‘Never Had A Chance’ Has A Chance: Gritty West London Crime Drama Takes To The Screen at AFF 2026

Amar Chaggar as Ravi, image courtesy of Media Hive

The London borough of Hounslow is a notoriously Punjabi-majority community, with the Asian and Asian-British population accounting for 34% of residents. As director Jazz Bhalla says, you could live your entire life in Hounslow and not see a single non-Asian person.

Perhaps that’s what makes Never Had a Chance so different from many British-Asian films today: it focuses almost entirely on the love story between Ravi and Sukhi, two Punjabi-British young adults, and the struggles and conflicts that result from Ravi’s quickly spiralling personal life. Following the pursuit of money, love and family, Ravi is drawn further into the whirlpool of drug-dealing after his friend Jay ropes him into a dangerous side-hustle. The film doesn’t need whiteness as a foil to further any of the conflicts taking part in Ravi’s life, or Sukhi’s – they have more than enough trouble between them to occupy the film's 102-minute run-time. 

Our main character, Ravi, played by the talented Amar Chaggar, is a troubled young adult estranged from his family. His relationship with his best friend Jay, who has a loving relationship with his parents, provides a foil to his own life. Throughout the movie, we see him struggle with questions of family, belonging and love. One of the first scenes is Ravi and Jay smoking while they plane-watch, discussing what they truly want in life. This scene of unexpected intimacy between the two men, as Ravi claims he desires “family” the most, is immediately thrown off as a joke by the two characters. They banter any seriousness away, but the audience is left with a profound sense of tension as the rest of the film unfolds. 

Amar Chaggar and Jayant Singh as Ravi and Jay do an incredible job of portraying the inherent emotionality of their characters and the situations they find themselves in. Alongside a script that balances comedy, drama and action, the actors naturally manoeuvre across the complex environment these characters occupy. 

Director Bhalla doesn’t leave us hanging when it comes to the action: while the first half of the film serves as light comedic relief amongst growing tension, the last 40 minutes follow the slow implosion of all the carefully-crafted components that were set up in the first half. The presence of drugs begins to loom over Ravi’s life, and not even his budding relationship with Sukhi or the slow repair of his familial relationships can escape it. 

The film hits several emotional climaxes. Some stand-out minor character performances include Jay’s parents, played by Saddiqua Akhtar and Hajaz Akram, who deliver an eye-watering monologue to Ravi as the film begins to kick into gear. Shah Hussain as Ricky is formidable every time he enters the screen, his body language portraying a subtle confidence and entitlement in contrast to Jay’s nervous energy. However, the moment I walked away remembering was the conversation between Sukhi and her dad: every Punjabi girl who has had to scrounge for an inch of freedom will find these scenes achingly, painfully familiar, and Tina Sharma doesn’t shy away from leaning fully into the fear and indignation these scenes demand.

Amar Chaggar and Jayant Singh as Ravi and Jay, image courtesy of Media Hive

Ultimately, this film fills a gap in British-Punjabi movie culture that we’ve all been waiting for. It will leave you teary-eyed, white-knuckled and laughing. Populated by a Punjabi hip-hop, grime and dub soundtrack, Never Had a Chance (2026) successfully immerses their audience in the largely British-Punjabi borough of Hounslow and leaves them wanting more even after the 102-minute run-time. 

Never Had A Chance will screen in cinemas across the UK, with dates and locations to be announced.

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Edited by Lara Walsh, Co-Film & TV Editor