STORY
Dunki is about a group of friends who decide to move to London through illegal immigration technique which is called “Dunki” in Punjabi. This is the first collaboration of Rajkumar Hirani and Shah Rukh Khan.
REVIEW
I liked the idea about making a film on the ‘Donkey Flight’ method. But unfortunately, Raju’s comical aesthetics have lost the quality as well as the writing. Dunki has a library of plot-holes. There were many comic scenes that could have created a laugh riot but collapsed due to ordinary use of humor.
From start until the end, there is no directional impact in the screenplay. Absolutely senseless! Just look at those 9 minutes of IELTS exam scenes. Five visibly awful duffers trying to pass the speaking test with more than half of the time speaking in the native language.
The classroom scenes were mockery. The dramatizing and comedy were not even half funny if I consider it some Z-grade parody of “Zaban Sambhal Ke“, forget about “Mind Your Language“. The courtroom scene of Hardy addressing and begging to let him stay also was a brain fart. When will Bollywood realize that the judges of the foreign country do not sympathetically and sentimentally listen to the Hindi addresses of the accused? And why was the bridegroom running away from Hardy by climbing the chairs?
THREE IDIOTS AGAIN?
I felt if Raju was revising his 3 Idiots script the whole time. A few scenes had the same vibe. Just for example, Hardy’s race interrupts due to Manu’s call just like Farhan interrupts the flight by a call. Friends reunite to fly and meet Hardy just like those three idiots travel to meet Rancho. Both films have more than half of the script in the flashbacks. Friends heavily drunk try to break in someone’s home, three idiots also try to break into a house. The very next day, friends in the class are still not sober just like three idiots were. Only one succeeds in the exam and the others feel gutted. Oh wait! one of the friends even committed suicide.
TWENTY MINUTES OF DUNKI
Even action sequences were pointless. How come the shooter allowed Hardy to assist Manu walk inside the tent? In a caravan of Dunki movers, three of them are killed in the encounter. That was one of the defining moments in the film but due to lack of growth in those three characters and terrible dramatizing of the entire sequence, Raju badly missed giving a genuine feel to the film buffs about how a painful tale of immigration meets a heartbreaking conclusion.
Crossing the border by swimming was bizarre. Making a mockery of such intensity by showing how dumb the night watchman is. He neither alert to the border control about his suspicion nor did he stood after switching the light off. And no one inside the water got hit or killed by the round of bullets?
If you realize, this entire immigration that was shot for only twenty minutes of the screen time badly demanded at least half of the film’s length. After all, the film is about Dunki. The value of immigration decreased due to extremely less dramatizing. In fact, the journey was swiftly covered in the songs.
DUNKI DO NUTS
Shah Rukh Khan… Naseeruddin Shah once quoted his teacher and this is one of my favorite lines. “Your talent lies in your choices”. The biggest delusion about the phenomenom of Shah Rukh is that he is King Khan because of his acting. Nope. He is King Khan because he is the greatest superstar since Amitabh Bachchan. And the star power comes from entertaining, not from acting. Both are separate classes. And this is exactly why he chooses entertaining people but not prefer doing character roles in quality films. Dunki is just another example of that side of talent.
In this film, you will realize that Vicky Kaushal was all over Shah Rukh if you take the case of his being drunk on the ceiling and when he humiliates the teacher.
CLOSING REMARKS
Let me be very frank about the film. Dunki is a cinematic disaster. The titanic that will not hit the iceberg because of Shah Rukh Khan. If this garbage was to be carried by Akshay Kumar, Ranbir Kapoor, or Ranveer Singh, you would see the authentic figures of the box-office results. If I was the producer, I would have offered this project to Shoojit Sircar after my experience with Sardar Udham.
A potential story butchered by terrible direction, screenplay, dialogues, and forced lame comedy. Overall, an outrageous execution.
You know what are the only two pluses that I really liked in the film? One was Vicky Kaushal’s performance and the accurate picturising of the Africans hiding the illegals inside the car.
RATING 2/10
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Sami Naik | Film Critic 