Hard cinema, soft power

If Pathaan gave both conservatives and liberals room to hide, Dhurandhar extends no such courtesy. Aditya Dhar ripped open that tent of hypocrisy and turned the knife

- SHEKHAR GUPTA

It's a leap of faith to presume that everybody reading this has watched Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar and Siddharth Anand’s Pathaan (2023).

The second is probably the biggest earner among Hindi originals. The first is catching up fast. It also has a second innings coming up, a pre-announced sequel on March 19, 2026. I take it that not everybody watches movies, but might still be familiar with the buzz, debate, and controversies over both.

The one over Pathaan was confined to Deepika Padukone making her first appearance, dressed ina saffron bikini, to the song “Besharam rang’ (shameless colour) inthe background. The angry ones drew the connection, demanded the scene be deleted. Or maybe they did not mind the bikini, only that the colour be changed? The protests died down soon.

Almost two weeks after its release, Dhurandhar is still ranning to full halls across the country, many repeat watchers. It has just been caught in an enormous controversy, and not just on social media. Its critics inthe mainstream media and serious broadsheet opeds have widely described it as government-sponsored, BJP propaganda, warmongering, Islamophobic, or all of the above.

Tam focusing entirely on the two films that straddle politics, nationalism and religion. A quick listing will give us an idea of why one was mostly hailed asa clean, if fantasy, entertainer, what with VFX stunts and humans, good and evil, chasing each other in the skies on jet-packs. Ask no questions, or as we say on Holi, Bura Na Maano (take no offence), this is just a movie.

Onthe three polarisingissues, politics, nationalism and religion, Pathaan was a cop-out. However, the list first: