Dunki Movie Review

With his third straight film of the year, Shah Rukh Khan has arrived with Dunki, which marks his first time collaboration with Rajkumar Hirani. The film, on the whole, is a humorous and emotional tale of love, hope and homecoming.

For starters, Dunki is not as heavy as Hirani’s earlier films as the director always brings along a deja-vu factor to the feel good scenes of the film, and has the comedy coming in at an inconsistent pace. However, what helps the film through is in how it keeps getting better from scene to scene, and how the characters in the film intertwine themselves between each other. The first half of the film steadily takes us through the characters and their lives, and how they go about their intention to cross borders to London. The film does that job neatly before pressing into the emotional sequence which is its aggressor, and then moves into the second half which is the better of the two. Though the make believe feeling in the film is inevitable, there are lots of emotional moments in the second half that make it worthwhile. The lovely climax is also a big plus.

Shah Rukh Khan is brilliant in his part, as it is an emotionally driven performance from him after the star-centric two films that he did prior to this.

The film also benefits from Tapsee Pannu’s presence, who is not the perfect fit but does a fine job in the film. The supporting actors are all good fits and Vicky Kaushal’s cameo is an impactful one as well.

Technically, Dunki is really good despite the old school sensibilities of the director and his choice to stick to basic scales and not get too artistic about it. The music by Pritam is warm and there are a couple of songs which really amp up the emotional moments in the film.

On the whole, Dunki is a relatable and engaging film from start to finish. Not the best from the director but still really good.

Dunki Movie Review Rating: 3.5/5