A Bollywood Spy Thriller Crosses the India-Pakistan Divide
Set against decades of violence, Dhurandhar has topped Netflix charts on both sides of the border — even as it fuels a debate about nationalism and propaganda.
Blending fact and fiction from a decade of violence that shaped South Asia, spy thriller Dhurandhar is a blockbuster hit in both India and Pakistan.
Source: Jio Studios
Dressed in a sharp black suit, gang leader Rehman Dakait swaggers onto a makeshift stage, leans into the microphone and addresses a rally. “Assalamualaikum, Lyari,” he says, as firecrackers explode and dust fills the air. In the packed Mumbai cinema hall, audiences erupt in whistles and cheers.
The rally scene, now a viral hit on social media, is from Dhurandhar, a spy thriller set between New Delhi and Karachi, Pakistan, that has become the highest-grossing Hindi-language film of all time. It follows an Indian intelligence officer who infiltrates the criminal underworld in Lyari, a portside neighborhood of Karachi associated with gang violence, to dismantle a cross-border terrorist network.