Rajkumar Hirani recently completed 20 years as a filmmaker as his debut Munna Bhai MBBS celebrated two decades. In all these years, he and Shah Rukh Khan came close to working together but things couldn’t go forward. So when the two heavyweights finally join hands through Dunki, your expectations rise, irrespective of the story, genre, etc.

As far as the story of Dunki is concerned, it starts in 1995 in a small fictitious village in Punjab named Laltu. Manu (Taapsee Pannu), Buggu (Vikram Kochhar), Balli (Anil Grover) and Sukhi (Vicky Kaushal) are living miserable lives. They feel the only way to better their existence is to migrate to England. However, they are unable to do so despite trying hard.

One fine day, a soldier Hardy (Shah Rukh Khan) arrives in Laltu to repay Manu’s family for the huge favour one of her family members did to him. When he realizes that Manu, Buggu, Balli and Sukhi are desperate to go to England, he vows to help them. After trying a lot, they realize that the only way through which they can enter England is through the donkey method, which is illegal immigration (called as Dunki in the movie).

Dunki appears like two different films in the two halves. The first half keeps you hooked throughout in a typical Hirani way – no time pass, only dialogues, regular conflicts and heartwarming moments. The humour over here is not as funny as one would expect but the proceedings are at least mildly entertaining. Before the movie, it was felt that it would be difficult to root for the characters in their illegal task. But after going through their respective situations, it doesn’t get difficult.

As said earlier, the second half is a different film about the struggles of the group of people to enter England. Till this point itself the movie had fallen short of expectations from a Hirani product. But from here onwards, it goes further downhill. The various events are not only unconvincing but also uninteresting. And by the time the film ends, it becomes worse. Also the whole idea of narrating the film in a flashback makes it predictable on a lot of occasions.

As you move out of the theatre, you are confused thinking why two greats like Hirani and SRK decided to join hands for something like this. More importantly, you also wonder what exactly is the point of telling this story in the first place, especially due to the climax.

The performances save Dunki to some extent. Shah Rukh Khan brings in the right energy needed for this character and carries the film on his shoulders. But the different tone through which he speaks throughout becomes too obvious and questionable, especially when his character grows old.

This is one of Taapee Pannu’s better acts. Vikram Kochhar and Anil Grover provide dedicated performances. A great talent like Vicky Kaushal is wasted in a cameo, although he does well. Deven Bhojani and Boman Irani are decent in other cameos.

The other saving grace is CK Muraleedharan, Manush Nandan and Kumar Pankaj’s camerawork and the visuals of different countries of the world. As far as the music is concerned, ‘Nikle The Kabhi Ghar Se’ is the only impressive track.

Overall, Dunki is this year’s Laal Singh Chaddha. Not in terms of the plot or the characters but because of the end result and a major story development in the climax, which is not possible to reveal to avoid giving out spoilers.

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