Stolen Review: Where privilege crashes into pain on a dusty road Ft. Abhishek Banerjee's stellar act

Stolen Review: Story - Deep in the heartland of India, Jhumpa (Mia Maelzer) is resting at a railway station with her five-month-old daughter Champa. An unknown woman kidnaps the child and disappears into thin air. Raman (Shubham), a twenty-something man, happens to be nearby and is pulled into the mess as an eyewitness. His brother Gautam (Abhishek Banerjee) tags along to help. Soon, it becomes clear that the case is not as straightforward as it seems. The police make the two brothers part of the investigation, and soon, social media brands them as the kidnappers. What follows is a tense road drama where the brothers must flee a furious mob and also try to find the missing child.

Stolen Review:

The evolution of genre storytelling in cinema is one of the most satisfying things to witness. Indian cinema hasn’t contributed much to the road thriller space. The best so far remains the brilliant, underrated NH10 starring Anushka Sharma, and Overtake, which took the genre a few notches higher in the country. When cinema educates, entertains, and moves you all at once, it’s a win — even with flaws. Stolen, which I first saw at the MAMI Film Festival two years ago and is now releasing on Amazon Prime Video, is one such film. A road drama that morphs into much more than just a thriller — it becomes an alarm society needs — yet it never feels preachy. Walking that fine line is tough, but debutant Karan Tejpal knows exactly how to do it.

Written by Karan Tejpal, Agadbumb, and Gaurav Dhingra, and directed by Tejpal (an AD on 3 Idiots), Stolen is much more than it seems. It is about the marginalized, about people like us who are often ignorant, about empathy, and — at the core — about the double-edged sword that is the internet. But none of this is conveyed through a sermon. Instead, it’s packed into a tight 90-minute film that keeps you on edge throughout. A woman is looking for her child. A man is stuck at the station because he missed a flight. Another man arrives to pick him up. Between them are police officers drunk on unchecked power.

Karan Tejpal dares to tell a story that should serve as an alarm bell for many. He has revealed that naming Abhishek Banerjee’s character Gautam was a deliberate choice — evoking Gautam Buddha, who was shielded from the world for 16 years and only awakened upon facing life’s realities. In Gautam, Tejpal shapes a mirror for many of us: the privileged, the insulated, the ignorant. When confronted with evil, their first instinct is to detour around it — even if it means watching a mother’s baby being taken away.

The character work in Stolen is remarkable. One brother, who steps out of his bubble, learns empathy, finds his voice, and is willing to stand up for others. Through the course of the film, we see how these two men are shaped. For Gautam played by the Vedaa star, money is everything. For Raman, humanity takes precedence. But neither are flawless, and Tejpal ensures we see their cracks.

Then there's Mia Maelzer’s Jhumpa — an absolutely standout performance. A woman criminalized simply because she belongs to the marginalized. Her husband was killed while in police custody. Men try to dominate her. She is a daily wage worker with no home. And just when she dreams of raising a child, she can call her own, the world exploits her again.

The film’s most powerful moments come in its first half, set entirely on the railway platform. The lens through which the story is told is sharp and deliberate. No one sees Jhumpa as a victim at first; they assume she has a hidden agenda. Even though she’s the mother of a kidnapped child, she is never given the luxury of being seen as the one who lost the most. She doesn’t have the privilege to be a victim — because she cannot afford it. Read that again.

Tejpal uses Jhumpa’s journey to catalyze Gautam’s transformation. He ensures this isn’t just an internal change, but one that’s deeply external too.

The film shifts gears — quite abruptly — into a road thriller when the trio is hunted by a mob after a viral video frames them as the kidnappers. No one checks facts — not even the forest rangers. The goal is simple: kill them. What’s even scarier is that no one seems to care about where the kidnapped child is. The outrage is performative, aimed at delivering punishment rather than justice.

What makes this more chilling is that it’s not fictional. It’s disturbingly real. Tejpal is clever — the mob is never given a name, no village is identified, and no character is fleshed out. It’s an abstract representation of the online mob — faceless, nameless, and dangerously decisive. While the screenplay’s shift may feel jarring, the film regains its momentum thanks to the strength of its drama. Tejpal and his team never let go of the grip, even in the film’s weaker moments.

The most chilling moment in Stolen isn’t the brutality of the mob. It’s a quiet, almost absurd one. Gautam stands beside his car, speaking on the phone, enraged that the wedding decorator used orchids instead of his mother’s preferred flowers. Meanwhile, others are frantically searching for Champa in a cursed mansion. That moment encapsulates the disconnect of privilege — and it’s terrifying. Abhishek Banerjee delivers one of the strongest performances of his career, nailing this character’s complex arc with nuance. Shubham holds his ground opposite Banerjee and delivers an equally committed performance. Mia Maelzer, though, deserves special mention — her work here is not just convincing but profoundly moving.

Technically, the film is tight. The cinematography by Isshaan Ghosh captures claustrophobia, dread, and scale — from tight frames to sweeping long shots — making sure you feel like a participant in the characters’ haunting journey.

Stolen Review: Final Verdict:

 It’s rare to come across a film that is both entertaining and essential viewing. Stolen is one of those films. With a phenomenal performance by Abhishek Banerjee and a deeply confident debut from Karan Tejpal, the film never loses control of its 90-minute runtime — even during its most flawed moments.

Stolen premieres on Amazon Prime Video on June 4, 2025. Stay tuned to OTTplay for more updates from the world of streaming and cinema.