Stolen Movie Review: Abhishek Banerjee unveils a new action avatar in the film StolenTwo brothers stuck in an impossible situation spiralling out of control without a lid in sight, in a Living-In-Two-Indias set-up: the premise of Stolen is sharp and current, and it starts out by pushing its unprepared protagonists, and us, into a state of high alert.Gautam (Abhishek Banerjee) is in a swanky SUV outside a train station in the dead of night, waiting for his ‘chota bhai’ Raman (Shubham Vardhan) to alight from a horribly delayed train. At around the same time, a baby is snatched from next to a sleeping woman.Also read – Kill movie review: Lakshya, Raghav Juyal deliver a distinctively desi lean, mean killing machineIn the usual course of things, the two policemen (Harish Khanna and Sahidur Rahaman) on the job would have ignored the distraught young mother: Jhumpa Mahato (Mia Maelzer) is a lone tribal woman spending the night on a station bench; ergo, she doesn’t count. But the presence of Raman, clearly upper-class-and-caste, makes them stop in their tracks: can he, and his impatient brother who is all for making off as fast as possible, help or hinder? Can the oppressed be squashed a little more? And most importantly, can a quick buck be made on the side?It takes 93 minutes for ‘Stolen’ to get where it does– from that swiftly executed theft to a tea-stall boy on the station who claims to have seen anything, to the corralling of the Bansal brothers, the younger one personifying the soft bleeding-hearts type who feels responsible and wants to help, the elder one wanting to use his money to get out of trouble not of his making, the arrival of armed villagers out in full force at the rumour of baby-stealing gangs, and a bloody denouement created to shifts a few needles.While everything is clearly geared towards making the proceedings urgent, that crucial sense of urgency comes through only sporadically. Vardhan is a little more at ease than Bannerjee, but both feel like they are acting out sibling parts, without shared lived-in textures. It is Maelzer who is more authentic, both to her part as well as to the feeling that she gives off: of a woman at the end of her tether, buffeted by fate and situation. The writers (Tejpal, Gaurav Dhingra, Swapnil Salkar) succeed in making her a little more complex than she appears in the beginning, causing us to question her motivation: is she really who she claims to be, or is there something sinister in the way she has come by the baby? Has she been stolen from, or has she done the stealing?Chase scenes with the car bouncing along sand dunes and lathi-clad men on motorcycles add to the run time, but not one of these characters has a face. By the time the stakes get truly high is towards the third act, in which the trio finds themselves in a dusty village, running for their lives. The question of who the victim is, and who the aggressor, one of the themes that the film wants us to think about, comes into play here, where the privilege of wealth and flashy cars and clothes recedes in the face of mob fury: this is where Gautam, terrified and helpless, rises to the occasion.Story continues below this adRead more – Thug Life Movie Review Live Updates: ‘Indian 2 is a better movie’; early reviews call Kamal Haasan-Mani Ratnam’s film ‘terrible, outdated’Stripped of his shields, he is as vulnerable as anyone else, and it is only then that he sees the young woman for who she really is, and you know that this is where the film was heading, to this urban saviour finding his conscience. Going by his previous roles, Bannerjee is most effective when playing vile or silly; here his character finding redemption becomes the lens through which the larger societal injustice is viewed, making it narrower and not as impactful. And I wasn’t left as shaken as I’d expected to be.StolenStolen cast – Abhishek Banerjee, Shubham Vardhan, Mia Maelzer, Harish Khanna, Sahidur RahamanStolen director – Karan TejpalStolen rating – 2.5/5Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd