I have never publicly written about movies and content, and this is, by no means, a professional movie review. Today I watched this thing and I am genuinely disturbed by the extent certain people, and likely political parties, are going to, to mobilise and influence the masses.
The movie is Dhurandhar 2, The Revenge. I watched the first part and thought it was alright, a bit jingoistic but had some craft to it, also good drama. This one is something else entirely.
This post will have spoilers, so please stop now if you’d like to waste your 4 hours first.
The events
The story revolves around an Indian spy who apparently orchestrated a whole bunch of real events in Pakistan. Several Pakistani terrorists killed, including a major gangster and a prime ISI operator. He also tries to poison a paralysed Dawood Ibrahim, only to later find out that Dawood’s already paralyzed because another spy had gotten to him earlier. The reasoning, as the film presents it, being that it’s more fun to watch someone suffer than to just kill them. They also orchestrated Pakistan’s elections. And when the spy eventually gets caught, India blackmails their government into releasing him.
The movie is apparently “inspired by true events.”
Now, sure! Maybe some of this is true. Maybe all of it is. I have no idea. And that’s exactly the point. You’ve taken real events that people vaguely know about, wrapped a fictional narrative around them, and told audiences this is inspired by true events. The audience then gets to decide which parts are real and which are fiction. That decision will always lean toward “it’s all real.” That’s how human psychology works when you prime people with a disclaimer and then show them slick dramatic reenactments.
And then, in the middle of all this, they cut to actual footage of Modi’s oath-taking ceremony. Real video. In a fictional film. I genuinely had to pause and process that for a second.
Explicit political influencing
During the Modi speech scene, a Pakistani army major’s father says something along the lines of: “What happened? You said your people would get elected.”
Of course! The opposition, almost certainly Congress, is Pakistan’s asset. It was delivered in an emotional dramatic scene where your guard is down and you’re just watching a story. It wasn’t even subtle. It was intentionally defamatory.
They also justified the 2016 demonetization in this film. Apparently, 2016 demonetisation - a.k.a operation Green Leaf - it was actually a counter-terrorism operation to eliminate Pakistani counterfeit currency flooding the Indian economy prior to UP elections. Yes that’s what they said! One of the most economically painful policy decisions in recent Indian history, millions of ordinary people standing in queues for months, and apparently it was a genius spy operation all along.
Winners move on
I get it. India-Pakistan tension is real, the history is ugly, and there are genuine grievances. Nobody is disputing that.
But Pakistan is a failing state. Their economy is a rounding error compared to ours. Politically dysfunctional, propped up by IMF bailouts, dealing with internal chaos.
And yet the biggest, most expensive, most watched Hindi films of this era are about bashing this small broken neighbor on loop. China is doing things at a scale that should be keeping serious people up at night. That’s the real competition. Pakistan is a convenient distraction, and looks like someone is clearly benefiting from keeping it front and center in public imagination.
India deserves better than this. We’re a civilization with a lot going for it, and the political establishment is spending that energy on hate mobilization against a country that’s already losing on its own.