I remember a comment by S.Ve Sekar as a response to a critic who claimed that Sekar's plays are nothing but a collection of kadi jokes, for which he had responded back saying, he will provide that critic with couple of hundred jokes, let that guy try to make a successful drama out of it. To be honest, that critic was quite right in his comment as most of the jokes on Sekar's drama, especially the later ones, used to feel like they are separate comedy track in themselves. But adhukum Dhurandharukum enna sambandhamnu kekareengala. Avlooo peria padathuku intro epdi oru linela adikarathu athaan konjam neria digressing and deviating to arrive at the point. Illati mattum sollin selvan thaan nu ivlo sathama thitapdaathu.
While watching the movie, i remembered the comments on the high degree of violence and how the movie is filled with fight sequences more than the dialogues. It made me think of Sekar's comment. Can anyone, in fact some people like Vidyut Jamwal have tried before, make a movie filled with awesome stunt sequences and rival this one by Dhar? If that had been the case, every stunt director would've been ruling the box office. Dhurandhar part 2 is a mix of action, more action and high voltage action. Like for example, in a regular commercial movie, after an emotional block, they would fit in an action block, to lift the spirit or pace from the "down" of the previous scene. If in case of a song, it would either be preceded or followed by a stunt to lift the pace. But in Dhurandhar, they've a different technique that seemed to have worked wonders. The movie begins with a quick fire (literally and figuratively) flash back (again lit. & fig.) of Jaskirat singh. It involves mass murder of about a dozen or more people who have wronged his family, his sisters. The immediate lul is when he is arrested and sentenced to jail which is followed by a fight involving his kidnapping which is followed by his present day in Lyari. The immediate lull of a few people talking is actually about them plotting the next fight, which happens to be the goriest of the lot in the pre interval portion. Then there are couple of more fights where people talk in between about the upcoming or already completed fights and kills. After interval there are few songs like "Di di" from so long back and the climax "Ra Ra rasputin" which would give the audiences a break from bombs and bullet sounds. Credit to the director for choosing the apt song for the correct place. The movie has an overall running time of close to 7.5 hours across both the parts and dialogue would've been for hardly half hour. Yet none of the stunts bore you and even the gore after sometime, makes you feel like you are watching a slasher flick based on nationalism.
Poor villains. They never realized till the end that nothing short of a nuke strike would've killed the hero!! They tear him to pieces, throw everything from kitchen sink (lit. & fig.) till whatever they could lay their hands on at him and credit to his hairstyle and thick beard, they get entwined in that hairy mess only to leave a more hairy mess of a situation for themselves. I wonder why people complain saying it is against muslims or any religion. If you are like Ratchagan Nagarjuna where even if it is a goli or gilli game he can't bear to watch India loose, this movie is for those for whom the motto is my nation -right or wrong. It is not a propaganda film for the current government but for the country as such, showing up our villainous neighbour in their true color. Had the two parts combined been made into a web series of 25 mins each, it would have run for a full season of 20+ episodes. But credit to be given where its due, despite feeling like you've aged (lit. & fig. again!!!) while watching the movie, it never feels bored. I fast forwarded most of the stunts and gore and still managed to see almost over 2 hours of the movie!!! And what an investment it must've been for the makers, with the movie providing returns of over 3000 crores for a budget of around 250 crores!!!
Last but not the least, for all his fights and blood and sweat, the real dhurandhar of the movie was Rakesh Bedi. Man, i was surprised to see him as villain in previous part and the twist in the end was like "WOW". When Hamsa/Jassi says his final remorse is not able to remove the "Bade saahib" the reaction give by Rakesh was hoot worthy. Thambi, hold my beer would've been the right way to describe.
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