nighttime, and there’s a wedding in the family the next day. They’re already late because Raman missed his flight and had to take a train instead. At the station, he witnesses a tribal woman’s infant being kidnapped, and moments later, finds himself ensnared in the mess. Gautam’s instinct is to mind his own business and get on with his life, but something — it could be guilt, it could be trauma, or it could just be basic decency — compels Raman to get involved.Also read – Amar Singh Chamkila: Imtiaz Ali set out to make a movie about the slain singer, but he made a movie about himself instead A still from Stolen, directed by Karan Tejpal.Had the brothers not been there, the police would’ve probably pinned the entire thing on the poor woman, Jhumpa. Raman knows this, and he understands that if there was ever a time to weaponise his upper-caste privilege, it’s this. He pushes the police to investigate, while a dumbstruck Gautam — he’s the kind of person who probably owns a ‘theka’ in Gurugram as a side hustle — reminds him that they have somewhere to be. In India, a person could be dying on the side of the street and no one would step forward to help. Jhumpa represents Indians on the fringes of society, the sort of people whose plight is rarely covered on the news. They say that the media is biased, and that the mistreatment of minorities often goes unreported. But have they wondered how to present this news to someone who’d rather watch Bigg Boss instead?For about an hour, Stolen is an accurate representation of why most Indians avoid sticking their nose in other people’s troubles. Many of them are selfish; some, proudly so. A regular day is filled with so many unnecessary stresses that the mere idea of inviting further inconvenience is repulsive. Our empathy is systematically obliterated over the course of our lives. We’re hypocritical people who brag about respecting women, but we never miss a chance to blame them for their misfortune. We’re proud to belong to the land of atithi devo bhava, but we ignore the harassment of foreign tourists. How many of us would jump in to save one of them from being scammed by an auto guy? How many of us would warn them to not attend Holi parties?Raman probably would, which is why he insists on accompanying the woman and making sure that the cops find her baby. Sometimes, he tells his obnoxious brother, it’s important to stand up for what is right. One thing leads to another, and the brothers are thrown headfirst into the plot of NH10 — the Anushka Sharma movie from a decade ago that addressed many of the same themes. Stolen could’ve very easily had a scene in which someone, probably one of the cops, explains to Gautam and Raman why people like Jhumpa are destined to be downtrodden. Director Karan Tejpal could’ve altered his script to include a line like ‘mhari chhoriya chhoro se kam hai ke‘ and probably have been rewarded with a star of Aamir Khan‘s stature signing on.But Stolen, first and foremost, is a genre film. The ‘message’ it wants to deliver is incidental to the plot. It’s one thing to weave the social fabric of a country into a film’s narrative, but it’s a different thing altogether to weave a narrative around a moral lesson. Far too often, our movies fail to understand this distinction. Dunki doesn’t bother to investigate the hopelessness that’s compelling Punjab’s youth to take the most dangerous route out of India. 12th Fail isn’t interested in exposing an education system that leaves millions with no choice but to devote the prime of their lives to a pipe dream. Every aspiring actor looks up to Shah Rukh Khan; nobody talks about the millions that return to their small towns with shattered dreams.Story continues below this ad A still from Stolen, directed by Karan Tejpal.Read more – Paradise: Darshana Rajendran’s thrilling Malayalam gem exposes the micro-aggressions of toxic menBut do people like Jhumpa even have the option of returning? Or will they perpetually have to be on the run, glancing over their shoulder? It is a travesty that Stolen isn’t told from her perspective. Mia Maelzer is terrific in the role. In fact, the movie unfolds from the point-of-view of the least interesting character, and, as good as Banerjee is as Gautam, he’d be the first to admit that he’s sort of miscast. It’s sort of like a Nawazuddin Siddiqui-Afwaah situation. Like that Sudhir Mishra film, Stolen’s ultimate aim is to invite introspection. It is up to us to decide what is worse; that Gautam is an embodiment of the Savarna saviour trope, or if he is meant to be a surrogate for us.There’s a reason why Hindi cinema is becoming increasingly two-dimensional. To provoke thought, our films (and filmmakers) will first have to reconcile with the idea of being criticised. Forget indicting the audience, Hindi movies will champion unspeakable immorality — they will mistreat minorities, spite the silenced, incite the incels — only to please us. How can they be expected to raise a mirror to society? It would be like a politician pointing fingers at their vote bank. Stolen, however, has no qualms in questioning the sort of pepole who turn a blind eye to the exploitation around them. If you’re going to annoy someone, it might as well be the apathetic, the fence-sitters, the social climbers.Post Credits Scene is a column in which we dissect new releases every week, with particular focus on context, craft, and characters. Because there’s always something to fixate about once the dust has settled.Rohan Naahar is an assistant editor at Indian Express online. He covers pop-culture across formats and mediums. He is a 'Rotten Tomatoes-approved' critic and a member of the Film Critics Guild of India. He previously worked with the Hindustan Times, where he wrote hundreds of film and television reviews, produced videos, and interviewed the biggest names in Indian and international cinema. At the Express, he writes a column titled Post Credits Scene, and has hosted a podcast called Movie Police. You can find him on X at @RohanNaahar, and write to him at rohan.naahar@indianexpress.com. He is also on LinkedIn and Instagram. ... Read MoreClick here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd