I saw it (Dhurandhar: The Revenge), amazing. Epic Spy Action Drama – New genre created by Dhar. Nobody, I repeat, nobody, including Hollywood, had made a duology like this before. Anyone making a spy action movie now should just stop… think about what he’s done, he shot over 8 hours simultaneously, then refused to compress it into a 2.5 hour multiplex-friendly product, he wrote a story about a Punjabi Sikh agent within Karachi’s political-criminal ecosystem with almost an entire narrative set in Pakistan, he based it on IC-84, attacks on Parliament, 26/11, Ops Lyari: real events that no Bollywood director has had the value of dramatizing at this moment. scale….
and with such specificity, and delivered it in a coherent vision while peppering both films with pop culture and popular hits of every variety, from Nusrat to Punjabi artists and retro Bollywood hits like Oye Oye, Tama Tama (the use of this in the sequel is just hilarious and satirical, I’m sure Dhar has a comedy), Ramba Ho, etc., along with an international and foreign sound.
This is not a movie, it is a novel. The Punjabi word for this is SIRAA…this success will not help Bollywood at all because the standards have been set too high.
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I loved Pushpa 2! The masala moments made me smile from ear to ear, but the film also has a lot of heart.
*Minor spoilers
The way Pushpa’s character evolves (from a demigod figure to a full avatar of Shiva in the climax) requires the kind of demented conviction that can only be found among southern filmmakers. The film takes on a truly supernatural dimension during the climax and the electrifying Jathara scene.
I know a lot of people find these South Masala movies crass (I’m not a fan of KGF, for example), but Pushpa stands out as something special. Not once was I bored, it kept me hooked from start to finish.
Those who look down on Indian audiences for enjoying such a film should ask themselves why even Americans fell in love with a film like RRR. These directors are either doing something right or the whole world is getting tacky.
This entry was posted on March 20, 2026 at 12:35 am and is filed under Notes, Reviews, The Good, Views tagged Henry. You can follow any responses to this entry via the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a reply. Pinging is currently not allowed.
