NEW DELHI (The Thursday Times) — Indian Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has said Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar spy films are full of propaganda and “some of the most disgusting scenes ever seen in Indian cinema”, though he praised their filmmaking and performances.
In a nearly seven-minute video review posted on his YouTube channel and Instagram, Tharoor said: “Things that I don’t like; there is far too much gruesome violence. It was totally excessive and over the top. There was no need to show so much violence, blood and mayhem, cruelty.”
‘Bad blood’
“There is a lot of propaganda stuff built into it obviously, and I gather the film has been banned in many countries, not just in Pakistan, but many of the Gulf countries have banned it, saying it would needlessly create bad blood between Indians and Pakistanis, so I can understand those feelings,” he said.
He wondered how Pakistani audiences would react. “Some of the lines, I think Pakistanis will laugh. Some of the other things, I think Pakistanis will realise how much wrong has been done in their name.”
Directed by Aditya Dhar, the films follow an Indian undercover agent, played by Singh, who infiltrates Karachi’s criminal gangs and political circles to dismantle a terror network. The first film came out in December 2025, and its sequel, Dhurandhar: The Revenge, in March. Tharoor said the sequel was the better film.
‘Not the world I have lived in’
The former diplomat contrasted the films’ covert operations with his own dealings with Indian intelligence. “I have dealt with a lot of our intelligence people but in a very civilised way,” he said. “I am certainly not aware of commands being given that lead to explosions in faraway capitals. That’s not the world I have ever lived in.”
He also cautioned against reading too much into R Madhavan’s spymaster character, widely seen as modelled on National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. “I think it would be too much of a stretch to assume that’s true,” he said. “So I would see this as a fictional film that tells a story which obviously is meant to impart a certain sense of lessons as well.”∎
