Daayra Movie Review: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Daayra brings Meghna Gulzar back to the director’s chair with a genuinely powerful real-life inspiration, but despite strong work from Prithviraj Sukumaran, the film struggles with pacing and narrative focus.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Genre: Crime Thriller
Director: Meghna Gulzar
Cast: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Kareena Kapoor Khan
Meghna Gulzar returns to the director’s chair with Daayra, three years after her acclaimed film Sam Bahadur. This time, the celebrated filmmaker takes on material inspired by the 2019 Hyderabad rape and murder case, a real-life tragedy that shook the entire country.
While the film’s intentions are clear, exploring the blurred line between justice and vengeance, the actual execution unfortunately falls short of that ambition.
Although the makers maintain that the story is only inspired by the 2019 case rather than a direct retelling, it becomes fairly obvious watching the film that, aside from a few altered scenes, Daayra closely mirrors the real events.
Prithviraj Sukumaran plays DCP Raman Kumar, a police officer celebrated by the public after killing all four accused men in an encounter shootout. His actions eventually draw scrutiny in the form of Public Interest Litigations, leading to DCP Ajooni Kohli, played by Kareena Kapoor Khan, being assigned to investigate whether Raman took the law into his own hands.
Given Gulzar’s pedigree and the pairing of two genuinely talented lead actors, expectations going into Daayra were understandably high. The film does take audiences on a reasonably unpredictable journey despite being rooted in a story many already know, but it ultimately fails to deliver the kind of satisfying emotional payoff the subject matter deserves.
Daayra arrives just months after Anubhav Sinha’s Assi, which tackled similar thematic territory, and while neither film should necessarily be held up as the gold standard, both highlight an important lesson for filmmakers tackling sensitive real-world subjects: no matter how carefully a message is framed, a film without a clear narrative structure will struggle to leave a real impact.
Prithviraj Sukumaran is easily the film’s biggest strength. After a string of underwhelming Hindi projects including Naam Shabana, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, and Sarzameen, he delivers a genuinely compelling performance here, bringing real emotional depth to a cop caught between empathy and underlying anger management issues.
Kareena Kapoor Khan, unfortunately, gets far less to work with. Her role feels more like an extended cameo than a fully developed character, only truly connecting with Prithviraj’s character in a single shared scene toward the end. While she performs the part adequately, there is little in the writing that actually showcases her range, and the role could easily have been played by any competent actor.
The film also suffers from trying to juggle too many ideas at once. Alongside its primary focus on the 2019 case, Daayra includes a somewhat forced subplot referencing the Nirbhaya case, which ends up creating confusion rather than adding meaningful depth to the central story.
Trimming these tangential threads would have significantly helped the pacing of a runtime that stretches past two hours. There is also an odd, distracting nod to Gulzar’s own 2015 film Talvar, with an eatery in the film literally named Aarushi, a strange creative choice that feels more like an unnecessary easter egg than a meaningful reference.
Despite technically belonging to the thriller genre, Daayra rarely generates the sustained tension its subject matter calls for. Web series like Delhi Crime remain far better examples of how real-life tragedies can be adapted into genuinely gripping, edge-of-your-seat storytelling.
Reactions to the film since its release have been sharply divided online, with some viewers praising Prithviraj’s performance as a genuine comeback and calling the film emotionally powerful. In contrast, others have criticized its pacing and questioned Kareena Kapoor’s casting in such an underwritten role.
That split reaction seems to capture Daayra fairly well, a film with real ambition and a strong central performance, held back by a script that never quite finds its footing.
If you’re curious about what this film cost to make and what its lead actors reportedly earned, our breakdown of the Daayra cast salary and movie budget is worth a look. And if you want something with tighter storytelling and a strong ensemble, our review of Plastic Beauty is also worth checking out.