The film itself is shot really well. There are some great aerial shots of London, and it makes great use of the landmarks of East End. You can tell that directors David Kew and Neil Thompson have worked in music videos as the film looks slick and utilises some nice editing techniques to make it look like it had a larger budget than it did. The soundtrack is also interesting, produced by Jake Gosling , and really suits the east London feel of the film.
Parminda is perfectly cast as the older sister trying to prove her brother's innocence. The ensemble cast is also worth a mention. It's full of familiar faces and most of them do a fantastic job. We have the East End gangster (Michael Socha), the corrupt cop (Stephen Dillane), a high class Madam (Kiersten Wareing) and the fall guy (Sebastian Nanena). One of the standouts for me was Ricky (Greg Chillin), who plays a music promoter involved in some shady business. He is a likeable, yet also selfish character who is integral to the story.
Basically, it has all of the staples of any good crime drama and that’s the problem I had with the film. It was too predictable; it is not that I guessed what was coming but that the story wasn’t that original and once Deeva started investigating there were too many scenes where everything fell into place rather conveniently and she always seemed to know exactly where to look for the evidence she needed or who to talk to - all without getting caught. This coupled with corrupt police that go as high as the home office just felt a little unoriginal and contrived.
It sounds like I didn’t enjoy the film, when actually I did; it held my attention and I enjoyed it. I was left guessing as to the motive behind the whole conspiracy until the end but it just felt like I had seen it all before.
