DHURANDAR aka MASTERMIND*****

DHURANDAR is an epic super-long spy-mafia-thriller set in the political powder-keg that is contemporary Indian-Pakistani politics.  And let's be clear up front:  writer-director Aditya Dhar (URI: THE SURGICAL STRIKE) is definitely in the Indian nationalist camp, telling his story from the perspective of a country trying to defend itself from horrific real-life terrorist attacks like Mumbai 2008.  There is no attempt here to understand the Pakistani side of the conflict although there is nuance to the lead Pakistani character, Rehman Dakait.  How else to explain a proud Balochi helping the state that oppresses his people?  As a result, for those of us critical of Narendra Modi's Hindu Nationalist politics, it's easy to write this film of as propaganda.  Your mileage my vary.  I found its handling of recent terrorist attacks fair.  My only problem with it - and it's a big one - was a statement in its final minutes that not only is the Pakistani state behind attacks such as Mumbai (fact), but that it's behind "ninety percent of all terrorism" (not fact). That's a dangerous piece of hyperbole but I trust the audience to parse the fact from the propaganda, all the while enjoying what is a really superb film.

The movie opens with Indian officials negotiating the release of airplane hostages, and then zips through the terrorist attack on India's parliament building.  This prompts the Indian security services to send in a sleeper agent to infiltrate the gangs that work in cahoots with Islamic terrorist and the Pakistani state.  This infiltrator is "Hamza", played in a series of glorious hair-pieces by the ever-charismatic and muscle-bound Bollywood superstar Ranveer Singh.  

Hamza poses as a Balochi waiter in Karachi's Lyari district and slowly infiltrates the gang of the aforementioned Rehman. Rehman is himself pursued by Pakistani cop SP Aslam. Later Hamza will romance a rival politician's daughter, presumably so we can have some filmi romance scenes and songs.  More pointedly, Hamza will witness Major Iqbal planning the Mumbai attack, but fail to prevent it.  All of this is based on real-life criminals and real-life politicians and real-life terrorists. In the most searing moment of the film, the director Aditya Dhar chooses to show real life audio from the night of the Mumbai attacks, with the handler egging the terrorists on to greater acts of violence.  It's a brave and powerful moment. 

Come for Ranveer, stay for the golden oldies!  The joy of this film is not in Ranveer's physically committed performance, but in seeing so many older actors given superb roles and sinking their teeth into them.  There's been a lot of internet chatter about just how good Akshaye Khanna is as Rehman, and boy he acts everyone else off the screen.  From affable wedding guest with a memed weddding entrance, to a truly scary purveyor of vengeful violence, to a skilled populist politician. Khanna has the prime role in this film and it's one for the ages. It's an Oscar-winning performance that dominates the film and transforms it into something really special.  But kudos also to Sanjay Dutt as SP Aslam and an almost unrecognisable Arjun Rampal as Major Iqbal.  And Madhavan is always great - not least playing Ajay Sanyal here.

This film is so good that after nearly four hours of viewing I could easily have watched it again, and cannot wait for its sequel.  This is Bollywood at its most provocative and handsomely produced. 

DHURANDAR has a running time of 214 minutes and is rated 18 for strong violence. It was released last December and is now on Netflix.

ROCKY AUR RANI KI PREM KAHANI*****

ROCKY AUR RANI KI PREM KAHANI (Rocky and Rani's love story) is everything we expect from a Karan Johar film. It's a multi-generational family dramedy with broad laughs, beautiful clothes, wonderful music, and moments that genuinely make you cry.  But more than that, this is a movie that is daring in its surface message of progressive inclusion, and even more radical in its meta-message of queer acceptance. 

On the surface, this is a typical Karan Johar multi-generational dramedy. Rocky Randhawa (Ranveer Singh) is the scion of an incredibly wealthy Delhi family that is traditional and Punjabi (North Indian). He is a flamboyant, luxury-label obsessed, gym-obsessive who speaks broken English, and whose father bribed his teachers for his grades. The family is run by the frighteningly strict matriarch Dhanlaxmi (Jaya Bachchan) and her equally fearsome son Tijori (Aamir Bashir). Tijori's wife Poonam (Kshitee Jog) is servile and their daughter Gayatri (Anjali Anand) is mocked for being overweight. 

