A police officer with memory loss re-investigating a case that he had solved, just before he had the head injury which made him unable to recall who the killer is. An ending twist so surprising and risky that it made you gasp. And a performance by a leading man vulnerable and layered enough to enable you to get past the problematic portrayal of identity. These were some of the aspects which made Rosshan Andrrews’ 2013 film Mumbai Police, starring a terrific Prithviraj Sukumaran, such a standout.

Now, 12 years later, the same director has reworked the delicious story by Bobby-Sanjay for Hindi audiences. But this version has little of that power. Deva is a diluted, labored retread.

The biggest fault line is that the remake writers — Hussain Dalal and Abbas Dalal, with Arshad Syed and Sumit Arora — have expanded and changed the narrative to serve the stardom of its lead actor.

Shahid Kapoor...