Dhurandhar, a movie no one expected.

Now, generally speaking this is not the type of movie I would see much less write an article on, but because literally every single person on the planet was either seeing it or had something to say about it.

It was either an absolute god send or some excessive form of propaganda... basically a movie based on real life events in India, specifically events with some political implications...

This particular movie chooses to focus on events that happened in the neighboring country of Pakistan that surrounded the death of a gangster called Rehman Baloch/Dakait and the 26/11 attacks.

Like any movie based on real events like these, this movie incited a lot of emotions in everyone, even more so because they played actual recordings from the attacks.

Now, personally, I see this on the level of something like the Diplomat where after the movie ended, they played the actual news broadcast of Uzma Ahmed after being rescued from captovity by the efforts of the Indian Diplomat J.P. Singh and the late Sushma Swaraj.

Now there is the case to be made that Uzma's video was played at the end and the 26/11 recordings were played in the middle when it is relevant.

Now from a filmmaking stand point, I get it, Dhurandhar isnt about the attacks the attacks just happen during the time frame the film is taking place in.

But from someone who is skeptical about Films using tactics like this to actually make audiences emotional so they can better be fed any propaganda/false info I also get why you would be triggered.

But just like all that glitters isn't gold, I dont think the presence of these recordings in this film makes it propaganda.

Its more like a reminder that this is real, this happened, just like in the case of the Diplomat.

I understand why that wasn't as heavily scrutinized as the events weren't as large in scale.

But let's actually talk about what is going on in this movie.

The movie has 2 Point of View characters although it is extremely clear that Ranveer Singh's Hamza is the main Character, that does not mean that Ajay Sanyal played by R. Madhavan and based on the real life Ajit Doval is any less important.

His screen time is lesser, but it is his P.O.V. that actually tells us why the events of this story even needed to take place.

This movie, like I said before, takes place during and around the time of the 26/11 attacks, and it follows a fictional spy character called Hamza Ali Mazari/Jaskirat Singh Rangi, who was sent by India under Project Dhurandhar as a spy to infiltrate the Pakistani Underworld.

Ajay Sanyal suggested Project Dhurandhar following the 24th Dec 1999 Plane Hijack and the 13 Dec 2001 Parliament attack during both of which it was masterfully shown how his hands were held by bureaucracy and his face shows clear frustration in both cases.

During the Attack he watches with silent anger as one of the first officers to get on sight is carried on a stretcher after having been shot.

This frustration is further emphasized where in a meeting with the head of R&AW and Ministry of External affairs his plans to infiltrate Pakistan underworld are rejected, it seems pretty much the entire bureaucracy is against him except for those under him and the few like The Ministry of External affairs Devarat Kapoor who at least understand him though may not agree with him.

It is by his orders that Project "Dhurandhar" is even launched.

So thanks I guess, this movie was awesome.

This movie has eight chapters:

1. Chapter 1: the Price of Peace

2. Chapter 2: Stranger in the Land of Shadows

3. Chapter 3: The Bastard King of Lyari

4. Chapter 4: Bullets and Roses

5. Chapter 6: The Devil's Guardian.

6. Chapter 5: The Jinn

7. Chapter 7: The Butterfly Effect

8. Final Chapter: Et tu Brutus?

The placements of the chapters and their names near perfectly describe what happens at each point of the movie, and adds to the feeling of this movie being a long Saga with multiple moving parts.

But that isn't the only reason this feels so great, for one, let's look at the main relationship at the center of it all, Sara Arjun and Ranveer singh have the classic bollywood age gap, which usually makes every romance scene appear as if the girl fell for her Grandfather.

The main reason behind every scene with them feeling so weird is because the hero is obviously in his "no I am not old" era. which as a man who is not in his teens anymore, I completely sympathize with, but at the same time general audiences and even understanding audiences for that matter, can't help it...

But somehow with the same age gap in this movie, the relationship not only doesn't feel weird, it actually feels more appropriate in context.

The first reason behind this is because it is addressed straight up in the movie that Hamza is in his thirties and Yalina Jamali is nineteen, and secondly, this relationship is a strategic move by Hamza in order to put himself in a place where he can better do his job, and it begins with a Honey Trap.

So they addressed the power Dynamic.

And for that power Dynamic, it wasn't like Yalina is super submissive either, she literally threatens to burn her man in his sleep.

Specifically the depiction of women in this movie is quite interesting, and in my opinion further shows that this isn't propaganda.

Cause if it were, they would have shown Rehman Dakait, a radical Islamist as always keeping his wife locked up and in complete Burkha and no way would she have slapped him, it would have been the other way around.

Jameel Jamali would have honor killed his daughter because Islam doesn't allow live in, but that doesn't happen either.

Every religion has its problems, and a propaganda against it, is obviously going to overemphasize that in its followers, instead of realizing that most normal people don't actually follow the problematic parts, even the evil ones.

Moving on from that though, let's actually talk about the most interesting part of this movie that literally anyone is talking about, Akshay Khanna as Rehman Dakait.

The strange thing is obviously that he is the villain of this movie, the Final battle is a struggle to kill him and survive, and yet, we spend a majority of this movie sympathizing with his side and Humanizing him.

Now the narrative side is obviously that as a spy Hamza needs to infiltrate and gain his trust before killing him, in order to pass on information to India, but from another angle, it helps us understand that even if someone is extremely charismatic and Sympathetic, he can still be the villain.

The movie makes a very delibetate choice to introduce him while he is crying after the loss of his son.

And while, yes, right afterwards we see him smash a guy's head in with a stone weight in broad day light, the movie had given us plenty of reasons to hate that man by this