Contrast this to Rani Chatterjee (Alia Bhatt), a deeply intellectual, American-educated news-anchor whose Bengali family are cultured, bohemian and socially progressive.  Her mother, Anjali (Churni Ganguly), is the breadwinner and a university professor. Her father Chandan (Tota Roy Chowdhury) is a male classical Indian khatak dancer.  Her grandma Jamini (Shabana Azmi) recites poetry at recitals in their house. They are so progressive that her father can happily discuss why Rani's relationship with Shomen broke up - he was a bad lover. 

Chance brings Rocky and Rani together. Rocky's beloved grandfather (Dharmendra) is suffering from dementia and Rocky thinks that if he tracks down the women he once had a love affair with - Jamini - this might trigger his memories.  At first Rani mocks Rocky for his ignorance and crass personality but they soon start their own affair, just as the grandparents are also reconnecting.  

The first half of the movie is basically the two realising that they do have genuine feelings for each other despite their cultural differences.  The second half of the movie sees them move in with each others' families to see if those differences can be overcome. Can the cultured Chatterjee's help Rocky become more progressive while also becoming less snobby themselves? And can the Rhandawas accept a daughter-in-law who speaks her mind, speaks English, and doesn't cover her head?

So far so rom-com with a side-order of melodrama. What elevates this film about the norm is its surface message of progressive inclusion.  Rocky gives a powerful speech about feeling judged by the Chatterjees for his poor English - a real issue in India given that most education is private and language can be interpreted as denoting class. Mrs Chatterjee gives an amazing speech about how Indian men use the language of "honour" to disguise misogyny, and that they might sing lewd songs about what's behind a sari blouse (chola ke peetchay kya hai?) but are too embarrassed to utter the word brassiere. Most powerfully, Mr Chatterjee gives an amazing speech describing his joy at dancing Khatak but also the incredible mockery he has faced his entire life because of it. 

I commend the (now) openly gay director Karan Johar for including this material. Even more, I commend Ranveer Singh for undercutting his hyper-masculine image and partnering with the supremely talented dancer Tota Roy Chowdhury in dancing the khatak inspired and iconic Dola Re song from Devdas.  Just as the evil matriarch mockingly laughs behind her scarf, I can imagine many viewers doing the same. For Ranveer Singh to show this kind of allyship is powerful and explodes the hypocrisy of an Indian Bollywood culture where it's totally fine and not at all queer for straight men to wax their chests and dance around to Bollywood songs, but heaven forfend they do classical dance, which is still seen as the province of women.

Indeed, one can take this radical message one step further. I would argue that ROCKY AUR RANI is really a film about questioning gender roles and sexuality, and for a less toxic masculinity. After all, when you think about it, we have come a loooong way from Johar's 2001 film KABHI KUSHI KABHI GUM. In this film both families are run by financially dominant women, with Jaya Bachchan taking the evil patriarch role that her real-life husband Amitabh took in KKKG. And in the current generation it is Rani and Rocky's sister Anjali that are smart and earning a living, while Rocky is just a nepo-baby.  

In both families the patriarchs are criticised for a love of the arts that is somehow seen as not masculine enough in India's toxic hyper-masculine culture. Rocky's grandfather was scorned by his wife Dhanlaxmi for his love of poetry, and she kept their son Tijori from spending time with his father for fear that somehow this anti-masculine behaviour might be contagious! By contrast, Rani's mother and grandmother have stood by her father and his love of the arts, but his father beat him for dancing.  Maybe it's because we all know Karan Johar's real-life journey of self- and societal acceptance that I think we can read this entire storyline of what it would be like to come out not as a khatak dancer but as a gay man in India today.

The resulting film is one that wears its politics as well as its heart on its sleeve, but remains entertaining throughout. Pritam's songs are fantastic and the choreography, outfits and sets are wonderfully over the top.  In particular, I love Manish Malhotra's brightly coloured chiffon saris for Alia Bhatt's Rani, and Ranveer Singh brilliantly self-parodies his real life image as a fashion obsessive as Rocky.  Karan Johar expertly uses the iconography of DEVDAS in his pivotal khatak scene, and my only real criticism is the heavy product placement for a certain music back catalogue's hardware in the grandparents' reminiscence montage. As for scene stealers - well it's lovely to have Dharmendra and Shabana Azmi back on the screen, although I could have done without Jaya Bachchan's two-dimensionally-written evil grandma.  I think it's actually Anjali Anand as Golu/Gayatri who really steals the show with a late movie singing scene that cracked me up. 

ROCKY AUR RANI KI PREM KAHANI has a running time of 168 minutes plus an interval. It is rated 12A for infrequent strong language, moderate innuendo, sexual violence references.