Dhurandhar (2025)

Dhurandhar arrives with fire and fury and won't disappoint genre fans, offering action that is inseparable from its politics.

Violence is the language through which Dhurandhar delivers its policy. The mandates are clear: brutality for the brutal and destruction of those who orchestrate their actions. The central plot revolves around an unconventional response by Indian government officials to Pakistani terrorism. The plan, known as project Dhurandhar, is to tear the Pakistani criminal underworld apart from the inside out, using a covert agent.

Hamsa, played by Ranveer Singh, successfully infiltrates and ingratiates himself to a key gang and its boss, Rehman Dakait, played by Akshaye Khanna. In the first stroke of internal strife, Hamsa convinces Dakait to annihilate his criminal opposition, led by Dakait's own father. The systematic executions of the gang members, especially Dakait's father, are related with fluency in the film's language of viciousness.

The violence is not only overwhelming, it is often relatively well stylized. Careful framing, use of slow-mo, and musical accompaniment all contribute to the significant punch behind our action.

While many movies have cultural baggage, Dhurandhar is particularly heavily laden. The mixture of history with the film's fictional account adds impact to Hamza’s fight. Unfortunately, certain elements are exploitative to the point of distaste, such as the splicing in of footage and audio from actual terror attacks. The non-fictional material is intermingled with high-production fiction, raising questions about blurring the lines between cinematic action and real life suffering.

Reciting history on its own terms and never compromising on its cultural message, Dhurandhar arrives with action that is not only intense; it is deeply opinionated.