Stolen, which has released today on Amazon Prime Video, is the story of two brothers who get entangled in a case of child kidnapping. The film is inspired by real-life incidents of innocent men being attacked by a mob over WhatsApp rumours. The film is just 93 minutes long and is quite engaging. The second half is much more impactful as it has a lot of edge-of-the-seat moments. The narrative flows in such a way that one would keep changing their views on Jhumpa every 10-15 minutes. However, the film gets too disturbing. The circumstances under which the brothers get involved in the case are a bit far-fetched. The back story deserved a bit more prominence and also the family angle, which gets completely forgotten. Abhishek Banerjee is seen here in his first-ever leading role in a feature film and is terrific, especially in the last 30 minutes. Shubham Vardhan (Raman) is a surprise while Mia Maelzer (Jhumpa) is an even bigger surprise. Both are sure to get noticed and get offers after this film. Harish Khanna (Pandit ji; constable), Sahidur Rahaman (Inspector Shakti Singh) and Saarthak Dewan (Acchelal) leave a mark. All in all, Stolen is niche but deserves to be seen for its plot, performances and tense moments.
My rating – *** ยฝ out of 5!