Ashley Suvarna (Instagram | Twitter) Dhurandhar 1 is on Netflix.
Karmanye vadhikaraste maa faleshu kadachana.
“You have the right to perform your duties, your dharma, but aren’t entitled to its fruits.”
It’s a sermon of selfless action, of doing what’s right without vying for something in return. That’s how this movie begins, and this verse lays the philosophical foundation upon which the protagonist’s journey is based. It may be titled ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’, but when protecting something requires you to destroy something, when preservation demands offense, what we call duty and what we call vengeance become one and the same.
Dhurandhar: The Revenge – The Premise
Sequels often fall into a familiar trap — bigger budgets, louder action, and a constant urge to outdo the original at every turn. Last year, Dhurandhar came out of left field and took the entire industry by storm. But the second had a bigger burden – to prove that the first movie’s success was not an accident. ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ takes the challenge head on and passes with flying colours. It teeters on the edge between grounded and outlandish at times, but to its credit, never loses sight of what made the first film connect with audiences in the first place.
Also Read: Dhurandhar 1 (2025) Review: Invincible, Untouchable, Seen-It-All
The film is undeniably more polished this time around, with grander visuals and a stronger sense of scale, but it also feels more self-aware, almost as if it was too eager to prove itself a blockbuster. Beneath all the explosions, betrayals, and slow-motion swagger, there’s still a strong focus on the personal journey of its central character and the consequences of the path he has chosen. That push and pull between emotional depth and commercial spectacle defines the entire ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ experience. Or most of it.
Chapter One gives us the much-awaited origin story for Hamza, but the movie doesn’t waste time on putting the audience through a full-fledged, traditional backstory. A short scene plays out where a jolly little family is posing for a photo, and just a few minutes later, you’re thrown into a brutal action sequence with a young Jaskirat Singh going on a bloody rampage in search of his missing sister. What really happened to the sister, or for that matter, his family?
That part comes after, where you are quickly and concisely given details of how Jaskirat got to that point. It’s detailed enough to let you understand the depth of his loss, but doesn’t loiter around for too long or depress you with lengthy emotional scenes. It’s real, it feels natural, and by the end of the first chapter (which goes by surprisingly fast despite being almost 35 minutes long), you are completely up to speed on how a young man with army aspirations ended up in a hellhole with a false name.
‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ continues the exploits of Jaskirat a.k.a. Hamza Ali Mazari in a high-stakes game of crime, politics, and shifting loyalties. And blood, plenty of blood. Rahman Dakait’s death has not just disrupted the entire power structure in the town of Lyari, its aftershocks have reached much higher up. For Hamza, it means having overcome two of the biggest hurdles in his way – one, a cold-blooded king, and the other, that homesick, hopeful Jaskirat still inside him who can’t let go of the past. All he needs to do now is accept what he’s become and play his cards right to penetrate the criminal network’s innermost circles and bring them for the crimes they’ve committed against his nation.
The hitlist is long, and his revenge has only just begun.
The Good, The Bad, & The Clunky
The best part about ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ is that it doesn’t feel like a lazy sequel made purely because the first movie was successful (I’m looking at you, Pushpa 2). There’s an actual coherent story here than just repeating the same tricks with bigger explosions. The moment the story circles back from Punjab to Lyari, you immediately get the sense that the protagonist has changed. He’s more worn down now, emotionally heavier, and far less idealistic than before. The movie smartly leans into that exhaustion rather than turning him into some untouchable action superhero right away.
A lot of sequels make the mistake of thinking audiences only want scale, but Dhurandhar 2 understands that people also want consequences. The story constantly reminds us that the events of the first film mattered. Relationships have changed. Trust has been broken. Some characters carry around guilt, others are driven by anger. But most of all, it’s about goddammed time we get a story where people don’t act braindead for the sake of the plot.
In a world littered with tales where a character can don a pair of glasses or a moustache and completely escape being identified, Jaskirat’s old buddy, even though meeting him after several years, sees right through his gangsta Jesus look. Not just that, instead of straight-up blowing his cover, he waits for a private moment to have a word with his estranged friend first. Characters behave like real people with a functioning brain, which in itself is worth the ticket money.
At the same time, Dhurandhar 2 definitely seems like it had bigger ambitions. Sometimes it works brilliantly, but sometimes it feels like the movie is trying to juggle a little too much at once. I noticed a few areas in the second half where the pacing becomes a bit frantic, probably because it is trying to push multiple subplots forward simultaneously. There are times where you want to stay in the moment, explore your feelings a bit more, but the story gives you very little time to process before moving on. Like the death of a certain character important to Hamza (more on that later).
There are moments that should land hard—moments that are clearly designed to—but they don’t quite hit. Not because they’re poorly acted, but because they’re rushed. The film seems eager to move on to the next big scene, and in doing so, sacrifices the kind of buildup that would’ve made those moments resonate.
