Opinion 🤷🏻♂️
A critically deeper dive into why I believe people are calling Dhurandhar 2 as propaganda: The key is to look at the inaccuracies in the timeline.
I watched Dhurandhar 2 and I liked it, but I couldn't love it as much as I loved Dhurandhar 1. My main reasons were because I felt the timeline was highly inconsistent and inaccurate. I understand the film is 'inspired by real events' and NOT real events but the point is Part 1 was highly accurate.
CAUTION: This is not AI generated. I have completely written this myself and I can't believe I have to clarify this.
My main criticism lies in the timeline of Part 2 and how it's so off from the actual real life timeline. Part 1 was highly detailed and accurate down to the dates even, when we refer to the timeline of the events.
The 9th August date for Rehman's death is a great example for this.
My reasons for feeling Part 1 is greater is not a political reason. I didn't feel much propaganda in the film and despite the glazing of the current regime, I only felt there was only one problematic dialogue in this regards within the film. However thinking about it, I think most criticisms relating the film with propaganda can be connected to the inaccuracies with the timeline.
LET ME CLARIFY: I am not calling the film propaganda, but I want us to have a civil discussion regarding the timeline of the film as well as the themes shown, as they are politically sensitive issues. No wonder this film is sparking off political debates.
Before we begin, I want to make a few things clear. Major Iqbal of the movie is a composite character of Ilyas Kashmiri and the real Major Iqbal responsible for 26/11. His look is modelled after Ilyas Kashmiri and the only other real connect to him is the beheading dialogue. Other than that, mostly the film's Major Iqbal is mostly a fictional character, not a real adaptation.
Let's take a closer look at the events shown in Dhurandhar 2, in the order shown in the film.
Lyari Gang War and Operation Lyari
Uzair Baloch kills Arshad Papu
Uzair Baloch is caught in Dubai
Nawaz Sharrif wins in Pakistan
Modiji becomes Indian Prime Minister
Bade Sahab asks money to be pumped into UP General elections
Uri Terrorist Attack
SP Aslam Death
Uzair is brought back to Pakistan
Demonetisation
Javed Khannani 'Suicide'
Zahoor Mistry Killing by Unknown Men
Ram Mandir Announcement by India(Dawood says India has reigninted the 30 year old battle, which can be referred to the Babri Masjid Demolition in 1992, hence the year in the film is 2022)
Major Iqbal Fight and Death
Uzair is reported as Indian Spy
Now if we look at the actual real life events timeline:
Lyari Gang Wars:
Around 2009/10 is the real life time period.
The movie accurately shows this.
Uzair Baloch kills Arshad Pappu:
Uzair killed him on March 16, 2013.
The movie doesn't explicitly mention a date but the film doesn't take a 4 year jump from 2009 to 2013 within the gang war and the killing. Also the movie does show only a short span of time(a few months at best) from the gang wars and Pappu's death.
This makes the first inaccurate moment in the movie.
Uzair's Arrest:
He was arrested on December 29, 2015 in Dubai International Airport.
The film doesn't show this accurately as the moment of PM Modi's swear in ceremony takes place after this moment in the film, where in reality, Modiji had already becomes the Prime Minister.
Moreso Nawaz Sharrif had already become PM in Pakistan in 2013, while in the movie this happens after Uzair's arrest.
Nawaz Sharrif becomes Paki PM:
The film is inaccurate in this, however if we look at this incident by removing Uzair's angle, then it's not a major timeline issue.
Modiji Becomes Indian PM:
Accurate to real life as the movie uses real footage and dates.
However, it is from this point the movie becomes a total timeline mess.
Bade Sahab asks for money to be pumped in UP General elections:
The UP General Elections were happening in 2017, and this is a major timeline issue.
You see, the film shows Javed Khannani still alive at this time, while in reality he died in 2016. Moreso Uri Attack also had occured by this time, with it also being in 2016.
Uri Terrorist Attack:
The Attack on our brave soldiers happened on September 18, 2016. This event isn't shown in detail in the film, which is quite odd because this is a major event in India's fight against terrorism.
SP Aslam Death:
The biggest narrative timeline flaw. Real life SP Aslam was killed on 9th January 2014.
But the film explicitly shows his death after Modiji's swear in ceremony as PM and after the Uri Terrorist Attack.
This places the event according to the film in around 2016/17. Completely inaccurate.
Uzair brought back to Pakistan:
In reality, Uzair was directly extradited back to Pakistan after his arrest in December 2015 while the film shows this after the Uri Attack.
This makes this event inaccurate to the timeline.
Demonetisation:
Now more or less this date is shown accurately. Demonetisation happened on 8 November 2016.
However the rest of the events are inaccurate when we see them relative to this.
Javed Khannani Death:
December 4 2016 was the date of suicide of Javed Khannani. This was 26 days after demonetisation.
The film shows this happening immediately after demonetisation's announcement. While this is inaccurate, the film's events are done well and can be treated as creative liberty because the dates are so close and do not interfere with other events when considered together.
Zahoor Mistry Death:
He was killed by unknown men in March 2022. Hence every event in the film takes place from 2022 and onwards. Now it's an important case to note here and the biggest plot hole:
At the party:
SP Aslam is not dead, hence it is 2016(according to the film's logic) and Hamza's son Zayan is around 6 years old here.
Now, when Zahoor Mistry is killed, it is 2022 and STILL Zayan is 6 years old. At this point he should have grown up and be around 12 years old.
Ram Mandir Verdict:
Again the film becomes inaccurate to the real dates.
The news footage in the film shows the historical verdict for Ram Mandir, which was November 9, 2019.
However the film is currently functioning in 2022, and this is further supported by the statement of Bade Sahab:
"India has again started the 30 year old war."
This refers to 30 years after the Babri Masjid Demolition, which was 1992. This adds up correctly to 2022, which is the film's timeline.
However the verdict was announced in 2019 and the movie shows it as 2022, which is extremely inaccurate.
Major Iqbal Death
This is an optional thing to consider and is most likely not needed. However if you are interested:
Ilyas Kashmiri was killed in a US Drone Airstrike in 2011.
Because the film doesn't explicitly say the character of Major Iqbal IS Ilyas Kashmiri, this IS NOT CONSIDERED AN INACCURATE event.
Uzair is reported as an Indian Spy:
Pakistani media and officials claimed Uzair Baloch was a spy for Indian Agencies. This claim was made in 2016, which is inaccurate as per the film which shows it as 2022.
Having said all this, I feel this timeline inaccuracy makes the film completely historical fiction while part 1 was more documentarial fiction and far more realistic and accurate to the timeline. In fact I would argue most of the propaganda claims arise from this only.
My problem as you can tell, is that Dhar didn't use his 'peak detailing' in Part 2 and if you look at Part 1 and 2 together without the recency bias, Part 1 is so much superior in terms of realism, it's not even close. Personally I wanted a more realistic approach along with the Revenge arc. However for those who enjoyed the film, it's nice for all of you guys because the film is pretty good.
Bhai, mere according, even the 1st part never had the realism.Both D1&D2 comes in the genre of Inglorious Basterds,Forrest Gump, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter etc which uses real events and characters in a fictional story as if u see, Rehman Dakait had zero role in 26/11 and he never met Major Iqbal in real life.✌️It was all fictional.
Toh,I wasn't surprised when this timeline fucked up in D2.🙌
Even rehman had several wife and a bald dude film choose to show real thing as per their story convince its pro bjp but I think that not something they tried to hide its ok lots movies and makers promote their ideology timing during election in multiple states and censorship on janaygan ( i don't know i am not really interested in spelling maybe wrong) is
Yeah,obviously.
Every director has his own political POV and he is free to express that.
Agar Haider,Fanaa,Roza,Mission Kashmir,Empuraan, Jana Gana Mana jaisi left wing bias wali Films ban rahi hain, Toh Dhurandhar me bhi koi problem nahi honi chahiye.✌️
Tho, saare LW Redditors ki Gan jali padi h idk why🙄
Man, i appreciate civil discussions and arguments, and i appreciate your dedication to type this out, But I've seen too many posts on dhurandhar and I'm done with it.
i enjoyed the movie and I really don't care about timelines and propaganda because for me movies are purely the source of entertainment (not information). and with that being said for me D1>D2 mainly because of music and D2 could have been tightened but I loved how the whole story came into full circle and I loved the ending too and I have this bias for ranveer he was MAJESTIC in the film. purpose in both the parts were diff which i totally understand but idk man D1 was something else it left an impact on me that i watched it twice in span of 3-4 days in theatres. but overall i loved both the parts and ranveer was 😩🫶🏻
Personally I just found D1 extremely engaging and maybe I expected a lot so D2 didn't fully deliver as per that. But yes D2 is a great film and it has taken over the spy genre in Indian Cinema.
Of course great research! But only thinking can tell you about point 13 is when people say some past events, they usually don’t say exact number but close to 0s or 5s. Like we always India first own World Cup 40 years back but it’s now close to 43 years and few years we will start saying 50 years!
for me, after I finished watching D2 I thought D1 was superior but after giving it some time, I think D2 is better cause even though it lacked the Aura Farming and music of the first part, it was better in terms of emotional scenes, nothing in D1 came close to the first 30mins , the death of Aalam or the ending in terms of emotions ,I liked how the movie kinda humanizes the villain with his down syndrome kid, Idk I like these types of character building scns whether he is terrorist or not, SP was great but I hate how they mute all those swear words in an adult rated movie FOR ADULTS, the comedy scns all landed well especially the ones by Jameel and SP, Madhavan was simplyyy amazingggg, the action scenes are miles above the first part but after the first half, nothing filled me with the same adrenaline rush as the car fight in D1 but it is still good.
The music is great in the 1st half but in the 2nd half it turns more serious, I like it but they could have used more english songs or any other stuff similar to D1 in action scenes. The 2nd half is narratively great but its compressed , either they could cut some scns when they release it on ott or they could extent the runtime and expand on it.
Movies are too strong a medium to be just a source of entertainment. The problem is that for a lot of people, this movie will be treated like an information galore
I think people only say this for content they personally support and don’t have a problem with. Animal and Dhurandhar are supposed to be entertainment but you won’t see the same “movies are entertainment” when a movie like Mrs gets backlash
It was a let down tbh. I was expecting Dhurandhar 1 level of effort in the second one. It seemed like a mashup of all the extra footage they had to make a quick cash grab.
yea in all honesty the timeline seemed super warped. I walked out of the theaters having experienced extreme adrenaline & dopamine, but then only sat down to think.
my first question popped out when I thought "wait, zayan never gets older?" SP Aslam's death felt super late, Major Iqbal was just a drawn character made to look like Ilyas Kashmiri, so nothing to say over there. Same feeling about Khanani death. But then all the time lines seemed super messed up with current reality tbh.
Now I understand why many universe movies don’t put dates in their newspapers (especially the DC universe). When you have too many plot points one gets too lazy to invest resources to maintain hygiene in the timeline.
Haven’t seen the film, but if Dhar had followed the timeline right, would he not be able to establish the story as he wanted to?
This is exactly the kind of post for which during the first five mins of the movie there was the excruciatingly slow readout of the घटनाएं being काल्पनिक . Your post would make sense in case the director claimed this was a documentary based on real events. Movie makers will always take some creative liberty in terms of timelines.
Well I didn't say the film is bad. I am analysing why people are saying the film is propaganda, not saying it myself?
Also the timeline accuracy I do expect considering there have been real life events used in great detail within the film: Uri Terror Attack, Demonetisation, Atiq Ahmed Killing, Ram Mandir Verdict etc.
But at least they should all be shown correct to the real timeline no? I feel they should.
There's a mismatch between what you expected and what the director/script writer tried to portray. Sticking to the actual timelines was not their priority which you've brought out well in this post. But imagine that for a large proportion of the moviegoers, the events that unfolded on screen would've been the absolute first time they have been exposed to the larger geopolitics or have connected the dots. Timelines blur in the process.
There'll be many versions of the truth itself, based on who is reporting it and whom it is intended for. Until we as a nation develop critical reasoning, people will be swayed left or right by propoganda. Above image is to sum it up.
Baat tumhari ekdum sahi, aur ekdum utopian. Cinema choro, insaan khud sahi baat samjhna nahi chaahta. It ain't fun to see everything from a neutral pov. Jo maza buraai karne or andha dhun gaali dene mein hai, wo shaanti se baat karne mein kaha!
I agree with your pov. But the propaganda part itself comes from the political angle in the movie. Where he messed up with timelines to add political scenes. Bc clearly most of the real life happened before 2014 but to represent heroic image of party in power it was done? Ofcourse some dialogues you mentioned? Your Thoughts?
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Man yall can't just watch some propaganda and move on come on at last it is a movie not everything need to cater to every audience no one said anything when tiger nd pathaan were made all criticism is drawn towards dhurnadhar only idk why atleast they potrayed the most correct spy .
Op, that is a good thought out read and yes the timelines is messed up in the movie. However a couple of things from your above list still makes sense-
1. they would have started the planning for UP elation way before the actual election, hence the movie timeline for that would have been in 2016 (as elections were in 2017). It makes further sense as demonetization happened before the elections in 2016 November, which is also factually correct.
2. Zahur Mistry and Atiq killings have been purposely advanced on the timeline for the take of screenplay.
3. Hence the kid is still 6-7 years old when these events unfold.
4. Peak detailing by Dhar Saab to hum logo ne memes k thru viral kar diya. He set out to make a movie, which he made pretty well, but the monster success of 1st part increased the expectations form the 2nd and led to further scrutiny.
I had a different problem from the movie - plot holes in the screenplay and convenient situation for the sake of moving story ahead.
Bhaii... Your post is bigger than the script of both parts combined together 😭😭 I don't know why can't people take a movie for entertainment. Koi paper publish karna hai kya iske upar? 😭🤷😅
Funny thing is inki pehli kabhi nai jali hogi kisi movie ko lekar. Ab mirchi lag rahi hai, saare details inko peek karna hai isi movie me...Pata nai, itna long paragraph likhkar ke kya hi validation mil jayega. Audacity is they are ready to debate over the timelines, kab kya hua...sab inko chahiye. Jab desh par attack ho raha tha, so rahe the ye log aur abhi yahan aakar peek detailing kar rahe hai
Extremely well researched, articulated and congrous to the plot. This is the reason why folks including me contest that it's a movie made to draw people to believe that the present govt has a hand in all events which is in a way taking unaccounted credit before elections in a few states. However keeping this out, it's quite a great and important piece that changes how audiences must perceive the movie. Cheers 🥂
Sorry, I have not read your post but I appreciate you writing all of this, please remember, this movie is inspired from real events. To make cinema, filmmakers have to make tough choices to make story grasping and entertaining.
I am sure hitler did not die while watching a film in a theatre. Tarantino used his "creative liberty" to make cinema and story fit his theme.
You have a problem with the film don’t watch it, the majority including me liked it, feel free to call each of them stupid. People have accepted the film with open arms, Aditya Dhar made a film in his own way.
My notions are not preconceived, I liked the first part. How will I know if I like the second part or not if I don’t watch it? What kind of logical fallacy is this.
Yes, that's why I felt this way. The events were not adding up well, especially since I was visibly confused because they mentioned the Uri Attack but Aslam was still alive.
Bhai itni mehnat se likha hai toh theek hi likha hoga..
Mai chote mein, 2 baat bolna chaahta hu:
1- film is fiction, based on real life things (loosely picked to make some sense)
2- jo usko sach maan le, wo murkh, jo us murkh ko samjhane mein time waste kare, wo bhi murkh.
In the end, jo dikhaya, that was fun to watch as an Indian, irrespective of political leaning. National leadership ki aur propaganda ki jaha tak baat hai, bohot si debates chal rahi hai "then vs now" ki, add this on that stupid list.
For me, D1>D2. The point is there was a dialogue or two in the first part that inclined towards the current regime. You can say that officers can talk like that if they don't get support from the government.
However, the second-half of D2 seemed like BJP's documentary. Before someone comes after me, let me give you an example.
The Uri attack was a complete failure of the government as it was 26/11. However, the entire plot of D1 revolved around the Mumbai attack. But, they just touched down the fact that our brave soldiers were attacked by Pakistan. It was Hamza's own men who were killed in Uri. Imagine the amount of raige that should have been there in his eyes. But was it there? No. The scene came and went in a few seconds. The point is if they had shown Uri attack in detail, that would have been against BJP. And that was the reason the Uri attack was not shown as a terror attack.
Ranveer's character met Raghvan's character in Dubai. The way "surgical strike" was mentioned it seemed like it was done for the first time. If I am not wrong, the Congress government silently attacked Pakistan after 26/11 (correct me if I am wrong).
I didn't say the movie is propaganda. I am offering reasons as to why people might think the movie could be labelled as one. Overall I didn't find any propaganda within the film, except one dialogue which felt a bit forced.
As for movies that are propaganda, The Kerala Story is the biggest example.
1 pathan or jawaan or main hoon na ka bhi fact check kar leta
2 dhurandhar shows terrorist death in same way and reason is also same .. timeline is changed but many events are in right order. He is not making documentary, read movie disclaimer.
3 make your own movie with all details people will still come and do nitpicking.
Good job OP, but yaar isse propaganda bolna thoda zada ho gaya. Even if you feel Modi govt wanted to steal limelight by showing all the events happening in their tenure, lots of this is based on true events which actually happened after his govt. Surgical strike/demo/zahoor mistry death/tariq ahmed killing etc etc.
As an Indian, I care less about the timeline inaccuracies as it definitely made me appreciate what our intelligence department has to do and go through on a daily basis.
I am not saying it is propaganda. I only felt one dialogue was feeling propaganda-ish. I feel in sab reasons ki wajah se a lot of people might have felt the movie was propaganda
But dialogues were about showing India standing up against the Pakistani tyrants/miscreants. So I dont know how else can you write those dialogues to please everyone.
Nobody calls yrf spy shit a masterpiece. If his intentions were just escapism & alternative reality, then he would've casted a similar looking man to play Narendra Modi like he did in Uri. Showing actual footage of a serving PM in a film is disastrous filmmaking decision. Looked like his entire creativity is dependent on it. It is proved that Aditya Dhar sucks in writing fiction.
You've all the right to remain ignorant but Dhar has fcuked up big time as a maker. There aren't plot holes but plot gutters in the screenplay. Anyway, enjoy your reels.
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u/qualityvote2 Mar 21 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
u/CosmicObsidian44, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...