Mukta Arts really seems to be picking up on their independent production company. Personally,I was intrigued from the moment I saw a trailer for this movie. From the trailer and from the movie initially, it seems as if it is simply a story of brothers that found a bike and their quest to get it back once it is stolen, but I'd say the movie is definitely more than that.
The movie remains simple throughout the film. The director never tries to do too much with the story and still succeeds in not boring you with the mundane. He portrays 2 different older brothers with different priorities in Ramu and Ali well without making one necessarily seem like an antagonist (only slightly). He also seems to balance soccer, their lives, and the importance of the bicycle very well. A majority of this could have just been done in the screenplay, so I'll give credit to all of this to both the director and writer.
As for the acting, no one is spectacular, but no one is bad either. There are much worse mainstream actors/actresses (Podukone) out there that are given greater opportunities than any of the cast of this film. The two leads would most likely be classified as the actors portraying Ramu and Deva. Each of the actors succeed in not hamming. You are not left thinking that someone else could have done the job better, but its not like no one else could have done the job just as well. Their roles simply do not require the greatest amount of histrionics, but they do require some. The main scope in which these two succeed is that they are both newcomers and movies like this most likely cannot handle big named actors (or big named actors cannot handle movies like this).
As for the story, there is not much to it. Its an underdog story at its heart with a feel good end (as with almost any Subhash Ghai movie). I would definitely recommend it just to show that Indian Cinema can do more than masala and do it well.
