Mar 20, 2026 11:57 am IST

Opinion | Dhurandhar, And The Enduring Ghosts Of Kashmir Valley

Dhurandhar is a story of the relentless war waged by Pakistan against India, not all of Pakistan but the terrorists it harbours, and the agenda it upholds.

Kaveree Bamzai Kaveree Bamzai

It is tempting to see Dhurandhar: The Revenge as Aditya Dhar's own story. That of a Kashmiri Pandit who loses everything when his family is turfed out of its homeland. He loses his home, his love for his country, and his belief that the state will stand up for him. That is the arc that Jaskirat Siingh Rangi's story follows in the prequel/sequel to the wildy popular Dhurandhar released last year. A boy whose father and grandfather were in the army and who wanted to follow suit until a land dispute causes a rival family in the village to torture his father, rape his sisters. The search for justice takes the family to every court in the country before Jaskirat decides to take matters into his own hands, and it leads to him becoming Hamza Ali Mazari, a killing machine let loose on Pakistan by the Indian intelligence system.

The land dispute may well be a metaphor for Kashmir, forever caught in a tussle between India and Pakistan.

And the end, without giving too much away, could well be what the homeland is to the Kashmiri Pandit now, a state he or she can dream of but never return to. The land has changed forever and so has the tiny community exiled from it. As much as Jaskirat is a stranger to his home in Pathankot now, so is the Pandit to the Valley where he once thrived.

The War That Never Ended

Yes, Dhurandhar: The........

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