Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has criticised Aditya Dhar’s spy thriller Dhurandhar for its excessive graphic violence and propaganda, while praising its storyline, plot twists and performances, saying the second instalment was more entertaining than the first.
In a video review posted on his official YouTube channel on Monday, Tharoor shared his reactions to watching both parts of the film at his residence, describing the violence as excessive and questioning its portrayal of India-Pakistan relations.
"Things that I don't like - there is far too much gruesome violence. It was totally excessive and over the top. There was no need to show so much of violence, blood and mayhem, cruelty and some of the most disgusting scenes ever seen in Indian cinema," says Tharoor in the video as he is shown watching the movie with his staff members.
"There is a lot of propaganda stuff built into it obviously, and I gather that the film has been banned in many countries - not just in Pakistan, but many of the Gulf countries have banned it, saying that it would needlessly create bad blood between Indians and Pakistanis or whatever, and so I can understand those feelings," the MP from Thiruvananthapuram says.
I don't know how Pakistanis will react if they see this, he wonders.
"Some of the things, some of the lines, I think Pakistanis will laugh; some of the other things, I think perhaps Pakistanis will realize how much wrong has been done in their name," he says.
Lavishing praise on the film for its execution, Tharoor says, "Well, I thought the storyline, the plotting, the plot twists, and so on were brilliant. That was really much more entertaining in part two because part one left you feeling too many loose ends hanging around."
Tharoor hailed the performances of the villains in the two-part movie.
"Well, the villains were fabulous in both films' I think both Akshaye Khanna and Arjun Rampal were out of this world, really superb, very convincing, very worthwhile villains," he says in the video.
"Of course, I've dealt with a lot of our intelligence people, but in a very civilized way'having analyses, conversations, information exchanges, but not really ever getting into any cloak-and-dagger stuff. Certainly, I'm not aware of commands being given that lead to explosions in faraway capitals; that's not the world I've ever lived in," he says.
Tharoor also says that he doesn't think the "Dhurandhar" way is the only way in which one can serve the country.
"You don't have to be a 'dhurandhar' - you can go off and serve the country in lots and lots of other ways, and there are many inspiring films I'm sure that'll show you other ways of doing it too," he says.
Noting that the character of Ajay Sanyal is based on National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Tharoor says Doval would not have been in that position from 1998 or whenever he's shown in that position all the way till today, because that's not the way bureaucracies work.
So there would have been different people in charge of our national security apparatus at different times during this period, he says.
"But for a fictional film, what you do is you take a character who can be recognizable and who can walk through the entire film and be a focus for that kind of thinking, and you give that part. I think it would be too much of a stretch to assume that's true, so I would see this as a fictional film that tells a story, which obviously is meant to impart a certain sense of lessons as well," he says.
"It's a very vividly made film, bound to have an impact on anyone who has an imagination or has a mind, so I'm sure all of you must have felt the impact of the film when you watched it, right," he says.
Tharoor says he enjoyed the plotting, the plot twists, the way the story unfolded and the very competent acting all around.
"The superb sets, design, direction, everything was very convincing - top marks, A+ to all of them. And certainly at the end of the 4 hours - I guess 8 hours altogether - you really feel you've been through a major cinematic experience," he says.
Aditya Dhar's two-part spy action saga "Dhurandhar" and "Dhurandhar: The Revenge" stars Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal, and R Madhavan.
(With inputs from PTI)
