Watched it(Dhurandhar:The Revenge), mind-blowing. Spy action epic drama – new genre created by Dhar. No one, I repeat no one, including Hollywood, has ever made a duology like this one before. Anyone making a spy action film now should just stop…think about what he has done, shot 8+ hours concurrently, then refused to compress it into a multiplex friendly 2.5 hr product, written a story about a Punjabi Sikh agent inside Karachi’s criminal-political ecosystem with almost an entire narrative set in Pakistan, drew from IC-84, Parliament attacks, 26/11, Ops Lyari – real events that no Bollywood director has ever had the balls to dramatize at this scale….
and with so much specificity, and delivered it in a coherent vision while peppering both films with pop culture and folk hits of all variety from Nusrat to punjabi artists and bollywood retro hits like Oye Oye, Tama Tama (the use of this one in the sequel is just hilarious and satirical, I am sure Dhar has a comedy in him), Ramba Ho etc plus an international, foreign sound.
This is not a film, it’s a novel. The Punjabi word for this is SIRAA…this hit will not help Bollywood at all because the standards have been set too high.
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Absolutely loved Pushpa 2! The mass masala moments had me grinning from ear to ear, but the film also carries a lot of heart.
*Minor spoilers
The way Pushpa’s character evolves—from a demi-god figure to a full-fledged avatar of Shiva in the climax – requires the kind of insane all-in conviction that can be only found among filmmakers in the south. The film takes on a truly otherworldly dimension during the climax and the electrifying Jathara scene.
I know many people find these South masala films crass (I’m no fan of KGF, for instance), but Pushpa stands out as something special. Not once did I feel bored, kept me hooked from start to finish.
Those who dismiss Indian audience for enjoying such film should ask why even Americans fell for a film like RRR. These directors are doing something right or the whole world is getting terrible taste.
