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.

Only Deva, a remake of Andrrews’ 2013 Malayalam drama, Mumbai Police with a Ship of Theseus paradox, undermines the moral dilemma of the original and the irony it gives rise to by asserting its hypermasculinity to the hilt.

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 skilled eye in Haider has mastered and manifested in 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 heft is the only thing that keeps up the momentum in a mediocre rehash, dumbed down by flimsy motive and mindless bravado.

Watch out for the full review in just a bit!

Deva Review Rediff Rating: