Dhurandhar
Starring Ranveer Singh, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal, Sanjay Dutt, Akshaye Khanna, and Sara Arjun
Directed by Aditya Dhar
The thing about outstanding cinema–and Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar decidedly qualifies as such—is that it doesn’t wear its excellence on its sleeve. It just is what it is, without making a hue and cry about how well informed and formed the end product is.
Dhurandhar is a work of tremendous force… brute force. Whether the protagonist Hamza Ali Mazari is a real-life character or not is a thought that fades into fictitious insignificance. There is so much happening here; we can’t afford to miss a beat. Of course, it is a violent saga: when we enter a world as brutal as this, we can’t expect roses among the pricks.
Predominantly, this is an epic marathon of exceptional cinematic design. An entire thesis could be written on the sound design. The fluent and virile use of songs from the 1960s and 1970s (Asha Bhosle appears in it twice) is a masterclass on how an aura of deep foreboding is created without ostentatious fuss.
Karachi, where most of the action unleashes with the fury of a tidal wave, is recreated without religious ostentation. Every gully is not plastered with green flags. And I didn’t hear prayer chants anywhere. The same absence of furious over-punctuation is methodized in the performance. No actor gets to be out of character just to have a private ‘moment’ even if he is the hero.
In several vital sequences, Ranveer Singh just stands in the corner of the bustling frames, waiting for orders. And yet one can feel his throbbing sense of integrity, his explosive command over the language of territorial ownership, also known as nationalism. Which superstar in India would actually allow himself being shown molested by a gang of marauders?
Is Ranveer Singh the best actor of his generation? That question some other time. The larger picture is much more crucial here. The mood of urgency never leaves the narration, even as Aditya Dhar straddles the enlarging enormity of a universe built on deception, double-dealing, and betrayal.
I had a problem with the romantic subplot. Sara Arjun looked absolutely unmatched with Singh, emotionally and generationally. And is Aditya Dhar sure that a girl in Pakistan would not only roam around in a micro-mini in the night but also live in with her boyfriend?
Since the film gives us no reason to disbelief, I will take its word for it. The showcasing of the political italics is done with so much integrity, Dhurandhar feels like an unclothed romp in the raw: unalloyed, liberating with a natural aversion to jingoism and drama.
No shots of the flag, no attempt to suck us into sappy sensationalism, Dhurandhar tells it like it is. It is robust epic rendering of cross-border terrorism. From the IC-814 hijacking in 1999 and the 2001 attack on our parliament to 27/11, this lucid rendering of cross-border politics is a stunning reminder of how far cinema can take us into the murkiness of politics without losing sight of its aesthetics.
Sanjay Dutt’s character as a rogue cop is the only occasion when violence is titivated in titters. Otherwise, bloodshed is a serious business in Dhurandhar.
Oh, by the way, is that really Madhavan as Ajit Doval, sorry, Ajay Sanyal?
