There has not been a decent spy thriller made this well in Bollywood since forever. Dhurandhar, Aditya Dhar's ambitious action-espionage epic that dropped on Netflix last week, is what happens when a director decides to challenge the mediocrity that has plagued mainstream Bollywood cinema for years.
The film tells the story of Hamza, played by Ranveer Singh, a composite character based on real Indian intelligence operatives who spent lifetimes embedded in Pakistan's hostile territories. These are the invisible soldiers and spies who played the long game after devastating terrorist events on India like the Kandahar hijacking, the Indian Parliament attack and 26/11 Mumbai attacks. The movie follows India's intelligence apparatus methodically infiltrating and dismantling terror networks. If The Godfather had been a spy thriller, it might have looked something like this.
I, a detached viewer, on other side of the globe, tenuously tied to India by my Indian roots, didn't get the impression that it was your typical flag-waving, chest-thumping Bollywood fare. This is methodical, deliberate filmmaking that treats its audience like adults capable of sitting through a three-and-a-half-hour narrative without needing an item number or comic relief sidekick.
The film tells the story of Hamza, played by Ranveer Singh, a composite character based on real Indian intelligence operatives who spent lifetimes embedded in Pakistan's hostile territories. These are the invisible soldiers and spies who played the long game after devastating terrorist events on India like the Kandahar hijacking, the Indian Parliament attack and 26/11 Mumbai attacks. The movie follows India's intelligence apparatus methodically infiltrating and dismantling terror networks. If The Godfather had been a spy thriller, it might have looked something like this.
Ranveer Singh is excellent. This guy gives you a thousand dollars' worth of performance for every dollar you pay him. He's one of those rare actors in this era of fleeting stardom who consistently shows up and delivers, film after film. But the internet has lost its collective mind over Akshaye Khanna's Rehman Dacait, his style, his delivery, his entire presence has become the talk of social media. Sure, Khanna is magnetic, but this is still Ranveer's movie.
I do agree there are some political undertones. R. Madhavan's character basically exists to deliver one-liners glorifying the current Indian administration. But here's the thing, I haven't been dialed into Indian politics for more than a quarter century, so I watched this like any other geopolitical thriller. The film portrays India positively but doesn't dehumanize Pakistanis. It shows Pakistan as a complex political landscape where gun-trafficking and terror training are unfortunate realities of their geopolitical business.
What impressed me most is that Dhar made this as a mainstream commercial film, not as some niche arthouse project. He had the guts to demand more from audiences, to trust that they'd appreciate sophisticated storytelling over formulaic "for the masses" entertainment. The film's box-office returns, multiple-viewings of the movie by many cinephiles and the excitement and life it has brought back to Bollywood, tell us that Aditya Dhar's gamble has paid off. The climax action sequence alone, from the slow-burn tension building in a car to the relentless pursuit and brutal hand-to-hand combat is some of the finest action choreography Bollywood has produced.
At 215 minutes, I wanted more when it ended. Part two arrives in March 2026. I'll be watching.
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