There's a recurrent metaphor throughout the film, of Hanuman trying to eat the sun leaping towards it Icarus-like and being stopped by the gods eventually. Maybe Dev Patel was aware of how well this metaphor would encapsulate his brave directorial debut too, all throughout the film he's trying to reach the narrative he wants to tell but he eventually pulls his own punches. Only if he knew his film would eventually not release in Indian theaters at all, howmuchever he restrains himself.
Don't get me wrong, this is a highly enjoyable film. But the commentary on the current Indian society and what is plaguing it and all the classist and casteist divides we have setup within ourselves -- all of that comes out a tad bit feeble and a bit too watered-down.
You can see Dev touching majorly on religious blind-faith intermingling with politics, but also offhandedly on caste and patriarchy too -- there's even a montage of real-life videos of a few of these evils thrown in for good measure -- but everything is a bit too sanitised and it doesn't jolt you. Not for a single moment did the film drown me in itself with these thoughts, always swimming on the surface. Water and fire are another recurrent tropes which occur throughout, another piece of foresight by Dev on how his fire would eventually be watered and we would just swim on the surface of it.
Having said that all out, I completely dig the film for its action and how it tries to mix Indian music and instruments throughout. There's Zakir Hussain in it ffs, now THAT is what true cameos should be like, completely unexpected and swooping you in. I've always liked Dev's performance and here he proves he's as good behind the camera as he is on it. It was great to see familiar Indian faces as well. There's also one homage to Ghajini in there which I feel was a great nod.
One last piece of critique and then I would leave: the fictional cities and villages all feel lived-in and real, but at the same time a little bit Westernised too to be uniquely identified as Indian.