Debutant director Jis Joy’s Bicycle Thieves is a thriller, where some twist or the other happens every fifth minute or so. Though the unnecessarily detailing makes you weary somewhere in between, this film has its nice moments and can be an enjoyable ride.
Chacko (Asif Ali) lost his parents pretty early in his life and after years of struggle, he ends up with a gang of friends who steals bicycles for a living. Their fate changes when they try to upgrade their standards by aiming for more.
A heist goes wrong and the gang gets split. Then Chacko moves to another place where he continues with his tricks, on a bigger scale. During one of those endeavors he meet Meera (Aparna Gopinath), a bank employee and they fall for each other pretty soon.
The entire first half is used to introduce each character, without divulging much details and any sensible viewer can guess that they all could have a possible role in the suspense later on.
Jis Joy has managed to pack his rather elaborate screenplay in a decent way but it could have worked better with some genuine trimming. Binendra Menon’s visuals and Deepak Dev’s music are good.
At nearly two hours and thirty minutes, the film looks really long. It could have been more entertaining for sure, if the duration was lesser by some twenty minutes or so. Asif Ali looks convincing and Aparna Gopinath is good. But watch out for a superb show by Vijay Babu, who becomes part of the story as a drunken lawyer. The rest of the cast has done their roles well.
Bicycle Thieves has no connection whatsoever with the 1948 Vittorio De Sica classic and can turn out to be a pretty fine option, if you go without much expectation. If you are lured by thrillers, give this one a try!
Movie: Bicycle Thieves
Director: Jis Joy
Cast: Asif Ali, Aparna Gopinath
Music: Deepak Dev