Screened as part of Orizzonti Extra in Venice, the Indian indie production featured an unrelenting heroine, one that though penned by male writers, ticked all the boxes of a perfectly female character for me.

A woman clutches her baby to her chest, while sleeping on a train platform, somewhere in India — it is the opening scene of Stolen. It is also a scene that, if you’ve been to the Desh, you’ve witnessed time and time again. Because as rich in culture and achievements as India and Indians are to the rest of the world, the disparity between the very rich and the unbearably poor is like a neon sign constantly flashing on a very dark night there.

Stolen, the film directed by Karan Tejpal, written by Tejpal with Gaurav Dhingra and Agadbumb (an alias) which world premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival, begins with these words on a dark screen: “There are two disparate Indias, neither cares much for the other but sometimes they collide.” The two worlds are the rich and the poor and they collide sooner than we expect — in the opening scene of the film.

As the mother and child sleep on the platform, someone slides the baby from the woman’s arms and runs away, dropping the child’s hat. And thus begins a film which is an ode to the modern Indian cinema of both Anurag Kashyap and Sudhir Mishra, with more than a touch of Vishal Bhardwaj mixed in. Yet also, and what touched me most though, possessing the clear tempo of a Hitchcockian thriller, with its quiet start and crescendo into a frenzy of action, while the audience is often lulled into a false sense of the-worst-is-behind-us security. Stolen is relentless in its mission to change your viewpoint and immerse you in its story and you can’t help but go along for the exhilarating and exhausting ride.

I ask first time feature director Karan Tejpal about his cinematic inspirations, and he admits, “you know, crazily enough, when I was younger we did not have any access to world cinema. Zero. Till I was in college, about 21, I had maybe seen a handful of foreign films. Mostly we had access to Bollywood, and Hollywood — the big blockbusters. There was no internet when I was a kid. For me, cinema was sort of a weekend activity once in a while. Plus I  went to a boarding school and we never had any TV, so there was none of that. It was all very outdoorsy and sporty.”

Even when he started to work in film, Tejpal felt it was “more of another job for me in the beginning. Then I went to NYC to study for a year and that was really when my exposure to international cinema began. When you start off in film school you get the big list of past filmmakers, and at that time I was absolutely blown by Kurosawa and Satyajit Ray. And that was really where my journey kind of started. And sent me on a path of inspiration. More than stylistic influences they were inspirational influences. It took me some time to find my voice, I’ll be honest.” He credits Asghar Farhadi as one of his contemporary idols and yes, Stolen has a modern Iranian cinema feel as well, only much more pumped up.

I also point out my idea on the tones that make up the film, to producer and co-writer Gaurav Dhingra, and he sets me straight, in a good way of course. “We grew up with Anurag’s [Kashyap] films, I have co-produced some of his film, I’m a great admirer of his work. Anurag’s work I’ve seen over the years, and I can now predict it. The author is not changing as fast as his work.” Which is why Dhingra felt that working with Tejpal was the better option for this story. “I wanted a fresh piece of eyes and a fresh prospective,” he explains, “which is why I went for a first time director. I thought he would bring something very new that we’ve not already seen. The way Karan sees it is the way a Berlin youth, or a Paris youth or a NYC youth sees it and that is more valuable for the film. I thought he could connect better with a younger audience. New audiences need new perspectives.”

Dhingra and Tejpal came together when the former approached the latter to help on some commercials he was working on. Tejpal was then known in India as a first A.D. on some Hindi hits like Teen Thay Bhai and so, Dhingra explains, “one day, I told him ‘I’m doing five projects can you come help me?’ And he came and I thought he was really bright while helping me, and I asked him to direct two advertisements — he ended up directing eight!” Dhingra continues, “I found him really interesting and he then pitched me an idea. In Karbi Anglong in Assam, two boys were lynched, because they were going fishing and the villagers thought they were child kidnappers. He pitched it to me as a one-take of this entire lynching, the whole film in one take. And I thought it was fascinating. At the time I was developing a series on missing people, and missing children in India. And I felt the stories could come together. Just the story of the lynching is more shock than emotion. And then we developed the story thanks to the timing, this was during the pandemic and we lived close to one another and could work on it and develop it and that’s what is the film today.”

