Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma can’t stop praising Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar. In his tenth post on X about the film, Varma has now gone ahead to compare Aditya with The Godfather (1972) director Francis Ford Coppola and The Foutaninhead (1943) book writer Ayn Rand.
In a post titled “From COPPOLA to ADITYA DHAR,” RGV wrote, “A directors growth not only from what he learnt from previous directors who came before him , but also from directors who came after him ..In that context here are my new learnings from Aditya Dhar’s DURANDHAR.”
“From Coppola I learnt intense closeted drama , which I tried to emulate in Satya, Company, Sarkar etc. But now Dhurandhar shows that approach can work far more effectively with scale. Writing scenes assuming the audience will feel even before they understand is a new one,” he added.
Varma also went on to state that whereas, in his films, he never “elevated” the heroes, Dhurandhar offers a new “flawed” but “consequence-driven” protagonists. “Bhiku Mhatre was terrific inspite of not being celebrated and Amitabh Bachchan worked in Sarkar without a single slow motion shot But Dhurandhar invents a never before seen or experienced new kind of elevation in creating flawed but consequence driven heroes,” he wrote. “Making a star disappear into the story is a new one.”
RGV also appreciated Dhurandhar’s approach to violence, “Another lesson is that violence should hurt the viewer ,not just entertain them and so to design action as an organic and emotional projection rather than loud illogical choreography is a new one , a must learn lesson ,especially for the pan india film makers,” he wrote.
“I never believed in the so called three act structure but Dhurandhar extends that belief to almost a breaking point that even uneven and fractured narratives can command attention. The ingredients of Dhurandhar can push stories to be abrupt, unresolved, sometimes even unfair. Also It breaks away from the cliche of tying knots just for the sake of untying them,” he added.
He also went on to talk about the film’s use of music. “My use of sound created dread without visual excess , but Dhurandhar showed that sound and music in a strange mating ritual can become the lead psychological forces even more powerful than dialogue and visual.”
And finally, RGV concluded by saying, “I once assumed it was intelligence , but later on my intention to deliberately keep on provoking replaced the honesty in me and In sharp contrast to that, Dhurandhar respects the audience without explaining anything I was always anti trend and confronted it , but mostly for the sake of shock value , whereas Dhurandhar doesn’t chase validation because it announces a higher purpose. I always believed that scale should be shown internally and not as a bloated display , but Dhurandhar proves that scale can coexist with restraint in order to create a symphony of previously unfelt emotions My final learning is that i don’t need to grow by myself , but i need to catch up with what others have become Hey @AdityaDharFilms ,thank you for becoming the new Ayn Rand of my life “ Art is not what it is .. Art is what it could be“ —- AYN RAND.”
Despite mounting praise by many in the industry, many critics have called Dhurandhar a propaganda film which, although tactfully made, peddles a divisive ideology.