2 Stars (out of 4)

Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani’s Dunki addresses the inhumanity of nationwide borders and immigration insurance policies that disproportionately punish the poor. In typical Hirani trend, he makes use of humor to make the issue relatable, however the grim, visceral center part of the story feels misplaced.

Dunki begins with the identical framing system Hirani utilized in 3 Idiots: three long-time buddies got down to meet one other good friend they haven’t seen for a few years. This time, the motion begins in 2020 in London, as a grey-haired girl named Manu (Taapsee Pannu in outdated girl make-up) breaks out from the hospital. She holds her IV bag aloft as she navigates public transit in her hospital robe, a sequence that makes for excellent visible humor. Pannu is the movie’s standout comedian performer.

Manu meets her buddies Buggu (Vikram Kochhar) and Balli (Anil Grover), who’re as keen as she is to return to their Punjabi hometown. However visas are tough to return by, in order that they determine to contact the good friend who helped them get out of India 25 years in the past — Hardy (Shah Rukh Khan).

The motion flashes again to 1995, when Buggu, Balli, and Manu hoped to resolve their households’ monetary issues by working in England. A thriving visa-fraud trade on the town guarantees to assist these with out abilities or cash to migrate by dishonest means. Hardy arrives on the town to repay a debt to Manu’s lately deceased brother and stays to assist her.

The 4 enroll in an English language class of doubtful reputation led by Geetu (Boman Irani, who additionally performed an educator in 3 Idiots). Vicky Kaushal has a prolonged cameo as a fellow scholar named Sukhi. There’s an prolonged comedy bit as the scholars suppose they’ve discovered a sneaky option to go their official English exams with out actually studying a lot English. A few of it’s fairly humorous, however like lots of the bits in Dunki, it’s longer than it must be.

When standard and unconventional strategies fail to get them visas, Geetu proposes a 3rd choice: the dunki (“donkey”) technique. This entails paying brokers to smuggle them over land into Turkey, then by way of delivery container throughout the ocean to England. It’s unlawful, costly, and harmful, nevertheless it’s their solely choice. Hardy joins them, hoping the talents he realized as a soldier will assist them survive the journey.

That is the place the movie’s comedian tone shifts to one thing darker. There are some grotesque deaths and an tried sexual assault that make what had been a family-friendly film into one requiring parental discretion. It looks as if an try to do justice to the very actual horrors confronted by these migrating illegally, however the change is abrupt.

Whereas Hirani deserves credit score for shining a light-weight on this international justice situation, his fictional narrative leaves one thing to be desired. The characters are vague and forgettable, and many years of their expertise are absent from the story. The viewers is barely imagined to care about what the characters undergo, not who they’re, so Hirani doesn’t develop them as people.

That is Shah Rukh Khan’s first movie with Hirani, who will get a traditional efficiency out of the star. The movie’s lone dance quantity “Lutt Putt Gaya” is pleasurable, though it will’ve been enjoyable if Pannu performed extra of a component in it. Khan’s different 2023 releases had been motion thrillers, so this was a pleasant change of tempo. It’s simply too unhealthy Dunki‘s screenplay wasn’t as much as snuff.

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