Dunki Movie Review : “An insensitive, haphazard and entirely clueless movie”
Dunki, is what you may call, a dull Rajkumar Hirani movie. Something, that 15 years ago might have sounded like an oxymoron. How could Bollywood’s high priest of fun, hijinks and whimsy ever be associated with a word that is the very antithesis of his filmmaking identity. But the fact remains, that Dunki is an example of how even the most successful and methodical directors, can be sometimes, well, fallible.
If you strip Hirani of his fun-filled screenplays and tear through the sugarcoated positioning of his movies, you will realise that most of his films are just upbeat (and offbeat) tales about the elusiveness of hope in misled societies. In that sense, Dunki might be the first instance wherein Rajkumar Hirani has finally broken free of the handicaps of commerce and and a well-established reputation, to fully embrace his filmmaking voice, which so far was hidden underneath the manic Circuits and the jovial Ranchos.
Even then, Dunki doesn’t work. To put it simply, Dunki doesn’t have the unflinching honesty of a Kabir Khan political thriller, nor does it have the innate charm of a Hirani social drama. It flounders somewhere in the middle, and thats pretty much the identity of the movie.
Even if you are one of those who, like me, fall prey to Hirani’s persuasive and innocent arguments, casting a blind eye towards his overly manipulative writing and excessive nudging, yet still, chances are that Dunki won’t land a place in your heart. It essentially has a cheerful first half that is at odds with its overarching theme, and a dull second half that is at odds with Hirani’s reputation. There are two demons that Dunki fights, and wins against none of them.
One of my biggest criticisms of Shah Rukh’s more recent performances, has been the fact that he eventually, even in his inventive and high-risk outings, falls prey to his own legacy. In Dunki, for once, I wished that SRK’s supersized persona hijacked Hirani’s filmmaking and took centre stage. If nothing, for the sake of the movie having an identity. But I would argue that a film not having an “identity” is still a very “SOBO tower-residing, Starbucks-sipping, elite film critic” gripe about a movie.
Dunki’s most problematic element is its lack of sensitivity.
At one point in the movie, Taapsee Pannu’s character Manu, argues that there should be no borders on planet Earth, because all land on Earth is, in her words, “rab ki zameen”. At another point, SRK argues in a courtroom scene, that just because birds can fly from one end of the world to the other during winters, without going through any of the bureaucracies and messy paperwork that humanly travel entails, human travel should also follow suit. The final straw is when SRK, in an attempt to express his dislike towards the fact that Indians seeking to migrate to the UK are forced to learn English, directly addresses the audience and says, “Jab angrez hindustan mein aaye the, humne toh kabhi nahi poocha unse ki kya unhe Hindi aati hain.”
According to Hirani, we should have questioned the colonisers, who came to India with sole motive of looting and plundering the nation, whether they know their colony’s most widely spoken language? There are folks who pay thousands of dollars to pursue four-year degrees in International Relations, and the best you have got is this? That we should have questioned our oppressors about their knowledge of our national language, held our head high and questioned people who committed innumerable atrocities against our own people?
Hirani’s biggest flaw (and his biggest strength), is the fact that he uses his trademark emotional intelligence to get away with a lot of logical concerns in his school of thought. Which is something that is fine when you are attacking local sentiments of glorifying rat races which chase success or religious bigotry, but it tends to get problematic and slightly disturbing when you aim to make a statement about technical, global problems like refugee crises and illegal migrants. This is a subject that requires more than just a heart-filled argument about righteousness, it requires data, facts and an understanding, or even an appreciation, of the fact that there are legal systems in place to deal with these issues.
Which probably suggests the fact that Hirani’s kryptonite isn’t his so-called formula, but the extent to which he thinks he can use it to get away with loophole-filled arguments and glaring logical errors. For once, I felt that a Hirani movie, isn’t, well, a Hirani movie. It felt more like a haphazard (Tubelight level bad) Kabir Khan movie, with a distinctly Hirani first half posing as a colourful candy, luring the audiences into theatres.
Dunki is also Hirani’s least memorable movie as of yet. It never really feels like one entity, and feels more like a clueless amalgamation of some of the deleted scenes from his previous movies. This comes from a director who reinstated relevant yet slightly outdated notions of goodness with irresistible charm, humbly opened our eyes to our own religious insensitivity, and casually yet interestingly took down the problematic ideology of an educational system in dire need of a revamp. And he achieved all of this while singing his way into hearts, hiding his fierce opinions and dissent under his whimsical and appeasing aesthetic.
Where is that Hirani who taught us to embrace our loved ones in a jaadu ki jhappi, unashamedly practice Gandhigiri and fool our hearts into believing that no matter how trying the times might get, all izz well? Where is that Hirani who directed (and preached) with a lighter hand?
Or shall I say : behti hawa sa tha woh, kahaan gaya usse dhoondo.
