Line of Descent
Line of Descent (previously known as The Field) is a 2019 crime film written and directed by debutant Rohit Karn Batra and starring Ronit Roy, Brendan Fraser, Abhay Deol, Prem Chopra, Neeraj Kabi, and Ali Haji. The plot revolves around three sons of a mafia patriarch who fight over the future of their crime family. The film was released on 4 December 2019, it had a simultaneous release in theaters and Video on demand in the United States while in India it was released on ZEE5.[1][2] The film was released internationally in cinemas on January 28th, 2021 due it being delayed by the Covid-19 Pandemic.
| Line of Descent | |
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.jpg.webp) Official Poster | |
| Directed by | Rohit Karn Batra |
| Produced by |
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| Written by | Rohit Karn Batra |
| Music by | Mario Grigorov |
| Cinematography | John Stokes |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | ZEE5 (India) |
Release date |
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| Country | India United States |
| Language |
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| Budget | $5 Million |
Plot
In Delhi, India, a mafia family consisting of Prithvi (Roy), Bharat (Chopra), Siddharth "Sidd" (Kabi), Suraj (Haji), and Sujhata (Priyanka) are at a birthday party celebrating the newest addition, Nya, to their family. While at the party, Suraj introduces his mother to his girlfriend, Seema (Victor). Prithvi has been told by his father that a man has gotten to the party uninvited and tells him to get rid of the man. Sidd goes outside to join Prithvi and finds the man is doing a drug business. The man leaves and the two head inside.
Prithvi tells his father of the situation being resolved and after a while, he heads to a house to see a young man being beaten by Sidd which he stops just in time. Sidd goes outside and the young man with his family are signing their home to the Sinha Mafia and are being forced to leave their home by the crime boss, Bharat and says if he tells anyone of his house being bought, Bharat will kill his son. The young man swears not to tell anyone of their family being without a home.
Outside somewhere else, Sidd tells a guard to open a garage and goes to see his girlfriend, Racheal (Poutrel) and have sex. Back at the party, Suraj and Seema are enjoying one another until a boy and his gang stalk them and try to abuse Suraj's girlfriend, one of the boy punches Suraj. At Prithvi's house, Suraj comes home until Prithvi asks him where he has been and that his phone was turned off. Prithvi sees that someone beat him up and asks who. Suraj declines to tell because he does not want it to be resolved with violence.
In a new part of town an officer of the law, Raghav (Deol) moves in with his wife. In the morning, Raghav and his wife go to a adoption center to get a child. Meanwhile, Prithvi somehow finds out who really punched Suraj and starts beating the spoiled brat. At a center, Bharat says that it has been 3 years since the business went down, the mafia family is declining, and that new leader will have to rise and become the new crime boss. Meanwhile, Prithvi comes home and goes to his father. He tells him that Prithvi must be the new leader because Bharat can no longer run anymore from the police. At a store, Suraj calls Seema to see if she made it home safetly while Sidd tells him Suraj should do a job instead. At a homeowner room, the homeowner tells Prithvi that he does not want to do anything with the Sinha Mafia family and Suraj draws his gun and holds it nervously as Prithvi orders him to. Suraj accidentally shoots the homeowner in the shoulder and takes him to the hospital. At home, Prithvi argues when Suraj will be able to be in the mafia family by doing his job right. Sidd believes he won't be able to do such a thing and calls him not being his brother, until Bharat calls him out that Suraj can do a lot more than Sidd can and orders him out. This creates tension with the mafia family.
In the next morning, Bharat grabs a gun and commits suicide after being ridden with grief. Meanwhile, Raghav affirms his duties at the transfer after telling another cop he was transfered after one of his case's villain died in a freak accident, and that Raghav is being hailed as hero because of it. He does not want to be treated like one. He likes that his duty of being a cop rather than being extra.
At the mafia's home, Sidd arrives and sees his father lying on the floor. Suraj blames himself for the death of his father, while Seema tells him that it is not his fault. The family attend Bharat's funeral.
At a disclose location, Officer Raghav meets with Daniel Bates, Deputy Commissioner of U.K. Interpol. They discuss how Bharat Sinha was involved with real estate pirating and the history of the crime family. In the late 1940's, Bharat's first wife was pregnant with his first child, Prithvi in honor of his twin brother. He was a hard worker, and the brothers were both successful with their restaurant, however, one day a tragic accident occurred with Prithvi, Bharat's twin brother with life threatening injuries, the only way for him to survive was from a surgery. However, Bharat could not pay the hospital bill since it was expensive, and he sold the restaurant in order for his brother to survive. He waited for a long time for the money from the restaurant to come and pay for his brother's injuries, but it never came. As a result, Prithvi died in Bharat's eyes. In a fit of rage, Bharat stabbed his eldest brother and that got him his money back. However, there was still a hole in his heart. Until he met a British gangster, Morris Burns, Bharat sold everything and made a crime partnership. This is how he slowly grew to a rise. Bharat's wife lite herself on fire unable to bear with how Bharat had become a monster. He then met his second wife, Neema Aziz who became Neha Sinha, many of the operations disappeared after the birth of Suraj. Local thuggery intensified, after the two sons gained more control. The plan is to set a trap for the Mafia family with Officer Raghav leading it.
