Dhurandhar : Artistry at display — but at what cost?

Cast: Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, Arjun Rampal, R. Madhavan, Special Appearance: Sanjay Dutt. Introducing: Sara Arjun with:  Rakesh Bed...

Cast: Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, Arjun Rampal, R. Madhavan, Special Appearance: Sanjay Dutt. Introducing: Sara Arjun with: Rakesh Bedi, Danish Pandor

 

Director: Aditya Dhar

Rating: 3.5/5

 

I’ll preface this review by telling you: everything you hear about this will be true; every criticism, every praise, every pro, every con: it’s all true. There’s a lot to this film narratively and in terms of filmmaking: anything anyone says makes sense.

 

This is Aditya Dhar displaying his (highly self-indulgent) filmmaking artistry. Every choice simultaneously works and doesn’t work. It’s essentially a very paradoxical film — a lot of the things could’ve been cut out (or, at the very least, could’ve been shortened), but the film wouldn’t work at all without them. Dhar’s conviction needs to be applauded. Never have I seen before this a Bollywood filmmaker make something like this with so much conviction in every decision they make.

 

The film doesn’t bring anything new to the table (the Indian espionage in Pakistan has been done to death by now), but this doesn’t necessarily make it bad in way whatsoever. The screenplay — again, Dhar writes this with the utmost conviction — follows the same beats that every film of this genre follows, but it still delivers on everything it promises. The pace does slow down quite a bit in the middle during the 5th chapter. The direction from Dhar is extremely competent, and he, with this, proves himself to be one of the more interesting filmmakers working in the industry right now. 

 

The performances are excellent all around, with Akshaye Khanna stealing the show. Khanna is extremely charming as Rehman Dakait/Balcoh, while his character is extremely daunting. Ranveer Singh is is almost as good as Hamza Ali Mazari, though his performance relies more on the subtle nuances which can be missed. Arjun Rampal, though he doesn’t have that many scenes, was great as well, he possesses the right amount of menace needed to play a character like this. His demeanor fits the character perfectly, and he’s subtle with his performance. Sanjay Dutt, though his screen time is scarce, has a massy entry, and is fantastic as SP Chaudhary Aslam. His performance is both captivating and entertaining to watch. It’s funny to note that he looks similar to how he looked in Jawan (2023). R. Madhavan is (visibly) unrecognizable as Ajay Sanyal, and his performance is good as well. Rakesh Bedi, who unarguably has more screen time than most of the cast, embodies his character subtly, and his performance is funny and — at the same time — very humanistic. His look makes him somewhat unrecognizable as well. Sara Arjun, in her debut role, gives quite a commendable performance as Yalina Jamali, though her love dynamic with Ranveer Singh’s character is somewhat unbelievable.

 

I won’t be the best judge when commenting on how true to life it is (based on multiple accounts on terrorism in Pakistan), but I can comment on the atmosphere. The atmosphere was excellent and very spatial; it grips you immediately and doesn’t let you go, immersing you in itself. The world building, as a result of this, is excellent, with it all feeling very human. The plot progression, while slow, is a really good one up until the end, as the climax feels very anticlimactic — which is to be expected from the first part of duology. The action set-pieces, though considerably rare, are very well planned out and very well executed. The VFX, which I was skeptical about at first (based on other Bollywood films), was not bad and blended in very well with the scene, and was hardly noticeable. 

The music, composed by Shashwat Sachdev, who incorporates old Hindi music, adds a certain texture of scenes which they needed, adding to the overall (mild) grungy look of the film, making every scene feel more menacing, and keeps you on the edge of your seat. One scene, which I think is totally ripped off from Gaspar Noé’s Irreversible (2002), is the scene where Rehman Dakait kills Babu Dakait in the market; the scene is shot in a similar way, and the aftermath is also jarringly similar to Irreversible (2002). It’s genuinely shocking that the CBFC allowed the film to be screened with such (mild for international standards but extreme for Indian standards) violent scenes to be screened, and was merciful with the censoring — though censoring some of the curse words while leaving the other ones in makes no sense whatsoever. 

Dhurandhar might be too long for it’s own good, but everything is important, and the artistry at display — both from the cast and Dhar — makes up for some of the narrative inconsistencies and pacing issues.

 

Dhurandhar is inspired by real-life events, set against the backdrop of the 1999 IC-814 hijacking and Indian Parliament attack in 2001. It follows India's IB Chief Ajay Sanyal, who crafts a daring mission to infiltrate and dismantle a powerful terrorist network operating out of Pakistan. He recruits a 20 year old boy from Punjab, held captive for committing a revenge-driven crime. Sanyal decides to mould him into a weapon that can penetrate Karachi's ruthless underworld mafia. The first instalment of a two-part series, the second instalment Dhurandhar Part 2 will release on March 19, 2026. 

By Ravit Mishra