Dhurandhar: The Revenge (2026): Ranveer Singh’s Spy Saga Demands Your Attention
In the blood-soaked streets of Lyari, a man who was once a RAW agent has become something far more terrifying, the head of a dead gangster’s empire. Aditya Dhar’s follow-up to his 2025 original arrives at nearly four hours, asking whether a patriot who bleeds for his country can still recognize himself in the mirror.
Ranveer Singh As Hamza Ali Mazari Is Genuinely Unnerving This Time
Ranveer Singh plays Hamza Ali Mazari, an undercover RAW operative now commanding Rehman Dakait’s gang from within. The role demands contradictions, loyalty and brutality existing in the same body, and Ranveer leans into that discomfort without flinching.
I’ve rarely seen him this restrained and this dangerous simultaneously. There’s a coldness to his work here that his earlier career rarely allowed.
Aditya Dhar Builds A World But Loses His Watch
Dhar’s greatest strength is his belief in geography. Lyari isn’t a backdrop here, it’s a pressure cooker with its own logic, hierarchy, and violence. He understands how power moves through criminal networks, and that political intelligence shapes every scene he directs well.
The specific flaw is the runtime. At 235 minutes, the film tests patience in ways no thriller should. Several mid-sections feel like Dhar trusts his world more than his audience’s endurance.
The Action In Lyari’s Streets Is Brutal, But The Film Earns Some Of It
The action here is grounded in territory logic. Rival gang confrontations feel less like choreographed sequences and more like desperate, ugly skirmishes where geography determines survival. The Lyari setting forces the action to breathe through narrow lanes and contested turf.
The film’s central conflict, Hamza cornered by rival gangs, corrupt officials, and Major Iqbal while hunting Bade Sahab, gives the setpieces genuine stakes. Violence isn’t spectacle here. It has consequences that ripple forward into character decisions.
The weakest action beats arrive when the thriller logic gives way to pure spectacle without emotional grounding. Those moments feel disconnected from the personal war the film otherwise builds carefully.
If you enjoy meticulously crafted Hindi action thrillers that prioritize narrative tension, there’s a range of Hindi Crime reviews worth exploring further.
Major Iqbal As Antagonist Has Weight, But Needs More Screen Architecture
Major Iqbal functions as the film’s most formidable human obstacle, a corrupt official operating within a system that protects him. The character carries institutional menace, which is more interesting than a straightforward villain. The problem is the film never gives Iqbal a scene that fully defines his limits or motivations beyond obstruction.
The absence of Rehman Dakait, dead before this chapter begins, hangs over the film in ways the screenplay only partially addresses. His ghost shapes Hamza’s authority without the film ever fully reckoning with that inheritance.
The Propaganda Question Follows This Film Like A Shadow
Dhurandhar: The Revenge has attracted the label of propaganda, and it’s a charge worth examining rather than dismissing. Films that center RAW operations in Pakistan, frame the enemy through a single national lens, and celebrate undercover patriotism operate within a specific ideological register. Whether that constitutes propaganda or patriotic genre filmmaking is a distinction audiences and critics will argue loudly.
What complicates the conversation is the film’s own central theme, a spy whose mission blurs the line between patriot and monster. That self-awareness suggests Dhar is at least asking the harder question, even if the spectacle occasionally drowns out the answer.
The film’s reception will likely split hard along those lines, with mass audiences responding to the action architecture and critical voices pushing back on the political framing.
Dhurandhar: The Revenge is the kind of film that demands a large screen, sustained patience, and a tolerance for moral ambiguity dressed in action-thriller clothing. If the runtime doesn’t scare you and Ranveer Singh in full cold-fury mode sounds compelling, this is worth the commitment in a theatre where the sound design can do its work. If you came for clean heroism and a tidy resolution, this sequel will frustrate you deliberately.
Dhurandhar: The Revenge earns a cautious 3 out of 5, Ranveer Singh and Aditya Dhar’s ambitions are real, but a film this long needs tighter discipline to match its nerve.
Ankit Jaiswal is the Chief Author, covering Indian cinema and OTT releases with honest, no-filler criticism. An SEO strategist by background, he brings a research-driven approach to film writing, cutting through hype to tell you exactly what's worth your time.