Hirani-SRK dream team loses steam

Parbina Rashid

Whatever happened to Hirani? How could a dream collaboration with King Khan on a subject this serious (illegal migration) go wrong? Have we not seen a more poignant portrayal of the issue in Ammy Virk-starrer ‘Aaja Mexico Challiye’?

Questions, questions! Rajkumar Hirani films are known for raising pertinent questions but the questions that crowded my mind as I left the theatre after watching ‘Dunki’ didn’t toe the same line.

If fans of Shah Rukh Khan were expecting a hattrick after ‘Pathaan’ and ‘Jawan’, the only hattrick they would get is that he plays a soldier for the third time! An upright, proud soldier, who after taking the donkey route to London chides the judge who advises him to seek asylum to avoid deportation!

The film opens in a fictional town Laltu in Punjab, where we meet Manu (Taapsee Pannu), Buggu (Vikram Kochhar) and Balli (Anil Grover) trying to migrate to London. Manu has a mission — to recover her kothi from a loan shark, others are ditched by girlfriend/perspective bride in favour of NRI grooms. They prepare for IELTS in a coaching centre run by Geetu Gulati (Boman Irani). Enters Hardy aka Hardyal Singh Dhillon (Shah Rukh) from Pathankot and he seamlessly integrates into the group, bringing in a romantic angle with Mannu. We also meet Sukhi (Vicky Kaushal), who is desperate for a London visa to rescue his love from her abusive husband.

The first half goes on whipping up the Punjabi brand of humour, some crass, some delightful. Sample this. Buggu is trying to dress up a woman. The woman, who weighs heavy on the scale, asks for a smaller size. He responds by saying, ‘Do you want to wear it on your finger?’ He gets thrown out of the shop, but the crassness lingers. This humour phase goes on for so long that it is difficult to gauge the seriousness of the core issue the film deals with — a ‘donkey maaro’ to London and subsequently, a reverse donkey to India. Sukhi’s self-immolation after failing IELTS ignites the need for the expedition.

As the trio takes the route through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, Hirani captures the hardships they face. He adds two action scenes, one underwater walking scene in Pakistan with a soldier from a watch tower firing at them indiscriminately, and the other, a run-off with the Iranian army. The scenes are so sporadic and detached from the general tone of the narrative that they fail to make an impact. In fact, nothing much about the film leaves an impact. Neither the characters, nor their cause or the hardships they go through. No, I am not being insensitive. Their families, too, do not feel much about their wards. No angst-ridden family members waiting for the message confirming their safe arrival!

Even the heavy dialogues fail to warm me up to the characters. One such dialogue is — ‘The air, water, the birds are free to flow anywhere, so why are human beings bound by boundaries?’ That’s contradictory as SRK plays a soldier who safeguards the boundary of his mulk! There is another one, ‘Why are we required to take the English language test; did the British take such a test when they came to India and ruled us?’ Sounds grand but defies logic.

One character that stays on is Sukhi. Vicky stands out in his 10-minute cameo. Taapsee is good but the wafer-thin screenplay pulls her down too. We see her first at a London hospital, with a drip attached. She manages to hoodwink a cleaner and run away with drips and all, and heads straight to her immigration agent to demand a visa to India. Later, we come to know she has a brain tumour and has just one month to live. Hence, the reverse donkey route. Hardy once again comes to the rescue.

Shah Rukh does his best to keep the story afloat with his charm, but the layers of makeup he has to wear to play Hardy’s younger version is too distracting. Even the peppy ‘Lutt Putt Gaya’ can’t do much for him. Hirani could present a 45-year-old star as a student in ‘3 Idiots’, but it’s not working anymore. SRK looks jaded.

In a recent interview, SRK said that after making films (‘Jawan’ and ‘Pathaan’) for boys and girls, now he has made ‘Dunki’ for himself. He has all the right to do so. Only if he kept it stored in his archive!