Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has showered extraordinary praise on Dhurandhar, hailing Aditya Dhar’s ambitious film as a game-changer. He said it goes beyond
being just a film and represents a quantum leap in Indian cinema. He added that Dhar has has single-handedly transformed the future of Indian cinema across both the Hindi and South film industries. Ram Gopal Varma Reviews Dhurandhar An excerpt of his review read, "What Dhurandhar achieves is not just scale, but a never-before-experienced vision not just in sight but in the mind. Aditya Dhar doesn’t direct scenes here… he engineers the states of minds of both the characters and us audience. The film doesn’t ask for your attention... it commands it. From the very first shot, there’s a sense that something irreversible has been set in motion, and the audience is no longer a spectator but an accomplice to the happenings on screen." RGV said that the film refuses to play safe, with sharp writing, menacing staging and silences that are as powerful as its loud sound design. He added that the performances are meant to stay with the audience rather than seek approval, with characters carrying unspoken histories that viewers are trusted to decode. He noted that Dhar treats the audience as intelligent, which has been missing in much of contemporary cinema. "Technically, the film redraws the grammar of mainstream Indian cinema. The sound design doesn’t decorate scenes, it stalks them. The camera doesn’t observe but it circles it like a predator. Action here isn’t choreography for applause. It’s perspectively justified and extremely ugly, the way real violence should feel," added the Satya director. ALSO READ: Dhurandhar: When Sound Becomes Strategy - How Aditya Dhar Weaponises Music As Narrative Power In Ranveer Singh Film He further said that Dhurandhar doesn't seek validation. "It is a solemn declaration, that Indian cinema doesn’t need to dilute itself to become successful and doesn’t need to mindlessly copy Hollywood. Dhar proved that it can be rooted and still be internationally cinematic. When the final credits roll, you don’t feel just entertained, you feel altered. And that’s the mark of a filmmaker who isn’t just making movies, but he is reshaping the very ground that all us filmmakers stand on." In a separate tweet, he wrote about the “unique lesson” he learned from the film. He lauded Singh for allowing Akshaye Khanna to take centre stage and thanked Dhar for changing the game.
