Will the real Dhurandhar please stand up ?

Arrival of “Uri” in 2019 – directed by a first timer - Aditya changed something in Hindi film industry.  It was technically brilliant, had great music, entertaining, but more importantly fused facts and fiction seamlessly with the narrative tilting towards the “ political dispensation” of the time.

This set the cat among the “progressive” pigeons. Here was someone with the craft to narrate the story of the other (Right – pun unintended) side. It didn’t matter that the “”facts” shown were accurate, what triggered the liberals was the unapologetic nationalistic tone. How can someone be so openly nationalistic in a “Secular” nation !

“Article 370” again being factual, depicted a fictionalized version of the whole process of the abrogation. Subtly but firmly toeing the government’s line, it was technically adept, engrossing cinema. To top it , the protagonists were female, with both in positions of power and agency. How can patriarchal, misogynistic, right wing can produce such a movie. This is not the “DEI and feminist” India that the liberals envisioned. The murmurs of propaganda grew louder when they realized that Uri was not a flash in a pan.

2025 has to be the year where the Overton window has firmly shifted. “Baramulla” with its metaphorical, layered story telling and usage of meta-physical horror to enhance the real life horrors experienced by a large community showed that the Right now has mastered the art of subtle messaging that the Left had monopolized for decades.  Nothing could be faulted - the story, screenplay or the technical aspects. Praise – though begrudgingly and back handedly – had to be accorded.

With Dhurandhar, another bastion too has been breached. The mainstream masala– the rags to riches, henchman to the mafia top boss, spy saving the country – genre has now been appropriated to tell a “Right” wing story and the way it does has truly rattled those who extolled ISI helping RAW to thwart a terrorist  attack (where the villain is disgruntled ex-Indian spy) as peak cinema. Again it doesn’t matter, Dhurandhar when its being factual it gets all the facts right, does it skillfully, subtly highlights the cost paid by the country due to the “inefficiencies” for previous political masters and roots for a regime which cares for the nation. Most “critics” and the “liberals” are now in panic mode. Here’s some one who can beat them in their own game has truly arrived. Hence the comparison to Leni Riefenstahl.

When the protagonist in "Dhurandhar" declares, "Unke ghar mein ghus ke maarenge," it's not just the character speaking but Aditya himself. He infiltrated the high temple of secularism, learned the tricks of the trade, and used them against the very people who had long dictated what the masses should see and what constituted the moral fabric of society. Aditya has firmly established himself as the true "Dhurandhar."