Dhurandhar 2: A movie that was great in spite of all its Flaws.(Massive Spoilers I guess.)

I have waited a long time to write on this movie, and there is a good reason for that, partly of course because of its massive ass run time, and partly because I wasn't sure if I would say something wrong or off the cuff that I didn't mean.

Because While both the previous movie and this one had references to real life events but while the last movie mostly stopped around 2009, this one went on quite far, mostly because they wanted a full conclusion by the end of movie two, cause while entertaining, I don't believe people would be okay if this too was split off into a part three, getting that much free time on your hands is already a pain, don't make it worse mate.

And while we are talking about the negative aspects of this film, let's talk about the elephant in the room, the part where Aditya Dhar decided for no reason to inject our esteemed Prime Minister into this.

I mean I guess like I have heard someone say, only the superman meme was left, otherwise no one praises a guy to this extent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQbSWpdUcG4

But like this same video also says, this is actually just a guy being honest with his opinions, this isn't exactly propaganda, I mean sure, this came out just before elections and the ruling party is going to reap its benefits.

But like that alone isn't enough to label something.

In order to do that, one needs a higher burden of proof, I will say this though, it is annoying, and frustrating, that a movie that has so many awesome sequences everywhere then literally pulls you out of it to discuss its political prospects.

There was this one scene where they are all talking to "Bade Sahab" who is also revealed to be [Spoiler] Ibrahim(as if people don't know already.)

And they are discussing their next attack and out of nowhere, a news clip plays of the Ram Mandir dispute, which regardless of your opinions, why was that just randomly there?

I mean I guess to mark the time?

Like if you want to include it sure, make it maybe a little more organic?

And yes while things like Demonetization were touched upon purely from a National Security point of view and sure that makes a good case on that front, the thing is from an economic stand point that was still a disaster, and like... they could have just mentioned one line right...

That's all I am asking.

Yes thank you Ajay Sanyal, I needed that.

But that's enough about the bad, the thing is there is a lot of good in this movie and that just makes the bad parts even more frustrating.

But obviously one must talk about them, and one of the first things that is good about this movie is how it brings everything full circle, plot lines introduced in this movie, those of the previous movie, plot lines we didn't even know we were rooting for, pretty much fucking everything.

And that is good!

It gives me a level of Satisfaction that is only comparable to Ajay Sanyal Finally getting his day to talk to Zahoor Mistry one on one on a a video call via Hamza and have him beg for his life by saying Bharat Mata ki jai.

And Zahoor Mistry if you forgot was one of the guys responsible for the Khandahar Plane Hijack and was the first person that Ajay Sanyal spoke to while doing the negotiations.

"Zahoor, Bandook Ki noke par baat cheet nhi hogi" "Zahoor, we won't negotiate at gunpoint."

And once the Negotiations were done, and Ajay wanted to talk to the hostages, Zahoor prevented them from saying Bharat Mata ki jay(Hail Mother India) by pointing a gun at him.

Even at that point once they had negotiated the release of terrorists from thirty six to just three, Zahoor proceeds to Grandstand on Ajay, who knows now is not the time and leaves.

Dhurandhar was his Idea, to finally be able to do something with his competency and not be limited like he is all the time.

And there are a lot of full circle moments in the story like this, for example, Hamza's Back story as Jaskirat Singh Rangi opens with him buying guns from Atif Ahmed who is based on Atiq Ahmed a real life gangster and politician who is on record accepting that he had funding from ISI, the intelligence agency of Pakistan.

He was killed on camera in 2009.

Anyways, Jaskirat buys these guns to go and rescue his sister from some local MLA who attacked and killed his father over some land dispute, before raping and murdering his elder sister and sparing his younger sister's life but capturing her.

She is kept captured in a warehouse alone by her captors and Jaskirat is forced to use Lethal force against everyone responsible in order to set her free.

This marks, amongst many things the main reason why he was given the death sentence, but also, it tells us why they chose him to be a spy.

He is someone who was going to go into the army and therefore probably already had a lot of love for the country, but now that the system has failed him so badly, he probably shares the same anger that someone like Ajay Sanyal feels as his talent is repeatedly chained by all the stupid people in the system.

But also, once he rescues his sister, he asks his best friend to take care of her, implying that they will get married, possibly.

But it is also implied that he may be into drugs and all.

What else other than that during his operations Jaskirat runs into Pinda(the friend) who is based on the real world Rinda a drug lord that peddled drugs from Pakistan to India.

This run in happens during Jaskirat's attempt to infiltrate the Pakistani drug mafia (obviously) and while initially it seems that he is fine, it is only later when he takes Pinda to a bathroom that his past confronts him in 4K.

This is a major turning point in the movie for a lot of reasons, for one, Hamza who has been as strong as a pillar of rock is shaken up and looses his cool as this ghost from his past confronts him about forgetting them and his home.

Killing him takes everything he has, and more, as Alam juice wala, Hamza's handler implores him to let him take the fall, to let a common thief from India die for the country.

And Hamza has to shoot him.

But that isn't the min reason why that is significant believe it or not, that is only part of the story, the main reason is what happens because of it, Yaleena sees his diary and SP Aslam gets suspicious of him.

A moment that was played in a sense of flirtation before now becomes something much more serious. and while the previous one was to show how close they were getting, this marks a much more serious milestone in their relationship, where Yalina finds out who hides behind the mask that she sees on her husband.

