Dhurandhar Movie Review: With Uri: The Surgical Strike, Aditya Dhar redefined new-age patriotic storytelling. And now comes Dhurandhar, his sophomore feature. At best, it could be described as a masterclass on how to weave a deshbhakti film together. Chest-thumping jingoism and ‘Hindustan zindabad, Pakistan murdabad’ sloganeering isn’t the only way to evoke nationalistic sentiments. Sometimes, moral dilemma softly conveyed through smouldering eyes and avant-garde hip hop music accompanying fight sequences as you crush your Pakistani nemeses can also work wonders.
Yes, Dhurandhar is marked with profanity, gore and violence, lots of it, but it only adds more character and even nuance to the narrative. Here, none of it is for cheap thrills. And that’s what makes this film unique and stand out from the host of those that uses savagery as a titillation device. Before we deep dive into what this film entails, let us mention that be prepared for a complex, long, meandering story set against an intricate political and espionage landscape – one that’s based on an incredibly true story but also dramatised for effect.
To make it digestible, the screenplay is broken down into seven chapters – The Price Of Peace, Stranger In The Lane Of Shadows, The Bastard King Of Lyari, Bullets And Roses, The Djinn, The Devil’s Guardian and Et Tu Brutus. Dhurandhar opens in 1999 when the infamous IC 814 hijack took place in Kandahar. IB Chief Ajay Sanyal, after much reluctance about releasing Pakistani terrorists from India and handing them over to their homeland, finally gives in on the insistence of our then External Affairs minister.
But revenge is definitely on his mind. Following an attack on the Parliament in 2001, Ajay decides that enough is enough and comes up with a plan to infiltrate the core of the terrorist state and cleanse it. Along with the government of India, he comes up with Dhurandhar, an operation to finish Pakistani terrorism once and for all. Hamza, an Indian spy, is sent to Lyari, to complete the mission. Now, Lyari is a hot bed of local gang wars. Three groups rule over this town marked with anarchy – Rehman Dakait, Babu Dakait and Arshad Pappu.
