I wish first half was as methodical as the second half. In the name of mass, they had to compromise many things in the first half. Having said that, mass here is nowhere near cheap or crass, which is its only positives. Plus BGM is good for the most part. Climax twist was really good. It doesn’t come off as far fetched but added emotional layer to it, which is the strongest factor of the film. One major issue I had with this is that raw nature of Shahid’s electrifying performance doesn’t reflect in other characters or production values. Some of the normal scenes looked artificial to me. This needed some overall finesse in terms of production values. Nonetheless I can take these kinda massy/classy film over done and dusted massy films like singham again. I haven’t watched the original but I know Malayalam director Rosshan wanted to make first half also like second half but was trapped in the name of Hindi commercial/mass. I wish he was given lot more freedom. This would have been really great considering climax had everything going for it.

Deva • (2025) A very good police drama thriller with a peak performance by Shahid Kapoor. Honestly, it works, but you should lower your expectations if you were expecting a lot of action—otherwise, it might disappoint you. The film becomes thrilling in the second half, which is completely different from the first. Some might have an issue with this, but honestly, the thriller drama is well-crafted, unfolding brick by brick with suspense built in.