Dhurandhar – Review

quick review:

Carries a disconcerting undercurrent of provocation, propaganda and victimhood, even though it is a well-made film that engages through its 3.5-hour-long runtime.

Streaming partner: Netflix

Review

This wannabe Gangs of Wasseypur might not match up to its aspirations, but it has enough meat in its story to keep you engaged for one watch. Yet it reeks of performative nationalism channelled through characters who think their government has been soft on terror. Because it is reasonably well-made, both story-wise and technically, it was especially disturbing for me.

Because violence can be justified. Because revenge is glorified. Because peace is described as too high a price to pay.

If we peel away the layer of bashing an entire country for what its mafia and politicians do, we have a decent story. Of course, we have to ignore its primary premise too—that a spy of one country can uncover terrorist attacks by infiltrating the mafia gangs in one area of one city in the other country. Once we take related leaps of faith, we have a decent film on our hands.

The story works because of the number of characters, even if no individual character is more than an outline, and all of them are unidimensional. The interplay and double-crossing between the characters keep you engaged, even if not engrossed.

I can imagine, however, that the film would be an absorbing experience for those who are entertained by brutal, gory violence on screen. There is no dearth of that. Every 15-20 minutes, there is one scene with slaughtering or some such.

Of course, the cast carries out the butchery with vigour—be it Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal, or the rest of the supporting cast. In that sense, the film is full of all-around superlative performances because of the energy on screen. But, outside of violence, the acting is meek. Even people who were part of a terrifying bloodbath in the previous scene come across as limp in the next. It’s almost as if the violence and action choreography did the job for the actors.

And yeah, this is a “man” film. In the story, the women exist either to provoke or to be used as a pawn, with no intrinsic role in the direction the story takes. The dates of the real-life terrorist acts around which the story is stitched together have a larger role to play than the women. The mentions of prime ministers over the years and of a state government seem to have made their way into the film to please the powers that be.

Having said all of that, I am not averse to the next episode that is due soon. It is likely to be more of the same, but the deceit amongst characters hasn’t worn me out yet. I am also intrigued by the political commentary the film is likely to offer. It is as disturbing as it is amusing. Amusing because for all the glorification of revenge, the makers didn’t even bother to translate the chapter titles to Hindi! Also, why the “patriotism” feels insincere.

– meeta, a part of the audience

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