The success of an action movie is to surprise you with its choreographed movements. The thing about a violent movie is to make you gasp with each act of brutality. The point of a film trying to make a political statement is to get you involved with its plot. Dhurandhar Revenge It has some sequences that feel creative. It has so many barbaric cuts and destruction of body parts that you become immune to the savagery; I was able to stay completely relaxed and breathe deeply in the last sequence, which is pretty bloody in absolute terms. Last but not least, Dhurandhar’s idea of being a politician is to put a politician’s face on screen often enough that it remains one of the lasting memories of the film. Not the Indian government, not a political party, not a single person.
The writing here is not intended to tell you a good story, much less tell it well.
The latter is done to glamorize some of the most well-known political actions, such as the impact of demonetisation. It is repeated so often that it is downright funny: the impact should be shown through a fictional film rather than news channels that are supposed to report facts. It must be brought down through fantasy, 10 years later.
Now, once we accept that this is a fairy tale, albeit a bloody one, we can take much of what is happening in stride. Like dozens of terrorists shot to death within 15-20 minutes of their execution and maybe a week or two into the story? This is even more ridiculous considering the movie is over 3.5 hours long! Less than 10% of the running time for such an important part of the story?
The pace of the film in general is not close to that of the first installment of Dhurandhar. That was a completely engaging watch even if you didn’t enjoy what you saw. The writing here is not intended to tell you a good story, much less tell it well. The fact that Ranveer Singh still manages to put his heart, soul and more into this performance gives more credit to him than to the director. The rest of the cast exists to make violence and propaganda possible.
Sometimes it’s hard to write about movies I haven’t enjoyed watching. This one is doubly so, because I have already dedicated 3.5 hours to it plus about 40 minutes of advertising. Especially when the end product in mind is not a good movie, but a political rally, one I had not signed up to attend.
– Meeta, a part of the audience.