The Atmosphere
I have to admit, though. I did miss Rahman Dakait. Not as a character, but as the dynamic he brought to the story. He may not have been the strongest piece on the chessboard, but he certainly felt the most imposing. The only man Hamza could never have hoped to defeat on equal terms. Not that the other baddies are pushovers but watching him deal with the rest of his hitlist with relative ease only served to remind me how much of a singular menace Rahman really was.
I also missed the Baloch boys and the kind of uniqueness they brought to Dhurandhar’s story. Donga, Siyahi, and the others were not merely side characters that the protagonist stood head and shoulders above, they had their own layers, enough to stay with you long after you’ve left the hall. They were equals, comrades in arms, men who fought with you in the dirt and the streets and always had each other’s backs.
Every victory, every move, from the routing of Babu Dakait’s gang to the raid on LTF quarters, felt more like a team effort rather than a one-man show. Of course it wasn’t meant to last, they were merely stepping stones on Hamza’s grand quest. But the whole ‘I may be your foe, but right now I’m your bro’ thingy was an element you don’t get to watch every day in a Bollywood film. (I think the last time I saw it was between Suniel Shetty and Shakti Kapoor in Krishna.)
Not to mention that gritty, grimy world of motorcycles, dimly lit shops, old, dusty factories, and street level gang violence that defined Dhurandhar’s environmental storytelling that is largely missing from the sequel.
The first Dhurandhar felt unique because it was raw. There was a certain unpredictability to it—like it didn’t care about fitting into a neat commercial template. ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’, on the other hand, tries to be as original as possible, and even succeeds at it most of the time, but ultimately ends up using quite a few of the same tropes that we’ve come to expect from a Hindi action flick.
But what little this movie compromises in originality, I think it more than makes up for in visual style.
The Eye Candy
I’d say visually, ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ is a massive step up from the first film. The camera angles, the night shots, and best of all, the choreography. Action, emotion, and camerawork blend together to create such amazing cinematic moments that on more than one occasion, I felt tempted to hit the rewind button and replay a scene all over again. A lot of modern action films become so polished that the combat stops feeling real. Here, the fights still have weight. Punches look painful. Characters get exhausted. People bleed, struggle, and look genuinely worn out by the violence around them. The cinematography accentuates this realism by using subtle camera shakes during gunfights and fast paced action shots.
However, what holds all the immersion factors together is the level of near-perfect performances that the actors bring to the table. Most of the work is accomplished by getting the costumes and set pieces right. Acting does the rest.
The Stars Of Dhurandhar
I don’t know if budget was one of the reasons behind Aditya Dhar casting mostly fresh faces, yesteryear actors, and TV celebs into prominent roles instead of huge names, but that decision worked brilliantly in his favour. Let’s say you hired Shahrukh to play Chaudhary Aslam. No matter how well he gets into the role, his stature is way too large. People will always see him as SRK the actor before they see him as Aslam the character.
On the contrary, when you cast a relatively obscure or less famous person and the movie really kicks off, the persona becomes much bigger than the actor. Like what Bhikhu Mhatre did for Manoj Bajpayee, or Gabbar did for the late Amjad Khan. Once an actor becomes a memorable character, not only does he/she turn into a walking PR machine, sometimes they do more to help keep the film relevant long after all the hype has settled down.
Speaking of memorable characters, let’s talk about Ranveer Singh.
The man is a complete delight to watch in both Dhurandhar films. Regardless of whether he portrays young Jaskirat or the older Hamza, bro fully embraces his character in every single frame. He practically carries the entire film on his shoulders. I think perhaps the only two directors other than Aditya Dhar who’ve used Ranveer Singh to great effect are Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Vikramaditya Motwane, and even they couldn’t accomplish what Dhar managed to.
I’d come to associate Ranveer with a certain flamboyant style of acting, maybe a little too aggressive when it came to handling scenes with strong emotions, almost like he let his real life, loud persona leak a teeny tiny bit into his characters. It wasn’t that obvious in films like Gully Boy or Padmaavat, but it was there.
For example, there’s a scene in Bajirao Mastani where Baji visits the Nizam in the latter’s pavilion. At one point in the conversation, Ranveer belts out a fiery response to ol’ Nizzy, but if you pay attention, in that moment he almost runs out of breath while finishing a sentence, even accidentally mispronouncing ‘sena’ as ‘shena’ as he momentarily loses control while trying to balance both the acting and the forced accent. I remember it very vividly because to me, it stuck out like a sore thumb in an otherwise near-stellar performance.
In ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’, the dude is completely in control. Every expression on his face, every single word he utters, is deliberate, precise, even in his most volatile moments. You can see it in the way he adds subtle nuances to his character, from the way he slightly leans to one side in resignation and says “main khatam ho chuka hu, mere paas aapko dene ke liye kuch nahi bacha”, to the way he slaps his diary down with revulsion after reading the names written in it. Even in moments of cold silence, he allows you to gaze into his eyes, get beneath his skin, and feel every single bit of what the character feels.
