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Karan Tejpal’s Stolen (2025), backed by Anurag Kashyap, Gaurav Dhingra, Kiran Rao, Nikhil Advani, and Vikramaditya Motwane, is a scintillating look into what Vir Das has popularised as ‘Two Indias’.
As I watched the tip credit of “Stolen” roll, I screamed internally, ‘This is one of the most important films made about the current state of our country in the last decade.’ This additionally exhibits that within the final decade, how sorry has been the state of Bollywood that you just can not recall every other Bollywood movie that exposes the horrors of faux information aside from Sudhir Mishra’s “Afwaah” (2023). The different Bollywood film that is available in shut comparability to “Stolen” is “NH-10” (2015); coincidentally, launched precisely a decade in the past.
But “NH-10” or “Afwaah” had been good movies making an attempt to suit into the Bollywood template. “Stolen” doesn’t try this. Yet, whereas watching “Stolen,” I mentioned to myself, This can’t occur. People aren’t so good. It is at this level that you just take the road ‘Inspired by Real Events’ much more significantly. Although the film is predicated on the 2018 Karbi Anglong Lynching Case, what debutant Karan Tejpal has fantastically managed to do is to not drive residence the reality, however within the garb of ‘realistic storytelling’ give us a model of what the reality could be if the TWO INDIAS meet.
The movie begins with a media res-esque narrative the place you actually see what the movie’s title is: A child STOLEN from Jhumpa (Mia Maelzer), an impoverished mom who belongs to that India which begins from the place Gurgaon’s Rapid Metro ends. However, for those who go on defining this India together with your sensibilities, the movie in one of many instantly following scenes present you that it’s this India the place, if a police officer see the mom of two brothers Gautam (Abhishek Banerjee) and Raman (Subham Vardhan) remarry, they giggle; a India the place you could be made a villain any second as a result of circulation of faux information and be lynched till it’s livestreamed and has garnered a large following.
But the opposite India additionally can’t be outlined. In one of many scenes, Raman says to Gautam, ‘Jeb se sochna bandh kar.’ (Stop your money-minded pondering) A very good whistle-worthy dialogue till you get caught in a single such incident and must pay lakhs to get out of it. However, this India believes in ‘moving on’ from empathy as a result of your privilege cushions it, till it will get stripped off (fairly actually on the finish once we see Abhishek Banerjee’s garments being decreased to nothing).
In this sense, Gautam, Raman, Jhumpa, and her child Champa are not any characters within the movie. They are archetypes representing the privileged India (Gautam and Raman), the India that spits on our privilege (Jhumpa), and the way hope (Champa) survives within the battle of those two Indias. You will once more be mistaken for those who attempt to outline the privileged India, as a result of Raman exists. Let me provide you with an instance. You are returning residence late at evening, and also you see a lady in bother. You are an individual who writes on Facebook about what is true; you share posts too, exhibiting that ‘See, I am taking a stand’; however in social media, that what you’ve gotten shared is not going to ruffle any feathers. But tonight, that for those who assist, that would be the most righteous factor to do. But 99 per cent of the individuals gained’t.
If your reply is that you’ll stroll away residence, you aren’t Raman. Raman belongs to that one per cent who will go until the tip to save lots of the lady; to save lots of hope. But Raman is completely different, too. He has a motivation to do it. Then the query is, if Raman had by no means confronted any adversity, would Raman nonetheless belong to that one %? My thoughts says no. My coronary heart says he ought to. Gautam, however, belongs to the 99 %, who will attempt to evade at any value. But what occurs when the ‘ideal’ and the ‘practical’ conflict? Or what can occur if the ‘practical’ dares to be slightly bit ‘ideal’? Writers Karan Tejpal, Gaurav Dhingra, and Swapnil Sarkar ponder that.
The movie’s in media res-esque narrative works completely. Unlike, for instance, “Kill” (2023), the place we see how the protagonist’s love story is established earlier than we get into the thick of issues, right here the dynamics between the brothers unravel as the primary battle is happening. The screenplay brilliantly throws at us bits of data that assist us determine your entire backstory of the brothers as a substitute of spoon-feeding. The sheer absence of any music (at a couple of locations it has used it, which doesn’t trouble me besides in a single occasion the place I felt this might have been completed with out music) exhibits that, not like “NH-10,” “Stolen” doesn’t wish to match within the inflexible definitions of Bollywood when it comes to storytelling. It additionally skillfully makes use of India’s geography, and the cinematography serves the story as a substitute of overpowering it. The performances are riveting and excitingly elevate the movie.
In at present’s time, when no one is aware of what’s working, it is extremely tough to get a Hindi movie like this made and make it attain the audiences (Kudos to the producer and govt producers for that). All the hype of this movie is value it. And what a journey from Venice to Prime Video!
After watching the movie, I mentioned two issues to myself:
- Every TV journalist and all these ‘influencers’ who parade faux information ought to watch this film mandatorily.
- If I had been on this state of affairs, who would I be: Gautam or Raman? I answered Gautam, and my privilege spat on me.
Read More: The 10 Best Indian Movies of 2025 (So Far)
Stolen (2025) Movie Links: IMDb,