Stolen chances

Karan Tejpal's gritty debut film has taken years to find a spot, even on a streaming platform. This is bad news for all cinema

- Deepanjana Pal

Before making his first feature film, Stolen (2023), director Karan Tejpal worked on Delhi-6 (2009), Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006), 3 Idiots (2009) and Ferrari ki Sawaari (2012). This might suggest Tejpal leans towards the blockbuster aesthetic. Yet Stolen has neither the candy-floss escapism of popular cinema nor any of its glossy artifice.

Stolen's plot is inspired by news reports of violent crimes committed by mobs reacting to WhatsApp forwards. It has all the best qualities of a small film: the only thing tighter than its script is its budget, and it teems with insight and talent.

In the movie, two brothers, Gautam (Abhishek Banerjee) and Raman (Shubham), get entangled in a missing-infant case after an impoverished woman named Jhumpa (Mia Maelzer) accuses Raman of stealing her baby. Raman is quickly cleared, but when he sees how lazily the police are investigating, he decides to help Jhumpa, much to Gautam's annoyance.