Deva, The Secrets of the Shiledars: Reviews This Week

Deva: Shahid Kapoor’s Swagger Can’t Save This Half-Baked Thriller

We all know Shahid Kapoor can act, and that he can bring nuance to the most toxic of characters. Deva lets him down, and there’s no easy way to say this, Swetha Ramakrishnan reviews.

Dir: Rosshan Andrrews

Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Pooja Hegde, Pavail Gulati, Pravesh Rana

Playing in: Theatres

WHAT IF I TOLD YOU , Shahid Kapoor actually plays two characters in his latest film, Rosshan Andrrews’ Deva ? Well, there is Dev-A and Dev-B, and the biggest difference between the two (apart from an alphabet) is that Dev-A sports a full beard, and Dev-B only a stubble. Dev-A is macho, alpha, cunning and borderline annoying if I’m being honest. Dev-B is disoriented, pensive and mysterious.

But even two Shahid Kapoors can’t save a confused film.

Rosshan Andrrews’ Deva has a lot going for it on paper, but the film has too many low-angle, “massy” shots of Dev-A populated in the first half for it to be committed to excellent storytelling (or even average filmmaking). The film ends up being a half-baked whodunnit, a mass vehicle that’s never fully realised (despite Shahid doing everything he can to “hero-ise” every scene he’s in) and a disappointing thriller.

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The Secrets Of The Shiledars Is A Map To Nowhere

The Secrets of the Shiledars is far too derivative to unlock something that hasn’t already been done by Nicolas Cage’s National Treasure or by Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones , writes Manik Sharma.

Dir: Aditya Sarpotdar

Cast: Rajeev Khandelwal, Sai Tamhankar, Gaurav Amlani, Ashish Vidyarthi

Streaming on: Disney+Hotstar

IN A SCENE from Disney+Hotstar’s The Secrets of the Shiledars three people ponder over the relevance of a blank piece of paper they’ve found in the secret compartment of a high court judge’s office. They look at it bemused and resign to the deduction that it could have been placed there, like most Indian households, as a coaster for dirt. Except, steam from a cup of tea begins to reveal something on its own. “Invisible ink,” someone declares victoriously. It’s the kind of dumb luck that makes secret histories and the quest to unravel them come alive; a nifty mixture of past anecdotes merged with the whimsy and contingencies of the present. In an age where history has become a politically contentious agent, to use it as a storytelling device makes sense. Except, Shiledars is far too derivative to unlock something that hasn’t already been done by Nicolas Cage’s National Treasure or by Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones . It’s pacey, and fairly twisty, but struggles to deduct originality from the fossils of the past.

Rajeev Khandelwal plays Ravi, a doctor who moonlights as a committed history buff. He knows his dates, his maps, his emperors and his insurgents. This makes him the ideal protagonist for a mystery that goes back centuries to the era of Shivaji. As a fallout of the Mughal-Maratha war, the erstwhile Maratha ruler, it is proposed, shifted his most valuable belongings into the care of a secret cult called the Shiledars. Soldiers of the king, these people are tasked with protecting the treasure, not just for the duration of the battle with the Mughal empire, but for the generations that followed. Ravi is the latest inductee into this league of guardians. Joining him on this quest is his tech-savvy younger brother and a shifty young lawyer in the form of Priyali (Sai Tamhankar).

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