Dhurandhar: The Revenge (2026) — Review

★★★ / 5 | Dir. Aditya Dhar | 3 hrs 55 mins | Hindi

There's a scene somewhere in the middle of Dhurandhar: The Revenge where you realize that Aditya Dhar isn't making a spy thriller anymore. He stopped doing that a while ago. What he's making is something closer to a myth — a bloody, scorching, almost religious text about vengeance, nationalism, and one man's refusal to come back from the edge. Whether that's thrilling or troubling probably depends on who you are and what you're willing to forgive a film for.

Picking up exactly where the 2025 original left off, the story follows Jaskirat Singh Rangi — operating under the alias Hamza Ali Mazari — as he continues his deep-cover infiltration of Karachi's criminal underworld. Having already killed the gangster Rehman Dakait and married Yaleena, the daughter of the weaselly politician Jameel, Hamza is now both a family man and the lord of Lyari. His next mission: dismantle the alliance between Karachi's crime syndicates, the ISI, and Pakistan-backed terrorism — all while working toward reckoning for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. The canvas is enormous. So is the runtime.

Ranveer Singh — The Film's Beating Heart

Let's start with what nobody can argue against: Ranveer Singh is extraordinary here. He does something rare in a film this loud — he finds the silence inside the chaos. He nails the moments where Hamza has to cry with overwhelming emotion, especially toward the end after everything is over. The physicality, the stillness, the way rage and grief operate on his face simultaneously — it's the kind of performance that carries a very heavy film on its back without making it feel like labor. If this franchise has a soul, it lives entirely in his eyes.

The supporting cast doesn't let him down entirely. Arjun Rampal returns as Major Iqbal, and he brings a cool, reptilian menace to the role that works beautifully as a foil. Rakesh Bedi as Jameel Jamali continues to be the franchise's unexpected secret weapon — equal parts comic and creepy, his character somehow earns every scene he's in. Sanjay Dutt as SP Choudhary Aslam adds texture even when the script doesn't give him much to do, and R. Madhavan, slipping into the role of Ajay Sanyal, anchors the Indian intelligence side of things with quiet authority.

The Scale and the Spectacle

With a runtime of 229 minutes, it is among the longest Indian films ever produced. Dhar shot roughly seven hours of footage in total and made the call to split the material into two films during post-production. That decision is both understandable and a little maddening when you're sitting in the theatre. The film never truly lets you get bored — there's always something happening — but there's a point in the second half where you feel the weight not just of the plot, but of Dhar's absolute refusal to leave anything on the cutting room floor.

The action sequences are staged with genuine craft. Violence here has weight and consequence, at least technically speaking. The locations — shot across Punjab, Chandigarh, Ladakh, and Thailand — give the film a visual scope that few Indian productions attempt. Shashwat Sachdev composed the film's soundtrack, and his background score is one of the most committed pieces of work in recent Hindi cinema. It doesn't just accompany scenes — it accelerates them, haunts them, fills spaces where the screenplay goes thin.

Where It Gets Complicated

Here's the honest part. Dhurandhar: The Revenge is a film with an agenda, and it wears that agenda openly. The film is building up to a fire-and-brimstone retribution for Pakistan-sponsored terrorist strikes on India, particularly the IC-814 hijack and the 2008 Mumbai attacks. That's not inherently a problem — cinema has always processed national trauma. But Dhar goes further than that, weaving real political figures and government policies into the narrative in ways that blur the line between entertainment and endorsement. The film's storyline loosely incorporates real-life geopolitical events including Operation Lyari, the 2014 Indian general election, and the 2016 banknote demonetisation.

For viewers who simply want a high-octane action film, most of this will wash over them like background noise. For viewers paying closer attention, some of the framing around religious and community identities will feel like more than just dramatic shorthand. This is where the film's considerable craft becomes harder to enjoy without a side of discomfort.

The Verdict

Dhurandhar: The Revenge is a massive, technically impressive, and emotionally uneven film. It earns its box office. The film grossed over ₹1,000 crore worldwide within its first week of release, which tells you something about how deeply it connected with a large audience. That connection is real, and it shouldn't be dismissed.

But "entertaining" and "uncomplicated" aren't the same thing, and this film is definitively the former. Ranveer Singh gives one of the performances of his career. Shashwat Sachdev's score deserves to outlive the film. And Aditya Dhar clearly knows how to hold a crowd. Whether you leave the theatre feeling exhilarated or unsettled might say more about you than about the movie — and that, in its own strange way, is what makes it worth talking about.

Watch it for: Ranveer Singh, the background score, and sheer scale. Go in knowing: Four hours is a long time to spend with a film this certain of itself.