Stolen (2023) Review– A Raw Tale of Loss and Justice

Hello friends, I am @papamogambo.

Now I will talk about the new movie Stolen on Amazon Prime. It would be wrong to call the movie new, it is a 2023 movie. But now it has been released on OTT, it has come to Amazon Prime. How was the movie, I will talk about that in this article.

One and a half hour-short movie, and here, Abhishek Banerjee plays the lead role. So how was the movie—before that, let me tell you a little about the story.

Story Overview

A child is being stolen from the station. At that station, a brother comes to pick up another brother. Now the blame for the child theft falls on the names of the two brothers. How it falls and how they get out of this thing—this one-and-a-half-hour short movie is about everything.

Now, after watching this movie, you will repeatedly remember NH10—Anushka Sharma's outstanding movie NH10. For those who have not seen it, I highly recommend it, go and watch it. You will remember that movie again and again—be it treatment-wise, look and feel-wise, you will remember that NH10 again and again.

Now the question is, is this movie a movie at the level of NH10, or did it lag behind somewhere? I would say this movie could not reach the level of NH10. It had potential, but it could not reach the level due to some negative aspects.

Positive Aspects

Let me tell you the positive aspects first.

First of all, the subject is good—you can relate. You see, we always hear that children are stolen from bus stands and railway stations, and they are later either sold or made to beg at the signal. We have seen these things. Many movies have talked about these issues before. So this issue is genuine, and you can connect because we always see such things around us.

So the subject is good. The audience will be able to connect with the subject that it deals with, the subject that it talks about.

The treatment that it gives later is rooted. Because this theme demanded a rooted treatment. And the way the rooted treatment has been given in this movie is excellent. There is a lot of shooting in the village—meaning the maximum second half is shot in the village. And the way the look and feel have been given there is outstanding. You will not feel anywhere that it is being shown a little bit of color here or a little bit of polish here—the thing is completely rooted, whatever happens randomly, that is what is shown there. And that is quite nice to watch.

The work of color tone and the work of BGM is good—not bad at all. It is nice to shoot a lot of portions at night, shoot the first half at night, and watch the night portions.

The performances here are outstanding. Everyone has done a good job here. Here is the mother of the child who is being stolen, here is Abhishek Banerjee, his brother, two police officers—what an acting these brothers have done. Those who are in even the smallest roles here have also acted so beautifully—it is quite nice to see.

Abhishek Banerjee has blown it—just blown it. I mean, what does this person do when it comes to acting! Outstanding. Abhishek Banerjee has done top-notch acting. Along with that, everyone has supported him very well.

The thing that can be observed very well here—going towards the end, you will connect emotionally, especially because of Abhishek Banerjee's performance. There is a scene in the end—where Abhishek Banerjee walks into a bloody village. That place is so... I mean, it doesn't take that much inside you that then you will think, "What, should people really be doing good?" I mean, the question will come to your mind at least once. There was so much potential in the acting that it would make you think. And the way things are put there, the way they connect emotionally and go towards the end, that's pretty good.

Negative Aspects

Now if I move to the negative side,

Two things are very negative here. And for that, the level of NH10 cannot be reached by this movie.

You will see, when you watch NH10, Anushka Sharma is going to a place, entering there, getting involved, then coming out of there. Time was given to this entry point. It was not rushed in. But here it was rushed in and it does not look organic. You will see in NH10 that the entry point is shown very organically—time was given there. But here that time was not given.

I mean, to reduce the running length, at the very beginning when the two brothers are entering this whole thing—that thing is shown in a hurry. And there is no time to build up there. As a result, the thing will not feel organic to you. You will think—"Brother, how can this thing happen? The child was stolen, then the two brothers entered?" There is no natural flow in this thing—it feels too forceful.

There is a process of getting into the story, where people will invest—the time should have been increased a little more. Then I think this place would have been better.

The running length has been reduced a lot, which has made it rushed. And when you are getting into the story, you feel, "Bro, they are getting into the story forcefully." This story could have been shown differently. And the story had the potential to be like NH10. But because of this rush, and because it just enters without showing anything in a hurry, it doesn't feel organic.

But because of these things, this movie can't reach the level of NH10.

Still, the movie is a one-time watch. I will like it.

In terms of performance, in terms of look and feel, in terms of rawness, the way it has been treated, the way the story has been tried to be told, the way it has dealt with a serious issue—you can watch this movie once for all these reasons. You won't feel bad about it.

These were the positive and negative aspects of the movie Stolen.

Those who have seen it, please comment. Those who haven't seen it, go and watch it. This was the review. Don't forget to let me know how you liked the review.