Dunki is a Hindi-language comedy-drama film written and directed by Rajkumar Hirani. The film has Shah Rukh Khan & Taapsee Pannu in lead roles while Vicky Kaushal, Dia Mirza, Taapsee Pannu, Boman Irani, Satish Shah, Vikram Kochhar, Anil Grover, Jyoti Subhash & others are seen playing important characters. The music is composed by Pritam and the film is produced by Gauri Khan, Rajkumar Hirani & Jyoti Deshpande under Jio Studios, Rajkumar Hirani Films & Red Chillies Entertainment banners.
Story:
Four friends- Manu (Taapsee), Bali (Anil Grover), Buggu Lakhanpal (Vikram Kochhar), and Sukhi (Vicky Kaushal), hailing from Laltu, Punjab, dream to go to England. But neither do they have tickets nor any approved visas. Their lives change when a soldier (Shah Rukh Khan) arrives one day and promises to take them to their dreamland illegally without any visa. Together, they set out on a perilous journey that tests their courage and ideologies. What happens later? Will they reach England? Needs to be seen in the film.
What about on-screen performances?
Shah Rukh Khan is exceptional as Hardy. He gets back to the comedy genre after 2 big-budget action films in the form of ‘Pathaan’ & ‘Jawan’ and his comedy timing is on point. It is truly refreshing to see him in a light-hearted role like this and he shows his class in the court scenes.
Vicky Kaushal as Sukhi is terrific in his important supporting role. He nails his English monologue in the classroom scene and is too good in all the emotional scenes as well.
Taapsee Pannu gets a meaty role in the movie on par with Shah Rukh and she does a pretty decent job in her part as Manu. But the biggest issue is that her chemistry with Shah Rukh Khan never clicks as expected and the old age get up of her never suits her personality.
Anil Grover and Vikram Kochhar are excellent in their roles as Bali and Buggu respectively. They do well in their comedy portions too.
Boman Irani is fairly good in his key supporting role as the English teacher. But his portions are not so funny.
The rest of the supporting cast are fine in their limited supporting roles.
What about off-screen talents?
The story by Raj Kumar Hirani is fresh and has an interesting concept of migrants crossing the national borders in an illegal way which is called Dunki. Apart from this concept, there is nothing much to talk about the writing in the film as it is told in a not-so-engaging manner.
The first half is dull with a few funny scenes here & there. The interval too is very ordinary while the second half also works in parts only. The underwater sequence doesn’t work as expected but the rest of the Dunki scenes and the scenes in England are interesting. The climax looks a bit unnecessarily dragged out.
The screenplay by Abhijat Joshi, Raj Kumar Hirani & Kanika Dhillon is not up to the mark. The humor in the film is good in parts, but the biggest drawback of the film is that the strong emotions which used to be the key strength of Rajkumar Hirani’s films are missing big time in Dunki.
Director Raj Kumar Hirani is just about passable with his presentation. With the kind of work he had done in the past, it is bound to be that the expectations on this film will be high but he failed to live up to them. His trademark writing is definitely missing in this film and his execution lacked consistency too.
The cinematography by Muraleedharan C. K , Amit Roy, Manush Nandan & Kumar Pankaj is superb. They all do a fair job of capturing the film neatly.
The edit by Raj Kumar Hirani himself needed to be a bit more crisper, especially towards the end portions.
The songs by Pritam and the background score by Aman Pant are fine as they go in flow with the narrative. But the film needed more in the music department as it lacks blockbuster audio for sure.
The VFX works are a bit off track and looked odd in a few scenes and the old age makeup for all the lead actors is poorly done.
The production values by Jio Studios, Rajkumar Hirani Films & Red Chillies Entertainment are first-rate.
What’s Hot?
* Shah Rukh Khan’s Performance
* Vicky Kaushal’s Performance
* Funny Visa Interview Episodes
* England Sequences In The Second Half
What’s Not?
* Lacks Engaging Drama
* Flat Humour
* Ordinary First Half
* Weak Chemistry Between Leads
* Dragged Out Climax Portions
* Poor Make Up For For The Old Aged Roles
Verdict: Dunki delivers a social message in a light-hearted manner like in all Raj Kumar Hirani films but this is definitely not the best film of his in his entire career till date. Except for having a good theme and some decent comedy here & there, the film lacks most of the things one expects from a Raj Kumar Hirani-Shah Rukh Khan combination film.
Telugubulletin.com Rating: 2.25/5