#dadi ki kasam khane ke baad bhi nahi sudhra ye

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A long (spoilers included) review of Dunki.

Because I think I should just write it all out.

Starts with classic Hirani flavour. A main character on a wheelchair plotting an escape. And they succeed. Mannu runs away to meet her lawyer to ask about her visa condition. The answer is negative but she's desperate to be back home now. So comes the names of Hardy, a guy who she hasn't met in 25 years now.

Cue Hardayal Singh Dhillon, in all his greys and old age cramps running a race and also winning it but well a call from Mannu, who cares about a damn race. He answers no I'm not coming to get you and she smiles saying 'kand' ho gaya hai. And how can the 'Banda' refuse.

This was the introduction of a tale so simple, yet so real. Why do people leave their homes? The homes even with the poverty still has the warmth and love. But what could be more glaring than poverty for unemployed youth. Sometimes it's heartbreaking love, a love so powerful that people decide to end themselves instead of trying to survive through. That's Sukhi and Jassi's subplot, which only propels Hardy to decide on the donkey route, a decision that'll change all their lives forever.

And so starts the dunki, shown very aesthetically if I might say the horrors and the dangers. But you know your leads survive so you hold on. They wade underwater, scared and tired. They hide in freezers, cold. They walk through the desert among skeletons and evilness. Mannu has a cathartic experience here. And you wonder what exactly is the point of going through all this trouble without any guarantee. But they manage to reach their destination.

And now awaits another horror. Immigrants are looked down upon. They aren't humans in the eye of the citizens and don't get the dignity to live like humans either. Toiling through odd jobs, sending fake pictures to assure their families and to give them a better life is their only cause now. But Hardy doesn't have any of that. He's there for Mannu, so he starts the point of going back. But necessity is larger than lives for some people.

So they get caught and the rest seek asylum but Hardy can't lie, won't lie that it was his country that's unsafe for him. So he's sent back.

Fascinatingly dark that deported people get to travel safely back to the places they tried so hard to escape. It's along the same line as punishing people attempting suicide. This helps no-one.

Anyway 25 years pass offscreen. We get to know in passing that the families back home are doing well enough but our 3 asylum seekers are not getting the visa to return home. But trust Hardy, he can do it.

And Hardy does, with a bit of cunning and so much old man charm, the old man does it for his Mannu. But Mannu is dying. And ah well. What beats a tragic love story.

What beats a movie with so much heart and love and pain underlying the humour and constant laughter.

You just end up sitting a bit longer in the theatre and hoping to gather your thoughts because there's so much and yet there's this numbness. Is it because you saw the best movie, maybe. There's no best movie as per me honestly. Is it because this topic is way too real but so far from your reality that it shocks you a bit more. Is it because you love the man frontlining these moving images and you can see no fault.

Honestly I don't even want to conclude. If I could I would like to hug Sukhi right after the phone call, and Hardy after the court and at the terrace. But I'm guessing Hardy will be fine. Wo sambhal lega apne ko. Mannu I hope you had happy moments, even if they were the bare minimum.

#dunki #long review or just me trying to explain to myself some stuff #who cares #Rajkumar Hirani #this might be his most honest film #srk #shah rukh khan #man keeps outdoing himself #tapsee pannu #my heart beats for Mannu #vicky kaushal #sukhi I just want to hug you #anil grover #that one scene of him crying in desperation #vikram kocher #dadi ki kasam khane ke baad bhi nahi sudhra ye