Story telling at it’s best, gradual and steady, Dhurandhar gets you hooked … like reading an international thrilling bestseller. One requires patience to watch this spy action thriller till the end as it is virtually like reading a fictional novel.
Directed by Aditya Dhar, the maker of Uri: The Surgical Strike, this Ranveer Singh actioner is a fictional narration of strategies and planning of several evil plans tailored by Pakistan (from that country’s point of view) set against the backdrop of real-life geopolitical conflicts, including the IC‑814 hijacking (1999) and the Parliament attack (2001) and the 26/11 Mumbai attacks (2008).
Dhurandhar follows the journey of a Punjabi youth (Ranveer Singh) held captive for committing a revenge-driven crime in his hometown. It is the Intelligence Bureau Chief Ajay Sanyal’s design who crafts a daring mission to infiltrate and dismantle a powerful terrorist network operating out of Pakistan. Recognizing the boy’s potential and raw intensity, Sanyal decides to mould him into a weapon capable of penetrating Karachi’s ruthless underworld mafia as Hamza Ali Mazari.
Inspired by true events and high-stakes geopolitical conflicts, the film delves into covert RAW operations, spotlighting Operation Lyari — the fierce government crackdown on Karachi’s notorious Lyari gangs and crime networks.
Right from the beginning till the mid-way, each of the characters are so well established that you won’t realise that you are watching a film, but feel like being yourself physically present watching and experiencing those moments. Moments when Hamza Ali is tortured by the rival gangsters, and then getting lost in the Rambha Ho… Sambha Ho beats during the marriage where Hamza Ali is planted as a catering guy who saves the child of the dreaded gang lord Rehman Dakait.
It is shameful, but true that in one of the scenes, our IB Chief Ajay Sanyal states, “It is easier to infiltrate inside the ISI ranks but impossible to infiltrate into the mafia in Uttar Pradesh that is infusing duplicate Indian currency within our country as there are politicians involved.”
While Hamza Ali rises the ranks of Rehman Dakait’s gang with his dare-devilry and foxy wisdom, he is stunned at one point when he realizes that Rehman supplies arms and ammunition to the ISI and those weapons were used during the 26?11 attacks in Mumbai. He is shocked, teary, frustrated, felt like butchering the ISI chief, Rehman and the group gathered to watch the live telecast of this gruesome attack. That is just an indelible scene!
Ranveer Singh’s subdued performance and the intensity of venting out his anger are the highlight among the performances. Arjun Rampal as Major Iqbal of ISI is just outstanding, Sanjay Dutt is scary as the maniacal SP Chaudhary Aslam, the barbaric encounter specialist cop. R Madhavan is unbelievable as the IB Chief
A note of caution – for those who love watching glossy spy thrillers – this movie isn’t for you as this spy thriller cum gangster drama is raw and earthy in its action.
Whereas for the hardcore spy-action-thrillers filmy buffs…. it feels like why did this film get over? It is because the director fully succeeds in getting you immersed and soaked into this realistic and engrossing narrative. (Running time – 3 hours & 34 mins)
One grouse is that the hand to hand action in the climax (and even during few other fight scenes) is just stretched and appears unreal. This could have been much shorter. Isnt is surprising that after getting thrashed by any object – once, twice… several times and still the person gets up and attacks again. Are we watching a video game? Hence the ranking is cut by one and half points.
Cast of Dhurandhar:
Ranveer Singh as Hamza Ali Mazari
Sanjay Dutt as SP Chaudhary Aslam
Akshaye Khanna as Rehman Dakait
R. Madhavan as Ajay Sanyal (based on the IB Chief Ajit Doval)
Arjun Rampal as Major Iqbal of ISI (based on Ilyas Kashmiri)
Sara Arjun as Yalina Jamali (Jameel’s daughter)
Rakesh Bedi as Jameel Jamali (based on Nabil Gabol)
Naveen Kaushik as Donga
Manav Gohil as Sushant Bansal (Deputy Director IB)
Danish Pandor as Uzair Baloch
Gaurav Gera as Mohammad Aalam
Raj Zutshi as General Shamshad Hassan
Saumya Tandon as Ulfat (Rehman’s wife)
Credits of Dhurandhar:
Production companies – Jio Studios, B62 Studios
Produced by Aditya Dhar, Lokesh Dhar, Jyoti Deshpande
Written & Directed by Aditya Dhar
Cinematography – Vikash Nowlakha
Edited by Shivkumar V. Panicker
Music by Shashwat Sachdev
