‘The World Is Yours‘, so proclaimed the ‘Good Year Blimp’ that hovered over Tony Montana as he gave the bad news to Elvira in Brian De Palma‘s legendary 1983 crime remake SCARFACE.
However, we are not in Miami for NEVER HAD A CHANCE, Jazz Bhalla‘s addition to the undercurrent of disenfrancised British youth films (which also played as part of the October 2025 edition of the London Independent Film Festival) that continue to wow their respective demographic. Blue was the colour in Franc Roddam’s QUADROPHENIA (1979), the iconic cinematic adaptation of the classic Who album – and in NEVER HAD A CHANCE, the colour is pure white cocaine in a world that is anything but.
Hounslow beckons in this flipside of BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM, but the kicks are more brutal and violent for Ravi (Amar Chaggar), a bright enough Punjabi youth who hangs out at his local pub with best mate Jay seemingly wanting to push the boat out more than once. When you have good friends to rely on, you can take more chances, I guess. His sister doesn’t think much of his chances and wants him to spend more time within the family way.
A taste of the ‘Devil’s Dandruff‘ beckons for Ravi and Jay, who are drawn into a potential quick sale by a local gangster at a heightened rate of interest to the tune of 20k. Jay however has an addiction to gambling – and you can tell what the temptation is without reading this.
Ravi has thoughts on the right side, notably for local multi-job good girl Sukhi (brightly played by Tina Sharma) and a local job for himself in a building company gives him incentive to do better. However, financial rather than wood chips are the currency here – and, for Ravi, loyalty to a new girl rather than his friend is the conundrum…
Whilst not an original concept – and a film we have seen before in British indies – it is nonetheless refreshing to see a more diverse take that both celebrates and embraces the West London cultures in a story that would not look out of place in any number of Guy Ritchie or Nick Love / Danny Dyer collaborations.
Like their cinematic Miami counterparts in the Pacino classic, there is clearly a look-before-you-leap and open -mouth-before-you-engage-brain mentality to these individuals . If anything, I would love to have seen a more expansive world here with deeper philosophy and awareness from the participants, but the story is still served pretty well by what transpires on screen.
A triumph of indie cinema and increased diversity on screen, NEVER HAD A CHANCE is certainly a consideration for Saturday nights.