A Thriller in the Middle of a Cultural storm.

Dhurandhar movie is controversial throughout India as viewers, critics, and politicians have conflicting ideologies on the themes and the intention of the Dhurandhar film. The film is centred around an Indian counter-terrorism operation on a Lyari neighbourhood, in Karachi, where militancy and cross-border tensions serve as the backdrop to narrate a high-octane national security story. To its proponents, this assumption is timely and even essential as it puts on screen actual anxieties about terrorism and the threats to security agencies. To the critics, however, the same narrative selections make the movie into a lightning rod, warning of the ways in which Muslims, Pakistan and the notion of patriotism are being put on screen.

Allegations of Ideological Propaganda.

One of the biggest controversies is that Dhurandhar is a BJP-RSS cultural project. Opponents complain that its portrayal is too close to its nationalist tropes: patriotic Indian agents, dark forms of Islamism and a hostile Pakistani atmosphere which is simply irredeemably violent. To them, this framing creates a thin line between extremist groups and ordinary Muslims and it is easy to absorb unnecessary stereotypes among the viewers. They are concerned that, in an already tense climate of communication, such representations would minimise the amount of prejudice and advance a single ideological voice as the truth.

The Defence of Realism and Craft.

This interpretation is highly unpopular among the supporters of the film. They call Dhurandhar a bone-throbbing, real-life thriller based on genuine inquiries, intercepted schemes, and published data concerning the terror circles. On their part, the movie is not aimed at a group of people, but it is a dramatisation of the ugly reality of counter-terror operations, including the psychological cost of the operation on the officers. They cite instances where there is internal conflict in the security establishment and that everyone is morally ambiguous to demonstrate the fact that the script is not as black and white as its opponents would want people to believe. To such viewers, describing the film as propaganda is tantamount to the act of silencing information that discusses the weakness of India to extremists violence.

Culture War, Trolling and Polarised Debate.

The controversy over Dhurandhar has soon evolved into a larger culture war on the issue of artistic liberty and social responsibility. Critics who interpreted the politics of the film include intense trolling, organized down-rating campaigns and allegations of being an anti-nationalist. Other users of social-media who point out problematic representation claim that they are labeled as apologists of terrorism. Rather than create a thought-provoking debate on the ways in which cinema approaches the topic of religion, nationalism and violence, the debate has now become polarised into either of the two camps which require a person to follow one narrative or the other.

What the Controversy tells us about Indian Cinema.

Dhurandhar is more than just a movie in this environment; it is an image of the battled Indian popular culture. All the creative decisions, such as casting, dialogue, setting all of them, are viewed through the ideological prism. The scandal demonstrates how tricky it now becomes when mainstream film industry has to approach themes such as terrorism without being instantly categorized as either a patriotic action film or an issue film. The response to Dhurandhar may be that in an intensely polarized popular culture, the room to tell increasingly multi-layered, ethically ambiguous stories is becoming smaller, and movies are becoming seen as the field in which bigger political and cultural struggles need to be waged.