For three decades, the Indian film industry was governed by a set of "unbreakable" rules. We were told that the audience had a short attention span, that certain faces were mandatory for success, and that "masala" was the only language the masses understood. Then came December 2025. Then came Dhurandhar. Aditya Dhar’s 3.5-hour geopolitical epic…
The passage of the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill, 2025 in the Lok Sabha marks a fundamental reset of India’s nuclear doctrine. By repealing the outdated Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (CLND) Act, 2010, the government has cleared a path for a…
The shadowy figure known only as "Bade Sahab" is the central, unseen tormentor of the film Dhurandhar. He is the ultimate puppet master who connects the street-level drug trade of Karachi to the highest echelons of state-sponsored terror. The puzzle of his identity is brilliantly complicated by the film’s narrative structure, which suggests a constant,…
Theatres are currently alight with debate over Dhurandhar’s unflinching portrayal of Pakistan's underworld. Yet, amidst the on-screen action, the movie drops a geopolitical bombshell: the assertion that the high-quality Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) flooding the Indian economy could only have been produced with inside help—specifically, by someone in India providing the blueprint of the…
The hysterical backlash against Dhurandhar has nothing to do with "politics" or even "Pakistan-bashing." It's a full-blown cultural trauma for a particular generation of commentators—the ones personified by the classic 'Arfa Khanum' archetype. She's not critiquing a movie. She's mourning. Mourning the sudden, violent death of the comforting moral universe that Bollywood spent decades constructing,…
[Spoiler Alert - The post has spoilers from the movie. If you would like the read the review without the spoilers, here is one - Dhurandhar—The 3.5-Hour Epic That is Filling Theaters in the UK: A Non-Spoiler Review] Why has the film Dhurandhar generated such an unprecedented hue and cry? The reaction is a major cinematic…
The recent meltdown at India’s largest airline, leading to thousands of cancellations, was a systemic failure—not just an operational blunder by a single carrier. While IndiGo's lean staffing model was the immediate trigger, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) are the bigger culprits. The narrative that pins…
I went into this film armed with the relentless barrage of negative chatter: jingoism, toxic masculinity, excessive violence, propaganda, too long. Every review seemed determined to warn me off. But I watch every Hindi film that screens here in Portsmouth, UK, and this one was different. For the first time in years, the theater was…
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