The story of Stolen mixes elements of those two boys in Assam, who in the film become two brothers from a privileged background, Gautam and Raman Bansal. The elder Gautam has come to pick up the younger Raman at the station for their mom’s destination wedding, and into their already strained family dynamic, crashes the little spitfire that is Jhumpa Mahato — the woman whose child has been stolen. Raman wants to stay and help while Gautam sees no reason, a sense of male, privileged entitlement driving him. But the roles are going to be mixed up, reversed, shaken, beaten and stirred to their core before the film is over. And we, the audience, are along for the ride — all the way. Stolen is not a feel good film, but in the end, it does manage to renew one’s faith in the human race.

I ask Tejpal about about casting, which is a brilliant mix of familiar faces in Hindi cinema with newcomer Mia Maelzer, who steals the film as the distressed mother. “Originally we had cast Abhishek Banerjee, pre-Covid, and he’s a very very fine actor. One of the better actors in the country, one who works both in Bollywood and indie Hindi cinema,” Tejpal explains. “He’s spontaneous and instinctive and he plays it straight from his gut. We initially cast him as the younger brother and another actor in the role of the older brother. And then because of Covid, we are a small film, self funded thanks to Gaurav, it took a long time to get the project together and the other actor dropped out. Having gotten to know him I felt Abhishek would be great for the role of the older brother,” something which everyone who has watched the film can agree with. As far as casting Raman, Tejpal explains “I wanted the brothers to have some long standing relationship to make their bond believable. Abhishek also runs a successful casting company, and so I turned to him and told him I wanted to cast a friend of his. Shubham then came onboard because he and Abhishek have been friends since college. First time I met him, I was sure because in real life he is a guy who has empathy and would go out of his way to fight the good fight. He’s very believable because he is that person.” And for their fantastic female lead? “Mia [Maelzer], I saw a short film called The Field, and she was exceptional,” Tejpal agrees. “When we started chatting and meeting I discovered her very deep method of getting under the skin of the character. Before she came on this was a more general character who is underprivileged, a character who is a marginalized woman. Mia brought on many more layers, language, specificity, and lots of layers that she brought to the table.” It is in this back and forth of communication that Stolen finds its genius, as the woman’s touch is definitely what brought the story home for me. It takes a big man — or in this case at least five big men — to listen to one woman.

At the heart of the story, are social justice themes which go above and beyond the journey of the brothers and their unlikely ally. I ask Tejpal about the opium of the masses, religion, which is used in India to perpetuate the differences between the higher castes and the have-nots. “The idea of karma really keeps the ball rolling. And it’s really a bullshit idea because in India the people who have been oppressed have been oppressed for thousands of years!” He answers, continuing “the caste system in thousands of years old and whoever is at the bottom of that system never gets a chance to come up. In the West, we are talking about immigration or civil rights, but these are relatively new problems, maybe a couple of hundreds of years old. This instead is thousands of years old, and strong social mores that have never been broken, and will never be broken. I don’t see any chance of that happening.”

Tejpal does go on to make a great point, showing the true potential of cinema with a conscience.

“If every single one of us did a little bit from our heart we could change this world. I mean, we came out of the caves and are now ruling the planet because we trusted each other.” Although he’s as pessimistic as I seem to be at the moment, pointing out that “now we seem to have no respect for one another and that’s why there is such a high divide and the difference between the haves and the have nots, the chasm is increasing daily.”

I ask Dhingra, an independent producer in the true sense of the word, about the challenges of making Stolen. “It’s hard to make films in any part of the world,” he concedes, “but particularly in India, as there is no state funding, I had to mortgage my house to make this film. It’s not like in Europe where you can get state funding and people finance your film. And then the films that are currently running in India are more entertainment — the country doesn’t want to see more hard hitting cinema. They want to escape.” But he makes it clear that “doesn’t appeal to me at all as a filmmaker. I take a path of producing films myself, writing them myself and shooting them myself, marketing it myself. And ultimately getting it here, to Venice.”

Finally, I wish to know from Dhingra about Stolen being in Venice, his thoughts. “My films have been in Toronto. And a few of my films have been in Cannes, but we couldn’t finish this one in time. But I’m used to rejection,” he admits, continuing “the whole game, rejection is what pushes me to learn and move forward. When this came, [Venice’s yes] I was just over the moon. Because I wasn’t expecting Venice at all. It’s more arty and not a sales-driven festival I feel. And in my head this was a very commercial format. It just needs a basic context of the setting but also has a great potential for remake, so in my head I was making an artistic film which is commercial.”

Yohann Comte at Charades is handling world sales for Stolen.

Top image courtesy of Jungle Book Studio, used with permission.