Review of Hindi movie `Dhurandhar'

By

S Prabhakar

There was a positive pre-release buzz before the release of Hindi movie Dhurandhar, apart from a big assembly of the star cast, it has references to many terrorist attacks like the Kandahar hijack, the Mumbai attack and the Parliament attack, Ajit Doval's strategies, etc., which made me watch a Hindi movie in a theatre.

Dhurandhar is a well-made spy thriller in great detail.    The highlight of the movie is perfect casting and the bold manner liberal references are made to Pakistan, the Baloch politics,  ISI, Presidents of Pakistan, ISI chiefs, heads of Terrorist outfits.   Throughout the movie, there are backdrops of Pakistan and direct references made about the infamous terrorist attacks and their celebrations on the other side in Pakistan.  

One of the very few movies in recent times in which many actors have put their best performances:

·       The makeover of R Mahadevan as Ajit Doval and his restrained performance were at their best.  A gifted actor who gives his best whenever he gets an opportunity

·       Akhey Khanna, the most underrated but brilliant actor of the Hindi film industry, has once again stolen the thunder.   Though he was looking a bit weak and sick, he has gone into the skin of the character and brought out all shades brilliantly.   Like his father Vinod Khanna, he may not be able to carry a movie on his shoulder, but he gives his best in multi-starrers and stands tall

·       Ranvit Singh, though many times he tired us with his overacting, loud and lousy acting style, has given a controlled, restrained performance in this movie.   Like Samson it may be something to do with long hair and beard. Whenever he sports long locks like in Padmavat, he puts up his best performance.    He is excellent as an Indian spy who has infiltrated the terrorist outfits in Pakistan and become a trusted lieutenant before bumping off a dreaded terrorist.  

·       Sanjay Dutt, though he looked tired and worn out,  has an extended cameo and is good

·       Sara is cute and confident

·       The surprise package has been Rakesh Bedi, whom we have known as a decent comedian for decades.   He got a meaty role in a Hindi movie for the first time in his career, and he is brilliant in every shade of a crooked politician character.

·       Arjun Rampal had a small role of a menacing ISI chief; his emotions have been drowned in a heavy bearded make-up.   I expected a far better and better defined role for such a character in the movie.  

Aditya Dhar's writing is good, raising a lot of raw pent-up patriotic feelings and as a director has got the best out of most of the cast.   But he has failed in editing; scenes were not crisp and kept dragging.  Over 220 minutes of duration is tiring and tests the patience of the audience.   He has gone into OTT mode, breaking the movie into chapter-wise and seems to be in no hurry to make the narrative racy.   After this length of movie also, only the first part is covered, and there is more to come, indicating that all the episodes of `Ghar main jus kar marenge’ will be covered in the second part.  

Going by the present trends and bad precedents set by Telugu and Tamil movies, there is an extreme and overdose of violence not easy for everyone to digest.   Music and BGM are very average, for most part of the movie old super hit Hindi songs have been used, which beyond one point become stale and repetitive.   BGM in Hindi movies specially action movies, needs a lot of improvement to catch up with DSP (Pushpa 1 and 2) , Keeravani (Bahubali 1, 2 and RRR) and Anirudh (Coolie and Jailer) and Taman S to elevate the action scenes.  

Overall, a movie worth watching in theatres, provided you have the patience to sit through over 3 ½ hour-long movie with a 2-hour pre-interval.    Hope it does well at the box office and revives the commercial movies of Hindi

S. Prabhakar

6.12.2025