Chandani Agrawal

I don't usually review films, but Dunki is the film of contemporary India.. Though the setting is of 1995, Dunki brings out the following aspects of our society - 1. Aspirations to settle in the West and the tangible impact it has on the life of the Indian families who have a family member working outside India: Dunki route shows the desperation in youth, which of course is not the route all Indians take, but Indians work reallllllly harder than many nations in the world to make it to the West and the result is visible in form of Indian CEOs in some of the biggest firms in the world. 2. Current global mass migration issue: The dunki route, hardships and misery, right at its crux is shown in the film, and that too a commercial film! It makes us realize that all the Visa requirements have ended up just filtering out the poor, who most need the opportunity to work. It also explains the concept of efficiency enhancement in countries which get immigrants, a topic once discussed by our Indian Nobel laureate. 3. The problem that English as a language in our country directly defines employability in many white collar sectors - The movie is an epic satire on the need of learning English.. A dialogue of the movie that Bhasha ka toh kam communication aasaan karna hota hai, says it all.. 4. Indian aspiration of wanting to marry an NRI and the issue of domestic violence in some of such marriages. 5. Changing nature of Indian relationships, where men are working hard to support women in their life and career choices as against the old narrative in Hindi films of Heroes saving women from the goons and society. Also, I did miss Aamir Khan in the movie. He had tremendous attention to detail. He understands the grassroots better, which was demonstrated in his earlier roles like lagaan, dangal, 3 idiots etc.. He would have done it slightly differently, which would have made the film very different.