The movie actually does something here that is praise worthy, it takes this opportunity to establish what message you should not be taking from it.

Hamza states clearly that he does not want to establish an us vs them mentality against Pakistan, the people being targetted by him are just as dangerous to Pakistan as to India.

So is that it then? Does that mean that Wikipedia is wrong and this ain't no propaganda movie?

If only it were that simple.

Dhurandhar finally reveals who the illusive "Bade Sahab" is Dawood ibrahim, who for the longest time has had the image of a high class noble with red sun glasses in Bollywood has finally been shown as an old, decrepit, dying man.

And it is actually around him and the other villains in the movie that most of the "propaganda" stuff happens.

So for example, in the middle of a conversation, a news recording plays saying: Ram Mandir being made at the location we heard so much about... it literally had no context or role other than maybe setting the time in stone and pissing off Dawood...

.........

There are other ways to do those things....

And it was all kind of in the middle of nowhere...

There are other things like: chai wala phat gaya hampe... but like... I can believe that that is something someone actually said.

And then there is Brigadier Jahangir, who is the father of Major Iqbal, who is meant to give this villain a more sympathetic side.

And not just that, Iqbal now has an autistic daughter, also meant to make him more sympathetic.

And I guess Aditya Dhar heard all the talk about "villains need to be layered and sympathetic" and took all the wrong lessons.

But on the other hand though, it does give context to why someone like Iqbal would do all that he is doing.

But also, we see unhinged promotion of Modi.

Like... bro literally sees a news flash of Modi becoming PM and goes on to sing his praise to put Iqbal down.

And.... um....

Like the minister thing in the first movie was still it had some basis in reality as someone was arrested for the fake notes thing...

But this... this is sewer waste.

And again, why is Iqbal being sympathized with? Isn't bro called the angel of death?

Things like this, they just don't need to exist, like.... nothing positive comes from them, the movie is not served by their existence...

And then there is of course Demonetization which I honestly have no clue how to feel about, because on the one hand, like so many times before, choosing to show one aspect of a certain event isn't exactly always proof of something nefarious, it is not always possible to show every aspect of every single event that takes place in a film.

And one could argue that the socio-economic aspect of Demonetization is already well known, and the most commonly stated reason: fake currency isn't always explored, so he wanted to show that.

But yeah, on the whole it is expected for the normal audience to be ticked off when such a disaster is praised in this way.

But does that make this film propaganda? Well.. that requires intent, and on the whole what we know alone isn't enough for that.

But that is the thing with good propaganda, it is hard to prove as propaganda.

But I have a counterpoint, will you censor something that looks like propaganda just because it looks like it?

Would you rather not have that idea out there? At least that way someone is saying the quiet part out loud?

People with these ideas existed even before, they were just underground, but now that these ideas are out in the open, tied to such a huge film, can't we then use that to fuel discussions?

Why not aim to have an audience who can watch propaganda, call it out on their own and still enjoy the good parts, censoring never works, calling for boycotts never works and neither does endless campaigning and dogpiling and calling everyone who enjoys a movie xyz.

And yet some people go that route.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWIJNCU8OOs

And neither does using AI you dumb shit!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SflzVl2UjMM

But you know what, I would rather have this out there, so we all know what kind of person he is, his audience is happy, we are all entertined watching the take down and criticism videos.

But putting that little nugget aside, how has no one spoken about the fact that this is clearly an anti blinkit piece?

Shirani Baloch is literally Doraemon ka pocket x blinkit in this one, anything you want here, you get it.

Suicide bomber, guns, anything.

But I get why this is happening, because they are making the point that even the people of Pakistan are fucking sick of the terror mafia there.

Which, I tend to believe...

The Baloch were an unwitting accomplice in this universe's version of the 26/11 attacks

But now, let me bring up something interesting that is very common amongst grifter circles.

Concern trolling.

The idea behind Concern Trolling is that when you want to spread hate against a certain community, you feign concern about another community and saying that the community you want to hate has negative connotations for this other community simply by existing.

Is this concern trolling?

Could be.

Point is, it needs a little bit more to be entirely concern trolling.

But I have a feeling it will go that way should this series continue.

Let me explain.

People tend to like black and white, the more extreme the two sides are, the more the drama, people may try to make nuanced takes, but nuance doesn't sell, outrage does, emotions do.

And on top of that, we don't really choose sides by using our head, we use: hey that guy stands with me when I am troubled, therefore everything he says is obviously correct!

Nuance is an unstable equilibrium is what I am saying, everything that tries nuance is thrown to one side or the other quicker than they can realize, which is why often extreme viewpoints coincide with low iq/ effort.

It requires a great deal of effort awareness and intelligence to remain nuanced, especially as the world keeps changing constantly.

But I guess we will have to wait and see.

But hey, not everything is bad right, specially the ending, where Jaskirat returns to India and decides to go against orders to go see his family.

And he stands there, seeing that they don't even care anymore that he is standing right there, his family has moved on, I don't think I can do that feeling justice here.

but what I have to say regardless, is after Hamza has done the longest most epic scam against Uzair Baloch and blamed him for all his spying, we return to India border to go home again and meet the boss of all spies.

That is correct gentlemen, the most annoying character of all: Jameel Jamali, was annoying on purpose, and was in fact the most epic spy that India ever sent.

I mean it's not great simply for the shocking nature of the reveal, it is great because the more you think about it the more sense it makes.

Chutiya is the correct response.