The Sage and Muse

I recently watched Dhurandhar (Part 1), the first installment of the two-part series released in 2025. Before diving in, a quick disclaimer: I’m looking at this strictly as a movie. I’m not interested in the documentary aspect or debating the accuracy of the events that inspired it. As a piece of cinema, it works.

The atmosphere and technicals

The first thing that stood out to me was the world-building. The set design and makeup were excellent, creating a believable environment from the start. The pacing felt right, and the storytelling direction kept things moving without dragging.

What really tied the experience together for me was the music. It wasn’t just “there”—the background score and the songs were perfectly placed. They fit the specific mood of each scene, which is something a lot of big movies struggle to get right these days.

The cast: actors vs. characters

The cast is massive (Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, R. Madhavan, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal, etc.), and most characters had a genuine presence. However, there was a clear distinction in how they came across:

• The “actors”: Watching Sanjay Dutt felt like watching Sanjay Dutt play a character. He didn’t feel particularly different from his usual screen persona.
• The “characters”: With Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, and Arjun Rampal, the actors disappeared. I felt like I was watching the characters themselves. The same goes for R. Madhavan, Gaurav Gera, and Rakesh Bedi.
• The spies: Ranveer Singh and Gaurav Gera captured that specific pressure and uncertainty of being a spy—the constant need to be unnoticed and inconspicuous.
• The wildcard: Rakesh Bedi played a politician out for his own gains. There was a level of underlying comedy there, but it wasn’t just cheap comic relief; it actually helped raise the anticipation for what might happen next.
• The dread: There was a sense of dread and unease whenever Arjun Rampal or Akshaye Khanna were on screen. With Arjun, there was a genuine sense of unease from his ruthlessness and influence that were teased to the audience. With Akshaye, it was more complex – he was a ruthless gangster with an intense charisma, or what some people are calling “aura.”
• Sara Arjun and supporting cast: Sara Arjun was good in her role, though there wasn’t enough impacting presence for me to comment much beyond that. As for the other cast members, they were effective. Their scenes successfully conveyed the specific emotions needed – whether it was fear, hope, helplessness, or determination.

The “aura” commentary

I’ve heard opinions downplaying Ranveer Singh’s character because he supposedly lacks “aura.” I think that misses the point of his role. He is playing a spy; his job is to be inconspicuous while influencing the plot, and the character did exactly that.

I think a lot of the audience is just too used to the “larger-than-life,” almost superhuman or demigod-like protagonists we have seen in commercial action movies. For the story being told here, I actually prefer this grounded approach over the demigod-like tropes.

Final thoughts

Overall, I really liked the movie. It’s a well-made piece of cinema that balances its cast and its world-building effectively. It manages a lot of moving parts without losing its grip on the audience.