Anurag Kashyap heaps praise on Dhurandhar while disagreeing with its politics: ‘Aditya Dhar is a Kashmiri Pandit who has suffered’

Anurag Kashyap heaps praises on Ranveer Singh's Dhurandhar.

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap recently took to Letterboxd to share what he liked, and disagreed with, in the blockbuster period spy thriller Dhurandhar. In his review, he described the filmmaking as “top-notch” while noting that there were “two sequences that I have a problem with.”

“A spy cannot be a spy if he doesn’t have hate and angst against the enemy state. A soldier also cannot be a soldier if he doesn’t have angst against the enemy state. On those two counts, I have no issues,” Kashyap wrote in his review.

However, Anurag Kashyap quoted two dialogues which underline the politics of Dhurandhar, which he admitted he has “a problem with.” “I have two sequences that I have a problem with. Madhavan saying — ‘Ek din aisa ayega jab jo bff desh ke baare mein koi sochega’ — and another at the end when Ranveer says, ‘Yeh naya India hai.’ Take those two aside, it’s a good film. In fact, a brilliant film that is entirely set in Pakistan,” argued Kashyap.

He called the filmmaking “top-notch” and lauded the “stubbornness” of  Aditya Dhar, comparing Dhurandhar to “Oscar-winning propaganda films about the USA” like Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker (2009), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), A House of Dynamite (2024).

Anurag Kashyap also heaped praise on Dhurandhar director Aditya Dhar, having known him since his National Award-winning 2009 short film Boond, on which he worked as a writer. “Agree or disagree with it, the man is honest. Not an opportunist like others. All his films are about Kashmir. He is a Kashmiri Pandit who has suffered. Either you argue with him or let him be,” added Kashyap. Kashyap said if he feels like arguing about the politics of Dhurandhar, he’d call up Dhar, but can’t deny that the film is “significant.”

“And Ranveer Singh being my favourite performance. So secure,” concluded the filmmaker.

In a recent edition of Cult Comebacks on SCREEN, Anurag Kashyap revealed that he wanted to cast Ranveer Singh in his 2015 period crime thriller Bombay Velvet, but the producers insisted on having Ranbir Kapoor on board instead. “Earlier, when I wrote it, it was for Ranveer Singh. He was much fresher then. But everybody sold it on the basis of Ranbir, and the actor changed. It took me at least a year to wrap my head around it,” confessed the filmmaker.

Before Kashyap, actor Hrithik Roshan also shared on his Instagram Stories last month that he loved Dhurandhar, even though one may or may not agree with the film’s politics. “I may disagree with the politics of it, and argue about the responsibilities us filmmakers should bear as citizens of the world. Nevertheless, can’t ignore how loved and learnt from this one as a student of cinema. Amazing,” he posted.

Co-produced by Aditya Dhar and Lokesh Dhar’s B62 Studios and Jyoti Deshpande-led Jio Studios, Dhurandhar boasts of an ensemble cast, also including Akshaye Khanna, Arjun Rampal, R Madhavan, Sanjay Dutt, Rakesh Bedi, and Sara Arjun. It’s become the highest grossing Bollywood film in India.