‘Dhurandhar Triggers Patriotism, Exposes Critics Who Live in La La Land’
Amit Pandey, a movie buff from Lucknow, says Aditya Dhar’s thriller is a tight slap on the face of Bollywood godfathers who made spy flicks filled with only Page 3 narrative. His views:
I run a small books & stationery shop in Lucknow where I receive customers of all age-groups and social strata. After watching Dhurandhar, the latest Bollywood blockbuster, I started asking my patrons, out of sheer curiosity, if they had watched the film and how they rated it. To my surprise, nine out of 10 had watched the movie and many of them went to the theatre after a long time, only to be a part of the wave that the film has created – not just at the box office but also on social media, TV news channels, and local tea stalls.
From the feedback I gathered that the movie triggered a mixed bag of emotions among the audience. Some felt anguished by the imported terror and lack of any response from Indian establishment, many felt emotional about the lives of Indian spies working undercover abroad while several felt the film brought a groundswell of patriotism in their hearts. Many of them also questioned the intellect of the so-called movie critics who had panned the movie as a ‘BJP-RSS cultural project’.
For the uninitiated, several Left-of-the-centre movie reviewers had labelled the film as propaganda of the Right wing. These critics raised red flags over the movie’s alleged anti-Muslim tropes and inflammatory content. They also saw it as a ‘testosterone-filled’, misogynistic, violent movie. Most of the people I had asked for their opinions found such criticism ridiculous. They felt the film merely exposes Pakistan’s terror network and its hobnobbing with local crime lords, and cannot be coined a “painful experience” for Muslims living in India! I hold the same opinion.
Dhurandhar’s success is bad news for those critics and journalists who celebrate films that denigrate Indian defence forces and rejoice at brainless action flicks like Pathan or Jawan simply because they present an enemy country as a comrade in arms, to suit the Page 3 Party discussions. I wonder why these upholders of truth cannot call a spade a spade!
There is another thing which I learned from the conversation with my customers: a fresh wave of nationalism has hit the country and part of this owes it to the hypocrisy of our Left intellectuals. There is a rage, spreading through the word of mouth, against the double standards of cinema intellectuals and Dhurandha has won itself a new audience. A host of people are rearing to watch this movie, which they never originally planned to see in theatres.
Besides being a taut cinematic work, the Aditya Dhar movie has blown the lid off the Left-leaning cabal and their narratives due to its unapologetically nationalistic stance and the graphic portrayal of cross-border terrorism. The box office collection and its reception have become a major cultural and political flashpoint in India.
It must be giving sleepless nights to the alleged godfathers of Bollywood who were happily churning out romance-laden action films where ‘bhaichara’ overpowered the grim realities of terrorism. The liberal commentariat stands exposed by this raw spy thriller. Dhurandhar has set a new benchmark before them to either follow or to come up with an equally well made, if not better, counter narrative!
As told to Rajat Rai
