Aasha Khosa

If you are hooked to the riveting song Fa9la by Baharini rapper Flipprachi and grooving on Akshaye Khanna's dance on it in Dharundhar, you are not alone. However, if you believe that this scene is the brightest frame in the movie, which is heading at least towards one of the biggest blockbusters of the year, you are wrong. The entire 3.5-hour movie is seamless and brilliant filmmaking by Aditya Dhar.

Dharundhan, which is making waves at the Box Office, has come to redefine Indian cinema in many ways. At a time when the country is shedding its soft nation image and taking on Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism in India, the film deals with the reality of cross-border terrorism and India’s counter-strategy.

The movie revolves around the escapades of an Indian spy played brilliantly by Ranveer Singh, who seeks to get embedded into the Karachi underworld. As a silent observer, he comes across ISI men who are planning against India and the underworld dons who procure arms and ammunition to arm terrorists headed to India.

Ranveer Singh in Dharundhar

Like his earlier films Uri: The Surgical Strike, Article 370, and Baramulla, Dhar’s film is based on real incidents concerning India’s security. However, Dhurandhar turns out to be more than a reality-based film. Viewers experience great cinema with its ensemble of fine actors, layered storyline, characters who come across as real, charismatic and yet flawed and espionage in near-real settings.

The film has the effervescent Ranveer Singh as Hamza Ali Mazari, a Baloch tribesman, who is an Indian spy trying to find his feet in the underworld of Layari town in Karachi. Pakistani viewers, on social media, are complimenting Dhar for the accurate portrayal of the Layari neighbourhood and pronunciation of the Baloch names. They complain that even Pakistani people don’t pronounce their names correctly.

That shows the due diligence that has gone into the making of Dharundhar. No wonder the audience loves it for all the right reasons.

Akshaye Khanna as Rehman Dakait in Dharundhar

Akshaye Khanna as Rehman Dakait, is the leader of a Baloch gang, whose writ runs in Layari. Hamza finds his feet in his gang and discovers the link between ISI and the local criminal gangs in fomenting terrorism in India. He finds out that a prominent businessman of Pakistan is involved in printing fake Indian currency in bulk for pumping into India to destroy its economy.

At this point, the viewers suddenly realise and understand the reasons behind the Narendra Modi government’s demonetisation in 2016. The government acted swiftly to save the Indian economy by banning currency, even at the cost of risking the ire of common people who had to face miseries on this account for a couple of months.

The scenes of jubilation by the Pakistanis – Rehman Dakait, his ISI cohorts, and fake currency makers over the Mumbai terrorist strike of 26/11 – shock Hamza. The film briefly plays actual audio of the communication between terrorists and their handlers in Pakistan through satellite phones during the attack.

This scene instantly makes viewers empathise with Hamza’s countenance of pain, grief, hurt, shame, frustration and sheer helplessness. If brevity is the wit of communication, Dhar has nailed it in this scene. Without going jingoistic about it and with one small conversation shown as text and audio on a red screen, he gives a bigger reason for making this movie and the audiences warching it.

NSA Ajit Doval (Left) and Madhavan playing Ajay Sanyal in Dharundhar

Although the role of Intelligence Bureau Director Ajay Sanyal, played by Madhvan, is small, it’s clear that his vision is behind India finally dealing with Pakistan proactively. Pakistan would openly say that it seeks to give death to India by a thousand cuts through its proxy war and jihad, in Kashmir and also across India.

The character is of today’s National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval. As I watched the film, I could overhear people speaking about the NSA’s role in shaping India’s security roadmap.

The film is thus also a silent tribute to Doval, who was once a lone voice in India’s top security echelons advocating a punitive strategy for Pakistan to deter it from attacking India through terrorists. Doval was the IB director when Pakistan carried out the Parliament Attack, and Lashkar e Toiba hijacked an Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar and some other big attacks. In Kandahar, they managed the release of four dreaded terrorists from Indian jails in exchange for the Indian passengers. The government also paid the terrorists 10 million dollars.

In his series of lectures after his retirement as the chief of IB, Doval explained that Pakistan would not stop waging a proxy war against India unless it is made to pay a heavy price. He wanted India to escalate the cost of proxy war against for Pakistan as deterrence. The dispensation back then was not amenable to his bold plan; it believed in a defensive strategy and going by the rules of the game.

Sending Hamza Ali Baloch as a spy to Pakistan was thus Doval’s strategy when he was appointed NSA. Dhar gives smaller doses of reality in the film, and these leave a big impact on the audience’s minds. A dialogue between Sanyal and his junior, “We must wait till a government that thinks about India comes into power,” is so meaningful in today’s context.

Aditya Dhar with Sanjay Dutt who plays SP Choudhary Aslam in Dharundhar

The film has stunning performances by all major characters. Akshaye Khanna as the don is brilliant. His dance moves on Fllipparachi’s Arabic rap are global trends. Ranveer Singh, Madhavan, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal, Rakesh Bedi or even the female characters played by Sara Arjun and Soumya Tandon render brilliant performances.

Is Dharundhar anti-Muslim? There is no scene even remotely suggesting this. The film is being loved by audiences in Kashmir, a 99.9 percent Muslim society. Pakistan has set a record of sorts by 1.8 million piracy downloads of the movie in the country.

READ MORE: Ashhar-Anil dosti: A bond that transcends religions

I dare says that the movie doesn’t even manipulate your mind into hating the people of Pakistan. The story happens in a couple of locations in Layari, with fixed Pakistani characters and doesn’t even show the rest of the country.