After taking indirect digs at Yash’s ‘Toxic’, Ram Gopal Varma hails ‘Dhurandhar’s’ ‘living, breathing characters’ over style and spectacle: ‘In the other films, violence is just a spectacle minus context’ | Hindi Movie News
Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has once again heaped praise on Aditya Dhar’s ‘Dhurandhar’, this time highlighting what he considers the film’s biggest strength: its characters. In a lengthy post on X, RGV argued that the film succeeds because its characters feel like real people rather than conventional cinematic figures. He compared the approach with his own 1998 crime drama Satya and suggested that filmmakers could learn from ‘Dhurandhar’s commitment to realism.
Ram Gopal Varma says ‘Dhurandhar’ makes characters feel real
According to RGV, the biggest takeaway from ‘Dhurandhar’ is the way it builds characters who exist independently of the hero. He praised the film for creating personalities that feel recognisable and grounded, making the world more immersive for audiences.“What every filmmaker should understand from #dhurandhar is that it is full of living, breathing characters who seem as real as you and me sitting and watching in the theatre, hence making it highly relatable,” he wrote.Drawing a comparison with Satya, RGV recalled how his own gangster drama avoided making its characters feel like exaggerated cinematic archetypes.“Satya is about gangsters, but be it Bhiku Mhatre, Kallu Mama or Vakil Mule, they all look as real as anyone real. ‘Dhurandhar’ took this to another level,” he added.For RGV, this realism is the “only lesson worth stealing for all filmmakers”, particularly at a time when he believes some big-budget productions prioritise visual spectacle over believable characters.
RGV draws comparison between ‘Dhurandhar’ and ‘Titanic’
Varma also invoked James Cameron’s Titanic to explain his argument about how large budgets can be used to enhance realism rather than simply amplify spectacle.“Back in the day even in a mega-budget film like Titanic, James Cameron spent the money to make it look as real as possible, whereas we do the exact opposite here,” he wrote.He further praised ‘Dhurandhar’ for allowing its protagonist to exist without constantly turning him into an object of glorification.“Dhurandhar does not treat its hero as a walking poster who must be worshipped at all costs. He can be non-existent in the room. He can wait tables, listen instead of speaking, miscalculate, get dirty, get smaller in front of more smaller characters,” RGV said.RGV went on to praise the film’s supporting characters, arguing that they are written with enough individuality to hold the audience’s attention even when the protagonist is not at the centre of a scene.“Rehman Dakait does not exist to look iconic in a still… he exists as a man with a specific laugh, a specific fear, a specific way of holding a gun or a stare,” he wrote.According to Varma, this approach prevents the film from becoming dependent on conventional hero-elevation moments.“They feel like people who would still be there whether the hero was there or not. You are not waiting for the next elevation shot. You are staying because the people on screen make you stay by becoming immersive,” he added.
RGV takes apparent swipe at ‘style over substance’
Without directly naming any other film, Varma then contrasted Dhurandhar’s character-driven storytelling with what he described as cinema that relies heavily on visual style, slow motion and manufactured intensity.“The other films swagger. Have fog and slow motion that lasts longer than the characters inner lives. The women are not people…they are functions arranged around the same gravitational centre so that the centre never has to become a living real person,” he wrote.He further criticised filmmaking in which the camera and editing are used primarily to create an artificial sense of scale and intensity.“The camera does not observe; it advertises. Editing does not cut time, it manufactures fake intensity that was never in the writing,” Varma added.
‘Violence in ‘Dhurandhar’ has a before and an after’
Varma concluded his post by returning to the film’s treatment of violence and its consequences. He argued that the action in Dhurandhar carries emotional and narrative weight rather than functioning purely as spectacle.“Violence in Dhurandhar has a before and an after. Somebody pays. Somebody changes. Somebody is left standing feeling smaller,” he wrote.He contrasted this with films where, in his view, violence becomes disconnected from character and consequence.“In the other films, violence is just a spectacle minus context. Attitude is the plot. Dhurandhars director trusts the audience enough to put living people on screen and let them feel as much as the protagonist,” RGV said.He concluded, “The hero feels as much pain as the villain. One is cinema that cuts into flesh. The others are cinema that pose for the camera.”
Is RGV taking another dig at ‘Toxic’?
RGV’s latest praise for Dhurandhar comes days after he appeared to take a swipe at Yash-starrer Toxic. On the film’s release day, Varma posted on X, “Watching Dhurandhar again and again,” which many interpreted as a pointed comparison between the two films. His latest comments do not mention Toxic by name. However, his criticism of films that allegedly prioritise style, hero elevation and spectacle over character has once again prompted speculation among social media users about whether the filmmaker is indirectly referring to Geetu Mohandas’ directorial.Meanwhile, ‘Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups’, starring Yash alongside Nayanthara and Kiara Advani, has continued its theatrical run despite mixed reviews. The film has maintained a strong box-office performance and is now nearing the Rs. 300 crore India net milestone.
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