Dhurandhar

There are two flaws that straightaway dog writer-director Aditya Dhar’s spy adventure. One, the intent may have been to use the first part of the two-instalment film to set up what happened before New India woke up to counter its belligerently violent neighbour. However, the focus is so much on building an elaborate scene of the gang wars and politics of Pakistan that nobody out here would connect with it. Honestly, who cares who’s in power and who’s murdering whom in the neighbouring country? Two, the disconnect is heightened with Dhar’s failure to make it a thrilling watch. At over 3.5 hours, it is laborious, unexciting storytelling.

At the outset, let’s address the ginormous elephant in the room. Dhurandhar doesn’t feel as long as its runtime — three hours and 34 minutes — made it out to be. The credit for that goes to the fact that the Aditya Dhar-directed film hits the ground running and despite the protracted setup of time and space, it manages to keep its pace consistent, often escalating to breakneck speed when matters spill over into high-stakes territory. ‘Break’ and ’neck’ are the operative words here.