David

Aditya Datt's "David" is an ambitious tricontinental thriller that attempts what few Hindi films dare—weaving three parallel narratives across London, Mumbai, and beyond into a singular tapestry of crime, faith, and identity. The 1975 London segment, anchored by a morally conflicted protagonist caught between Iqbal Ghani's criminal empire and his own conscience, echoes the stylistic ambitions of films like "Raees" or "Shootout at Wadala," but lacks their narrative propulsion. The 1999 Mumbai arc feels almost disconnected, pivoting toward family drama and musical aspirations that dilute rather than deepen the thriller's tension. While the structural conceit of three Davids promises Rashomon-like revelations, the execution falters—the performances feel uneven, the direction struggles to maintain momentum across its sprawling timeline, and the connective tissue between narratives remains frustratingly opaque even as the film reaches its conclusion.

What "David" gets right is its refusal to be a conventional crime drama. There's genuine intrigue in how Datt juggles period detail and geographical specificity; the London sequences have a gritty authenticity that many Bollywood films abandon entirely. However, the script's ambition becomes its greatest liability—three narratives demand either exceptional clarity or profound thematic coherence, and the film achieves neither. The dialogues often strain credibility, character motivations remain muddled, and by the time revelations arr