{"id":547732,"date":"2026-03-27T04:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/547732\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T04:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T04:05:08","slug":"dhurandhar-dhurandhar-the-revenge-review-bollywood-action-blockbusters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/547732\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Dhurandhar,’ ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ Review: Bollywood Action Blockbusters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tUpon its December release, Aditya Dhar<\/a>\u2019s gloomy espionage thriller \u201cDhurandhar<\/a>\u201d went on to become the highest grossing Hindi-language film in India. Now in cinemas, its follow-up \u201cDhurandhar: The Revenge<\/a>\u201d is poised to equal if not surpass it, marking a potentially permanent, and in some ways concerning shift in what rules the hearts and minds of Bollywood viewers. The spy series \u2014 which began as a single film before being cleaved late into production \u2014 is a brazen, blood-soaked saga that nakedly preys on jingoistic sentiment and fawns at the foot of government power. However, it\u2019s not without its merits as a work of cinematic sensationalism, which makes it unique even in an industry that has long cozied up to the country\u2019s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and his ruling party, the BJP.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo invoke political leaders in film discussions, one must have a concrete reason. The \u201cDhurandhar\u201d films provide many, thanks to a first half set prior to Modi\u2019s 2014 election, during which characters constantly pray for a new leader willing to take fearless action against enemies at home and abroad, and a second half that practically features Modi a supporting character through endless news snippets. Even the series\u2019 most voracious supporters would have a hard time denying its status as propaganda. And yet, its violent splendor (especially in the first installment) elevates it far beyond the more rote and artless crop of Islamophobic screeds that have graced Indian screens of late: films like \u201cThe Kashmir Files,\u201d \u201cThe Kerala Story\u201d and \u201cThe Taj Story,\u201d whose hateful framing of Muslims, and whose re-writing of Indian history to be more Hindu-centric, are not all that far removed from Third Reich cinema.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen the first movie begins, a real-life hijacking convinces mustachioed Indian intelligence leader Ajay Sanyal (R. Madhavan, playing a version of real spymaster Ajit Doval) to pull the trigger on his long-in-the-works \u201cdhurandhar\u201d project (meaning \u201cstalwart\u201d) wherein he activates an Indian soldier hidden deep behind enemy lines in Pakistan. Known only by his adopted Muslim name, Hamza Ali Mazari (Ranveer Singh), the suave, intense, lion-maned hero begins working his way up the ranks of the Karachi mob, whose ties to terror funding he\u2019s tasked with dismantling.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe closer Hamza gets to bumbling politicians like Jameel Jamali (Rakesh Bedi) and charismatic mafiosos like Rehman Dakait (Akshaye Khanna), the more he\u2019s given carte blanche for savagery, resulting in sprawling, momentous action scenes with dual intent. His butchery against rival gangsters satisfies his masters in Pakistan, since it benefits their illicit businesses, but it also satiates the bloodlust of his handlers in India, and by proxy the audience, to whom this is all telegraphed as a means to bring down extremist terror networks. One predatory romance later \u2014 he also seduces Jamali\u2019s young daughter Yalina (Sara Arjun) \u2014 and he\u2019s practically the heir to the throne of Lyari, the Karachi district where most of the series is set.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first film earns its gargantuan 214-minute runtime, despite still playing like the first half of a larger story. This is thanks in part to its acoustic sleight of hand, wherein its numerous earworm needle drops combine Bollywood classics with modern, upbeat tempos, resulting in a kind of bastardized nostalgia, wherein memory becomes akin to a malleable software, with updates waiting to download. The film\u2019s chronology and historicity function much the same way. Despite disclaimers about being based partially in fiction, the movie\u2019s villains, like Iqbal (Arjun Rampal\u2019s bearded Pakistani intelligence Major) are plucked from reality, alongside distinct, recognizable events like the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks<\/a>, which are planned right under Hamza\u2019s nose, and for which he subsequently embarks on a vengeful rampage.