AJAY AND THE MUMBAI SUN

Ajay, a street kid living in a Mumbai railway station, earns a living by hawking newspapers and longs to become a journalist.

A chance meeting with a well-known environmentalist, the discovery of an abandoned printing press, and a whole lot of gumption help Ajay chase his dream. His motley crew of friends—a railway apprentice engineer, an artist, a seasoned cook, and a budding cricketer—get together to start their own paper: The Mumbai Sun. Ajay learns of a plan to raze the neighboring slum and pounds the pavement to get an exclusive scoop that lays bare a diabolical plan by a corrupt nexus of builders and politicians to stage a land grab. With meager resources and goons on their trail, Ajay and his crew use their street smarts to dig deep and uncover hard truths. The fast-paced narrative builds on themes of friendship, loyalty, and underdogs getting the upper hand. However, improbable scenarios, escalating melodrama, and predictable turns mar the storytelling. Awkwardly reworded American idioms (“Compared to finding stories, that was a piece of paratha”), details that feel jarring (in one scene, Ajay hides in a building’s air vents, which are uncommon in Mumbai), and references that privilege a Western perspective (Ajay compares making a big discovery to finding Christmas presents) result in a depiction of the city that doesn’t ring true.

Despite an intriguing premise, weakness in plotting and a lack of nuance hold this Mumbai-set tale back.