Mumbai:
Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has spoken candidly about the recently released film Dhurandhar, praising its craft and emotional intensity while openly disagreeing with its political perspective. Kashyap made it clear that artistic appreciation and ideological agreement do not always go hand in hand.

“You don’t have to agree politically to respect the film”

Kashyap said that Dhurandhar works powerfully as cinema — from its narrative grip to its technical execution — even if viewers may contest the politics it presents. According to him, engaging with cinema critically is important, and disagreement should not automatically translate into rejection.

Empathy for director Aditya Dhar

The filmmaker also urged audiences to understand the personal background of Dhurandhar director Aditya Dhar. Kashyap pointed out that Dhar is a Kashmiri Pandit who has lived through displacement and trauma, and that lived experience inevitably informs his storytelling.

“Aditya has suffered, and when someone tells a story coming from pain, it deserves to be heard with empathy, even if one doesn’t fully align with the ideology,” Kashyap said in essence.

Cinema shaped by personal history

Kashyap emphasised that filmmakers often draw from their own histories, memories, and wounds. Expecting stories to be emotionally neutral, he argued, is unrealistic. Instead, viewers should separate the intent of storytelling from political positioning and judge films on multiple levels.

A call for mature discourse

The director also criticised the growing tendency to either blindly glorify or aggressively cancel films based solely on political readings. Healthy disagreement, he said, is essential for a vibrant creative culture.

Larger debate around Dhurandhar

Since its release, Dhurandhar has sparked intense debate — praised by some for its scale and ambition, and criticised by others for its ideological framing. Kashyap’s remarks add a nuanced voice to the discussion, advocating for complexity rather than polarisation.

Bottom line

Anurag Kashyap’s take reinforces the idea that cinema can be simultaneously powerful, personal, and controversial — and that engaging with it thoughtfully is far more productive than reducing it to binaries of right or wrong.