jokerdurden

Dhurandhar: The Revenge (5/5) I am honestly awe-struck. I still can’t process how a spy action thriller can hit you so hard emotionally that there are actual moments where your eyes well up. That doesn’t usually happen in films like this, but here it just works. Ranveer Singh is phenomenal, no other way to put it. He completely carries the film on his shoulders. Gaurav Gera’s Aalam gets a much bigger and more impactful moment this time. In the first part, as Hamza’s handler, he didn’t get that kind of space, but here even with a relatively smaller role, the impact is massive. Sara Arjun does full justice to Yalina, she holds on her own in her scenes. Rakesh Bedi is again in his chameleonic form, completely blending into the role and got biggest cheer in the film at a certain moment which was well deserved. And Arjun Rampal… he genuinely looks like the Angel of Death here. Proper beast of a villain. The film is almost 4 hours long, but it honestly felt like 2.5 hours. That’s how tight the editing is. It never really drags. The only issue I had was that the action is so relentless that your eyes actually get tired. And when I say relentless, I mean non-stop. But the scale and context are so big that even with tired eyes, you’re still completely glued to the screen. The way fiction is blended with real events is again done very smoothly. That’s something the film really gets right. One thing I did miss though, there isn’t an equally strong performance to balance Ranveer Singh like Akshaye Khanna did in the first film. That contrast kept things more dynamic there. Here, it feels like Ranveer is just standing alone at the top like a lion. The only thing that I didn't like was sound editing which was a bit choppy. These two films have pretty much established Aditya Dhar as a proper “event director.” And I mean that in the sense that his films feel like events, something people will show up to theatres for, just because his name is attached. Revenge may take four hours, but this one doesn’t let you look away. PS. I quite liked Madhavan's dialogue on what it means to be a Man. That was so so good.

This just might be the greatest flick that serves and crosses two genres: Gangster Drama with Spy Action.

Nice effort. I'll give the filmmakers that and they should continue with expanding the universe. They can only get better from here. Bad things: 1. Prabhas was boring af. The half an hour long introductory fight scene of him was the most boring part of the whole film. Bujji was also mid. 2. Music was super bad. (Hwaaainnn hwainnn, eheeeehhhheeeee. Screaming is not background music, it's irritation. Whoever is the music director, this knowledge must be given to him. Songs were also bad.) 3. Full of secondary/tertiary characters like of Disha Patani, Brahmanandam, Kyra actress, Raya child actor/actress, evil bounty hunter in Kashi etc getting way too much screentime. Three hours was a **** drag. There is an awesome, 5 stars out 5, 130 minutes film in here. 4. Pacing was mumbo jumbo. Good things: 1. Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Kamal Haasan, Manas actor. Amit ji still kicking ass. He truly is the Goat. 2. Mahabharata scenes were very very catchy. Decision to keep Krishna ji in silhouette was very cinematic. 3. Filmmakers' vision for writing such an original story linked up with the Epic Mahabharata is very commendable. 4. Design of the Dystopian Kashi was good, only good, not awesome. The inverted pyramid for Complex was awesome. Should've explored it more. (It reminded me of Elysium) 5. CGI, good for the budget they had. Score: 3 / 5