Dhaakad Review: Flawed & Outdated!

The spy-action-drama genre is well spread across the history of Global Cinema, starting from Fritz Lang’s 1928 film, Spione, which led to quite a few successsors like the James Bond and Mission: Impossible franchises, to Notorious (1946) by Hitchcock, the notion of spy dramas evolved over the years. In Indian Cinema, we witnessed films from this genre, but none of them featured a woman as the primary character. Naam Shabana with Taapsee Pannu, a spin-off film from Baby (2015), is more of a diluted and lukewarm attempt with more thrills than action.

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So basically, Dhaakad is Bollywood’s first-ever spy action drama led by a woman in Kangana Ranaut, and that will only be the legacy of this movie. It tells the story of Agni (Ranaut), a fearless undercover agent who is on an assignment to find, Rudraveer (Arjun Rampal) and Rohini (Divya Dutta), and the remainder of the film explains why and how she agreed to do this mission and so on. The usual.

The story of Dhaakad is totally shambolic, and the screenplay runs on a league of it’s own. The worst is you will have no clue about what’s going on-screen and very tiring to comprehend. Writers Razneesh Ghai, Chintan Gandhi, and Rinish Ravindra should have never into production with this messy script as they are several loopholes from beginning to the end.

Moving on to the performances, Kangana Ranaut, on a positive note, is indeed Dhaakad as Agent Agni. She adorns quite a few looks in the film and blends in flawlessly in every one of them. The sex appeal, costumes, attitude, etc come off superbly except for her accent. Arjun Rampal starts on a high note but fails to keep the momentum rolling in the long run. His partner, Divya Dutta, was decent but fails to leave an impact.

However, the action in Dhaakad is noteworthy, entertaining, and a visual feast to watch on the big screen. The action choreographers are the main MVPs of this film as every action sequences, from the pacy hand-to-hand combats to gun firings and explosive scenes, are amazing to watch from start to finish.

Dhaakad could have been a decent movie, but the mediocre writing, Razy Ghai’s flawed vision and execution and the outdated theories forced into a 2022 Bollywood film that was shot across multiple scenic locations comes off amateur. Overall, this Kangana Ranaut starrer fails to impress, and is a rare film where the stunt department leave with all the cred and applause compared to remainder of the cast and crew.

‘Dhaakad’ Rating – 1.5/5

Review by @samthebestest_
Edited by Surya Komal