In the wrong hands, Hamza Ali Mazari, with that sort of physique and facial hair, could easily have become a grim-faced edgelord or a Khilji clone. It’s safe to say that Ranveer Singh’s acting prowess has truly come of age. I can only hope he gets enough chances to deliver with the same finesse in the future.
Arjun Rampal completely disappears into his role as Major Iqbal, ISI chief and the story’s final boss. Fans might remember his recent jaunt as the feisty gang leader Rauf Bhai in the show Rana Naidu. He fulfils the same role in Dhurandhar 2 as Rahman once did, acting as Hamza’s ally and chief coordinator of the criminal networks that fund his operations, the only difference being that the Baloch gang operated locally while this guy’s got his fingers across the subcontinent.
For some reason, I didn’t find him quite as menacing though. ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ expands on his persona by adding his disabled but potty-mouthed father and a mentally challenged daughter, surprisingly humanizing him but also taking away much of the aura he had in the first film. Who knew the blank-faced, ruthless man we saw in the first part had some major (ahem) daddy issues? Rampal’s Iqbal moves slowly and speaks even slower, masking his murderous nature with a restrained performance.
Chaudhary Aslam is the complete opposite. He somehow brings a welcome respite to even the most tense moments, thanks to his foul mouth and some well-timed comic relief. He is extremely cunning, not to mention as brutal as a bed of rusted nails. A complete madlad who‘d casually stroll into a hail of bullets while listening to his Spotify playlist. This is Sanjay Dutt basically playing Sanjay Dutt, and it’s just as fun to watch.
R Madhavan has zero action scenes in the entire movie. He’s just the planner, the brain behind the brawn, working behind the scenes with his trusty aide (Manav Gohil as Sushant Bansal). While everyone else has guns and knives, his tools are diplomacy, intelligence, and the occasional cigarette.
This time, Sara Arjun brings seriousness and a certain maturity to her role as Yalina Jamali. Her role in Dhurandhar 2 might not get enough mainstream love but I couldn’t help nodding in appreciation at how much strength of character she possessess as both a wife and a mother. Imagine finding out you were used as a pawn in an elaborate game, played by the man you loved and trusted the most, yet somehow finding the heart to put aside your own feelings to do what’s right. Yalina proves that feminine strength is often quiet and doesn’t require jumping off planes or brawling with twenty bad guys at once just to prove itself.
Some other notable mentions include Danish Pandor as the hot headed Uzair Baloch, also known as the king of being screwed over. Gaurav Gera as Aalam Bhai, the man who put doodh soda on the map. Even Omar, Aslam’s second in command who doesn’t act like a typical sidie and takes things into his own hands to solve a problem even the bigwigs couldn’t. Of course, who can forget Jameel mamu, the potbellied politician who blew our collective minds in the best way possible. IYKYK.
You see, these roles are so diverse, so different in their traits and nuances, yet they balance each other out in the end. Like ingredients in a complex dish that may not always work individually, but when they come together in the right proportions, that’s when the magic happens.
Oh yes, there’s also Bade Sahab… but you know what? Too big a spoiler.
The Politicks
Honestly, I’d rather skip this part entirely, because it doesn’t make any real difference to Dhurandhar’s score. It’s pretty much irrelevant, unless of course you’re someone with very strong opinions about India-Pakistan or the current disposition.
While the first Dhurandhar kept it largely subtle, ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ is a lot more direct in terms of political messaging. The previous movie was criticized along two lines – one for being anti-Pakistan, the other for being pro-BJP. I don’t know if this was already written into the story during the scripting stage or added after the post-release controversy, but the second movie clears the air on its Pakistan stance through the confrontation between Hamza and Yalina.
“Our war isn’t against your country, it’s against your country’s terrorists” Hamza says, then later follows it up with “These folk are far more dangerous to Pakistan than they are to India” after revealing the atrocities ISI and the others commit against their own populace. I guess that solves that.
The other point of criticism, well… I’d say it’s not without merit. ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ indulges in a bit of Modi-glazing and even portrays demonetization as a masterstroke. Either of which could be off-putting to a certain section of the audience. One side could argue that they deliberately omitted to show the absolute crapshow that demonetization was, while the other side could argue that the film focuses on Pakistan so it only includes the move’s immediate effects on the Pakistan side of things.
My stance has been pretty straight. Regardless of how one chooses to approach the subject, the total pro-current regime content in this 200+ minute movie comes to barely five minutes (or ten if you want to be super picky). Most of the shots would be over before you could say Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. All I’m saying is, both Dhurandhar movies are proper gems, and I’d hate for someone to miss out on the experience just because they are unable to get over a couple of small scenes.
