Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Uff yaar, Shah Rukh Khan is only a few years shy of 60 in the 2023 film “Dunki”, but he is still ruling the romance genre – even now very few actors can look into the eyes of a woman with the kind of sincere passion King Khan does. In “Jawan”, SRK primarily fought against a corrupt system, but in “Dunki,” he is in his best element – fighting for love.
Directed by Rajkumar Hirani, who has co-written “Dunki” with Abhijat Joshi and Kanika Dhillon, the film opens with a picturesque shot of the Big Ben in London, with its soft chimes rhythmically playing in the background. The story is about four friends from a town called Laltu in Punjab, who dream about going to London to better their lives, and do everything they can to get to their city of dreams. When the legal ways don’t work out, they decide to go the illegal way – of crossing borders by whatever means possible.
Taapsee Pannu plays Manu Randhawa, a young woman whose family is drowning in debt, living in the outhouse of their own bungalow. So, Manu wants to go work in the UK and restore her parents’ ancestral property. Her friends Buggu Lakhanpal (Vikram Kochhar) and Balli Kukkad (Anil Grover) are also tired of being poor and hope to go find work in London. New in Laltu for an errand, Hardayal Singh Dhillon AKA Hardy (Shah Rukh Khan) befriends the trio and decides to help their dreams come true, falling in love with Manu along the way. The song “Lutt Putt Gaya” charmingly captures Hardy’s love for Manu, and SRK dancing hopelessly in love is a nostalgic reminder of all his hit songs where he dreamily croons odes to his leading ladies – from “Tujhe Dekha To Yeh Jaana Sanam” to “Haule Haule” or “Tumhe Jo Maine Dekha”. Although the ‘younger’ version of SRK’s clean-shaven Hardy isn’t convincing, he is a lot more charming when he plays his own age and appears as the older, grey-haired Hardy in the second half.
“Dunki” starts off as a fun story about a bunch of friends trying to learn English, so they can pass their IELTS exam to be eligible for their UK visa. Boman Irani plays Geetu Gulati, the English teacher whose classes Manu attends, learning helpful sentences like “I want to go to the lavatory”. The writers aren’t able to hilariously utilize the classroom setting, resorting to age-old toilet jokes which will only tickle a 5th grader’s funny bone. After a mildly entertaining first 50 minutes, “Dunki” then becomes a serious transformative story about how every year, thousands of people like Manu, Buggu, Balli and Hardy, try to illegally get to the countries of their dreams by putting their lives at serious risk. But once they get to London’s life isn’t the ‘piece of cake’ they imagine it to be. Amid the dreams, delusions of the characters, also comes of a love story which doesn’t meets its desired end.
Just like the protagonists’ turbulent journey to UK and after, “Dunki” is quite a moody, bumpy ride, with the writers relying on exploitative emotional stories to rouse the viewers. For example, Vicky Kaushal has a small cameo in the first-half as Sukhi, a young lad in desperate need of UK visa to see his girlfriend. While Vicky delivers a stirring performance as an angry young man who doesn’t understand why he must learn an entire new language just to go see the woman he loves, his entire sub-plot feels forced into the tale to milk a few tears out of viewers. But perhaps, for some it might work as a reminder of the different kind of motivations people have to leave for another country.
Rajkumar Hirani, Shah Rukh Khan, and the team might have had their hearts in the right place with this story, which essentially tries to expose a fool’s paradise, but often, their motives seem confusing. On one hand, the characters vehemently advocate for the need for open borders and the absurdity of learning a language of the colonists who once oppressed and stole from their country. On the other hand, there’s also the reality of how these poor aspirational immigrants soon become jaded with their life abroad, resentful of the second-hand treatment meted out to them in a foreign land. But perhaps the title should be indicative enough of the film’s true intentions and takeaway – only a Dunki (donkey) dreams of eating the carrot that will never reach its mouth. So, “Dunki” comes a full circle, first Mani and her friends are desperate to get to the UK, then, decades later, they are desperate to get back home to India.
The cinematography effectively captures the clashing worlds of London and Laltu; however, some aspects of the illegal immigration appeared overly unrealistic. For instance, in a scene where Manu, Hardy, and the others are onboard a train, it was glaringly obvious that it was all done with special effects. “Dunki” is often an awkward blend of overtly sentimental scenes and poorly written jokes, but Tapsee Pannu and Shah Rukh Khan make it watch-worthy with their charm. In a pleasant surprise, the climax is poignantly bittersweet and closes with a light moment. Definitely watch it if you are a big Shah Rukh fan and have a soft spot for sentimental stories.
You can stream “Dunki” on Netflix.
Read Next: Bhakshak Review – Predators vs. Indie Journalists
Also Read: Wives and Daughters – Book Review (Audio Version Below)