Official Trailer
Rating: 7.4/10 | Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller | Runtime: 229 min
Starring: Ranveer Singh, Arjun Rampal, R. Madhavan, Sanjay Dutt, Sara Arjun
I just got back from seeing Dhurandhar: The Revenge and honestly, I’m still trying to process what I watched. This movie is nearly four hours long, and it feels every second of it. Not always in a bad way, but you’re definitely committing to something when you buy a ticket for this one.
Ranveer Singh plays Hamza, a guy caught between serving his country and dealing with the absolute mess of gang violence and corruption in Lyari. The setup is simple enough: rival gangs, dirty cops, and a military guy named Major Iqbal who’s basically a force of nature. But the movie isn’t interested in keeping things simple. It layers everything on top of each other until you can’t tell where patriotism ends and revenge begins.
What Actually Works Here
Singh is good in this. Like, really good. He carries the weight of the story without ever feeling like he’s trying too hard. There’s this scene maybe halfway through where he has to make a choice between protecting someone he cares about or completing a mission, and the internal conflict on his face says more than any dialogue could. That’s the kind of acting I remember.
Sanjay Dutt and R. Madhavan show up in supporting roles, and both of them add something real to their scenes. Dutt especially plays the kind of character you love to hate. Arjun Rampal is fine but kind of forgettable. Sara Arjun doesn’t get enough screen time to really do much with her character.
The action sequences are shot well. Director keeps things grounded and gritty instead of going full Bollywood with impossible stunts. The gunfights feel heavy. There’s a sequence in the third act that takes place in a warehouse that’s genuinely intense. You feel the weight of bullets and blood.
Where It Falls Apart
Four hours is a lot. The first two hours move pretty well. The third hour starts to drag. By the time you hit hour four, you’re checking your watch. There are subplots that don’t go anywhere. There’s a relationship thread with Sara Arjun’s character that feels like it was supposed to matter more than it does. The pacing could be tighter.
The script also relies too much on exposition. Characters explain things that we either already know or could figure out from watching the movie. There’s a scene near the end where someone literally spells out the moral of the story. I didn’t need that spelled out.
The movie also has this problem where it can’t decide if it wants to be a spy thriller or a crime drama or a character study about moral corruption. It tries to be all three and ends up diluting each element instead of deepening them.
The Real Issue
The biggest problem is that the ending doesn’t earn the runtime. The movie asks you to invest nearly four and a half hours into Hamza’s journey, but the conclusion feels hollow. Not because it’s sad or ambiguous, but because the final scenes don’t justify everything that came before. It’s like the movie lost confidence in its own story and just stopped.
That said, if you’re into crime thrillers and don’t mind a slower burn, there’s stuff here to appreciate. The rating of 7.4 feels about right. It’s a movie that works in pieces more than as a whole. Singh’s performance alone is worth seeing, and some of the action is genuinely well done.
Just maybe wait for the extended streaming release and watch it in two sittings. Your back will thank you.
Where to Watch
Stream on: Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads