Bollywood’s new thriller Dhurandhar twists Karachi’s gang war history

Bollywood director Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar can captivate Indian cinema fans with its intense, gritty visuals, but its disregard for logic and history remains unchanged. The latest film, starring Ranveer Singh, is packed with action and violence, centering once again on an Indian spy attempting to infiltrate Pakistan.

Although the film claims inspiration from true events, very little of it appears factual.

This time, however, the director simply handpicks Karachi’s Lyari gang war and reshapes it entirely around India. For Indian audiences, the film may boost jingoism, but for Pakistan, it becomes yet another mockery of Bollywood’s recurring habit of pushing flawed storylines targeting its neighbour.

The film opens with an extremely violent character played by Arjun Rampal, who tortures a detainee and is introduced as Major Iqbal. He is described as "inki marzi ke baghair Pakistani siasat ka aik patta bhi nahi hil sakta [someone without whose consent “not even a single leaf moves in Pakistani politics].”

Then comes R Madhavan portraying Ajit Doval, who claims Lyari is the epicenter of global terrorism, a statement even Lyari residents would find absurd. Karachi’s most popular locality may be known for gang wars, violence, police encounters, and target killings, but it has nothing to do with India or global terrorism.

Yet Bollywood, prioritizing spectacle over facts, builds the entire plot on imagination. In the film, Karachi’s late SSP Chaudhry Aslam Khan is portrayed by Sanjay Dutt, while Rahman Dakait is played by Akshaye Khanna.

Rahman Dakait was a notorious Lyari gang leader who was killed in a police encounter led by Chaudhry Aslam. Neither figure has any connection to the narrative portrayed by the makers of Dhurandhar.

From the trailer, it appears Rahman Dakait is shown having links with Indian intelligence, while Ranveer Singh, playing Dhurandhar (who was an Indian army officer Major Mohit Sharma), a spy, unleashes his wrath with the help of the Lyari gang.

The trailer opened with disturbing visuals, followed by gruesome scenes featuring each character inflicting violence in their signature style. It also showed a PPP jalsa with a large poster of Benazir Bhutto displayed on the stage. Another scene showed an aircraft in a barren landscape, though little context is revealed.

While Bollywood continues to remain obsessed with Pakistan-focused plots, scenic visuals, and violent characters, its content repeatedly turns into a mockery due to illogical and misleading narratives.