The movie also inserts scenes inspired by actual events, like how strict blasphemy laws in Pakistan are sometimes used to settle disputes or seize property, or how terror agencies in Pak discreetly supply funding or arms to notorious elements like Maoists and the Khalistan movement. Some of these claims are true, some based on official reports, even though open to debate. I appreciate the amount of research that’s gone into addressing some deep-seated real world problems, but regardless, take certain things with a pinch of salt.
The Earworms
Picture this – a film packed with so much entertainment value, it pretty much scores an A in every department, and yet somehow it’s the soundtrack that’s quietly doing much of the heavy lifting. I don’t know if I’ve said this before, but Dhurandhar would not be Dhurandhar without its music. The second movie continues the same theme for its album – most of the tracks are in Punjabi, a medley of originals and remixed/reimagined songs, fusing traditional genres like folk and qawwali with electronic, hiphop, even some jazz.
But what stands out is that much like the previous film, the music and/or lyrics are not merely background fillers but arranged cleverly to accentuate whatever is being portrayed on screen at that moment. The use of background music in a symbolic or metaphorical sense has been one of Dhurandhar’s top selling points. This time they even included a few slow burn tracks to represent the personal turmoil and the occasional stillness of pace.
‘Phir Se’ is probably the most well known of the lot, I guess. It speaks of yearning and how one has still not gotten over what he’s lost. It’s placed at the very end of the story, the point where Hamza realizes that despite everything he’s gone through and everything he’s accomplished, he is still meant to sacrifice his deepest desires on the altar of duty. Karmanye vadhikaraste maa faleshu kadachana.
Destiny/Mann Atkeya is another banger that plays during Hamza’s training montage to signify the rising of one’s spirit and acceptance of a higher purpose.
But the most underappreciated track on the album also happens to be my personal favorite, arriving after the death of someone deeply important to Hamza. It’s a genuinely heartbreaking moment. The makers could have easily inserted a generic dosti-yaari song while emotional flashbacks rolled across the screen, but instead chose a mournful qawwali-inspired track about a devotee yearning for his beloved god, layered over soft, restrained piano notes. Jubin Nautiyal pourz an unusual amount of emotion into the track. The song, Kanhaiya, becomes an absolute soul-crusher once you understand both its lyrics and the context behind it.
Not just the album, the background score in ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ is on another level. I’d say almost as good as KGF 2. There’s something about the sound design that I can’t place my finger on, but everything just sounded better than it does in a regular action flick. The gunshots, the squelch of a knife ripping through flesh, a glass shattering, iron chain links grinding against each other. Mind you, the cinema hall I went to was just some local place, without one of those impressive Atmos or 12-channel audio setups.
The background score for ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ especially stands out because of how controlled it feels. During action sequences, it goes big when necessary — hard-hitting percussion, darker electronic layers, and rising orchestral elements give the larger set pieces a strong cinematic punch. But what really works is the restraint shown during emotional scenes. The film knows when silence or softer instrumentation can say more than an overly dramatic score ever could. The music never overshadows the storytelling, instead consistently strengthening it — and that balance is probably why the soundtrack works as well as it does.
The Verdict
‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge,’ despite a few flaws, is a brilliant sequel to an ingenious film, and along with the first movie, a proper magnum opus. It has not only managed to completely change the rules of action spy genre in India but breathed new life into the stagnating Hindi film industry. It is proof that the Indian audience has been practically starved for original content. Thanks to the exposure to global cinema via the internet, and content-driven stories via OTT, Indians (or at least a significant portion of them) now understand the difference between great and mediocre cinema. Aditya Dhar has satisfied a craving many did not even know existed. The movie has its own subreddit. Think about that.
It’s also a wake up call for moviemakers that depending on formulaic crap, big names, or massive budgets is no longer enough. Vision matters. Passion matters. That the dedication to deliver a great product needs to go beyond markets and profits. That even a supposedly ‘kal ka launda’ director with nothing but raw talent, a committed cast, an authentic story, and a little magic, can drag people to cinema halls even past midnight.
Aditya Raj Kaul, the main research consultant for the Dhurandhar movies, once said on TV that it’s not really about the money, but the impact. And he is right. The Dhurandhar duology is, if nothing else, a big screen event that comes by every once in a while. A new benchmark for not just Bollywood, but all of Indian cinema. One whose significance cannot and should not be measured merely in box office numbers.
But at the end of the day, ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ is a subtle tribute to our heroes, the unknown men and women who walk barefoot through hell and back for the nation without ever asking for any recognition or rewards. The kind of people we sorely need but perhaps don’t deserve.
Dhurandhar: The Revenge is expected to stream on Jio Hotstar.
Read Next: The Boys Finale Recap: Here’s What Happens to Everybody (audio version below)
