Dhurandhar

Dhurandhar Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal, Rakesh Bedi, R Madhavan, and others

Director: Aditya Dhar

What’s Good: The Entire Spy World created by Aditya Dhar!

What’s Bad: The Length!

Loo Break: Only in intervals, it is too dense to miss plot points!

Watch or Not?: Yes!

Language: Hindi

Available On: Theatrical release

Runtime: 3 hour 32 minutes

User Rating:

Honestly, last month, when the trailer of Dhurandhar arrived, most of us loved it, and I had only one prayer – that let this be meaningful violence, if it has to be this violent! And I think Cinema gods answered those prayers, and the credit goes to Aditya Dhar’s compassion and patience to churn out a spy world that is so elaborate yet very intriguing in Dhurandhar! Is this one of the best works of Ranveer Singh? Well, I don’t think so. Is this one of the best Spy thrillers coming out of Indian Cinema? Definitely Yes! Better than the Spy Universe? Well, in my opinion, yes!

Does this also mean that the film is a masterpiece that needs to be celebrated? Well, Celebrations – definitely yes! Masterpiece – No! But before you decide to watch this one or read the review, let me ask you only one thing – your patience, because this film takes time, just like that child who is a slow learner but shines with the results! Just like that tortoise who goes against the rabbit but finally wins the race!

The film comes with its set of flaws, and one of its biggest flaws is indeed the length of the film. But if you forgive that and rest your loyalty with this film, it is not going to disappoint you for sure! In fact, the film is so strategically done, that it makes you learn every chapter – probably six or seven to be precise, and I might not be able to give you the count of the chapters because I am exhausted with the length of the film, but I assure you that these lengthy chapters, cunningly make you learn the entire syllabus by heart!

Dhurandhar Movie Review: Script Analysis

Dhurandhar takes time to set up its premise, almost 60 minutes to be precise. But it sets the premise very strongly. Ranveer Singh plays a boy planted by Indian intelligence in Pakistan to infiltrate their political and terror system and fight them, being one of their own. Ranveer enters Pakistan as Hamza, and his journey of becoming one of the most important assets of the two most powerful leaders of Karachi becomes the premise of the film.

The entire film is set up in Pakistan, where Arjun Rampal plays an ISI officer, Rakesh Bedi and Akshaye Khanna play powerful political leaders trying to get a grip over Karachi, and Sanjay Dutt plays a very sharp and brutal police officer from Karachi! Amidst all these brutal Pakistani men, Ranveer Singh, a man from India, planted by Indian intelligence, survives, plans, plots, and fights to take hold of Karachi, so that he can protect India.

Dhurandhar Movie Review: Star Performance

Throughout, Dhurandhar maintains its pace, and each and every character introduced in different chapters leads the story in a very strong manner. Right from R Madhavan playing Ajay Sanyal to Akshaye Khanna playing Rehman Dakait. Madhavan and Khanna own the film as the two strong pillars apart from Ranveer Singh, who stretches his arms so that you can count them as the remaining two pillars of this film!

Ranveer is a chameleon, and by now, it is a junk task to discuss how he blends himself into this character. But here’s the best part of Hamza – he never lets it overshadow any character in the film, and this is where Singh wins for the first time in his career, I suppose. He lets each and every character breathe. In fact, in the initial sixty minutes, I could not even figure out if he is underplaying, or is lost! But he does neither! He just respects what the film and Aditya Dhar demanded – build a Spy world with patience!

Because, as discussed, the major flaw in the film is its length. It gets exhausting in the first half. More so, when we already had a second part planned, we could have done some edits to make this spy thriller breathable! The second issue with the film is Ranveer Singh’s romance with Sara Arjun! While it has been mentioned in the film that it is inappropriate for a man to date a 19-year-old girl, I am not going there. It is not even about the chemistry! It is the entire plot, which seems totally unwanted for the film! In fact, it could have saved so much time if that could have been edited because honestly, it does not even cut down the tension! More so, Ranveer and Sara’s chemistry looks totally lost!