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe camera zips between narrow streets as Hamza drags those responsible from his truck, en route to shooting, bombing, dismembering and even pressure-cooking other perpetrators, which seems like a righteous line of thought at the outset. However, the editing tells a different story. The reality of actual recordings of terror victims in India is placed alongside dramatic realizations wherein Hamza recalls coming across the perpetrators mid Muslim call to prayer, framing the enemy as Islam at large. This throws fuel on the already burning flames of modern India\u2019s de facto patriotic sentiments, wherein the country\u2019s Hindu majority (via an ethnonationalist movement known as Hindutva) is given free rein, not unlike Hamza, to lynch<\/a> minorities. Those on screen may arguably deserve it according to the film\u2019s action mechanics, but the series \u2014 especially the sequel, which begins with a quote from Hindu scripture \u2014 frames this violence as a patriotic duty in line with the Hindu concept of dharma, while every Muslim villain turns their enmity against India into a flattened, single-minded and often caricatured hatred of Hinduism. The battle lines are hardly subtle.<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, where the first \u201cDhurandhar\u201d features the polish of a slick, muscular revenge thriller about a double agent who grows close to his targets \u2014 Hamza\u2019s pseudo-romance with Lyari head honcho Dakait makes for an enrapturing story \u2014 the second film by and large sheds what works dramatically, and makes the barely-disguised political subtext far more explicit. Beginning with a lengthy flashback that clues us in on Hamza\u2019s past (the Indian government recruits him after he unleashes a ruthless personal vendetta), the 229-minute \u201cDhurandhar: The Revenge\u201d is set in the wake of the 2008 attacks, and largely observes one violent reprisal after another, with missing emotional details filled in by on-screen text, rather than tangible drama.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sequel also feels incomplete at times, as though apt music choices, tight action editing and coherent sound design had all been sacrificed to meet the three-month turnaround from its predecessor. And yet, its simple, often sterile story is supercharged by unapologetic political proclamations that frame any and all opposition to the BJP (from political parties to universities) as having been funded by terror cells, while Hamza hacks and slashes his way through the ranks of Pakistan\u2019s political milieu to turn any form of objection into submission. It\u2019s storytelling by way of unverified WhatsApp forwards, preying on volatile political sentiments, and taking for granted that a populace can be so riled up by having their basest instincts catered to that they don\u2019t even deserve the pretense of cogent storytelling.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDhurandhar: The Revenge\u201d is a mess in every way that might matter for piece of cinema: it\u2019s overlong, overstuffed, overindulgent, and overcommitted to having characters praise political leaders right down the lens. But by the time its closing credits roll \u2014 over scenes of military training that play like recruitment ads \u2014 any traditionally-held notions of cinematic artistry cease to matter. The sequel\u2019s success rests on warping reality to suit political agendas, down to re-framing oft-criticized legislation as genius 5D chess moves to secretly kneecap terror, resulting in a nearly 4-hour experience that\u2019s less of a film, and more of a political rally beamed into cinemas worldwide, including nearly a thousand screens in the United States.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe tone of successful Indian cinema has shifted over the last several years; colorful escapist darling \u201cRRR\u201d was arguably an outlier compared to gloomier blockbuster cousins like \u201cK.G.F: Chapter 2\u201d and \u201cPushpa 2: The Rule.\u201d But what the \u201cDhurandar\u201d films share with all the above is a worship of masculine heroism, and a view of violence as a sacred duty. Only Dhar\u2019s cinematic approach funnels these well-worn tropes through the radioactive lens of naked propaganda, steeped in party slogans and political buzzwords designed to assault anyone watching with a chilling reminder: This is the new India. Love it, or else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Upon its December release, Aditya Dhar\u2019s gloomy espionage thriller \u201cDhurandhar\u201d went on to become the highest grossing Hindi-language…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[117611,117610,200981,88,206],"class_list":["post-547732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-aditya-dhar","tag-dhurandhar","tag-dhurandhar-the-revenge","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}