“Many opinions, just as many paths”
- Ramakrishna
“And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate”
- Taylor Swift
The Aditya Dhar-directed Dhurandhar's four-minute trailer, promising a cross between an Indian spy film and a Pakistani gangster drama, begins with an incendiary scene of a Pakistani army major brutally torturing a man—while adding that this is what he wishes to do to India, bleed it by a thousand cuts. Expectedly, the trailer has drawn both praise and ire.
Caught in the middle, however, are aesthetes, having to reconcile a film's low-grade politics with high-end craft. Earlier in November, the re-release of Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se.. reignited chatter over how Amar (Shah Rukh Khan) is a stalker and sex pest. Many on X wondered if such a film would be made today–not just because of Amar’s creepy insanity but also since the film is critical of the Indian nation state.
Malayali horror maverick Rahul Sadasivan’s latest Diés Iraé was also in theatres at the time. The film follows a wealthy playboy haunted by the ghost of presumably an ex he ghosted. Sadasivan’s previous, the acclaimed Bramayugam, was also a Gothic tale but dominantly spun around Hindu mythology.