Prithvi decides to end up the crimes, and focus on the electronics store, but Sidd disagrees. Officer Raghav starts to dig and start the trap. Sidd starts to secretly plot against his family. Sidd tries to persuade into doing arms trade with Prithvi but to no avail. A robbery happens at Sinha Electronics and Prithvi & Sidd go to investigate, however, this is all revealed to be a set up as Sidd supposedly kills Prithvi. At the hospital, Prithvi survives, Raghav mets Sidd and Suraj. Raghav questions Sidd about his motives, he lies and then leave. Sidd manipulates Suraj into to arms smuggling.
At a car workshop, a man laughs as a Charu (Fraser) meets up with Sidd about the arms trade smuggle. Sidd then hires a sniper to kill Suraj but kills Seema instead. At the hospital, Seema's father blames Suraj for the death of his daughter. He then goes to the club to chill until he meets Charu. Suraj does not want to do anything with his family so he tries to leave but Charu tells him he can help him with his family.
Meanwhile, Sidd finally kills Prithvi when he goes to the shop. He hides the body in the middle of nowhere and burns it. A witness notices him burning something and Sidd kills him too.
The next day, Suraj visits Charu and tells him he needs his help, and he agrees. At the police office, Raghav questions Sidd again, and leaves while Suraj leaves where the whole smuggling is going at which makes Raghav spy on the conversation of Sidd & Charu. Sidd tells Charu that he will take care of Suraj. Sidd closes the electronics store and at a store, Suraj chats with Officer Raghav about the trap. At the night of the trap, Suraj goes to Charu and he tells him that if he does this right, and he does not have to do it again. Suraj goes into the restaurant to get Sidd's confession. Suraj tries to get the confession but the plan fails. While looking for Sidd, he gets the guns of two of Sidd's men and tries to get the other gun, but when Sidd comes in at the other bathroom. Suraj kills two men along with Sidd.
A few days after the incident, Raghav is living peacefully, and visits Suraj in jail. Raghav tells Suraj that his mother left india and went to the U.A.E. Raghav tells Suraj that he helped him with ending the mafia family in Delhi. He will talk to a lawyer so that way his sentence can be lowered. He tells him that his brother was having affair, and that the discovery of Pritvi's body was found with the family of the witness living nearby. He also tells him that Sidd hired a sniper to kill Seema, and that he got him to confess. Suraj tells Raghav thank you and it is revealed that Prithvi paid off Charu to protect Suraj from Sidd. Prithvi also set up the meeting between Charu and Suraj. After Prithvi was killed, Charu knew Sidd was out of control and set up the meet between Sidd and Suraj. Officer Raghav also tells Suraj that Nya's father is not Siddharth’s, but Prithvi's. Suraj's sister-in law suffered a mental breakdown and sent her off to a psychiatric hospital. Nya is with her sister. The film ends as Raghav tells Suraj of a request to get Nya in his family as he and his wife are not able to conceive, and Suraj happily accepts.
Cast
- Ronit Roy as Prithvi Sinha, the general and acting CEO of his mafia family after this father dies.
- Brendan Fraser as Charlie 'Charu' Jolpin, an undercover cop who brings the mafia family toward their downfall.
- Abhay Deol as Officer Raghav, an officer who is assigned to bring the mafia family down.
- Prem Chopra as Bharat Sinha, the father of Prithvi and Siddharth who is tired of running the crime family.
- Neeraj Kabi as Siddharth Sinha, Prithvi's middle brother, who secretly wants to get rid of Prithvi and his family, and take over the business.
- Gopal Datt as Arun, an undercover cop working with Charu
- Ali Haji as Suraj Sinha, Prithvi's youngest brother who wants nothing to do with his family's violent business.
- Max Beesley as Commissioner Bates of U.K. Interpools who assigns Raghav to set a trap for the Sinha family.
- Priyanka Setia as Sujhata Sinha
- Shiben Mohanty as young Bharat Sinha
- Anisha Angelina Victor as Seema, Suraj's girlfriend
- Jagen Mohanty as young Prithvi
- Charlotte Poutrel as Racheal, Siddharth's girlfriend and accomplice
- Ekavali Khanna as Neha Sinha
- Harshad Kumar as Officer Arjun Chole
- Dev Bhagtani as a spoiled brat
Production
Though set in India, Batra said Line of Descent should be seen as an international film, explaining that though he could have set the story in a typical American city, he chose to film in the country "because the visual energy of India is very different, so I thought why not use that." He also states that "Filmmaking sometimes ends up being very local for the country a film is made for, but at the same time we are in a very global world, so I think films should reflect this more ... That's why Brendan's character is so interesting in that he grew up in the U.S. and is then in India."[3]
Filming
Pre-production started on 18 April 2016 and filming began on 18 June 2016. Brendan Fraser was in Mumbai for two weeks in May to film his scenes, which feature dialogue in Hindi and English. Speaking of Fraser's time filming in India, Batra said: "It was fantastic. He had a lot of respect for the actors. For instance, Neeraj Kabi was in Talvar [based on a real-life murder mystery that premiered at Toronto] and Fraser actually happened to see that movie on the flight to Mumbai."[4]
Marketing
The first trailer was released on 10 February 2019.
References
- "Review: Brendan Fraser sparks Indian crime drama 'Line of Descent'". Los Angeles Times. 13 December 2019.
- Balu, Aparajitha (29 October 2019). "'Line Of Descent' Starring Abhay Deol, Brendan Fraser To Release In Theatres In The United States And Stream On Zee5 In India". Silver Screen. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
- Bhushan, Nyay. "First Look Brendan Fraser in Indian Drama 'The Field'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
- Nordine, Michael. "Brendan Fraser to Star in Bollywood Thriller 'The Field' as a Gun-Running Villain". IndieWire. Retrieved 16 June 2016.