Movie Review: Dunki

 

Michael's Movie Grade: C

An extremely overlong but emotionally effective film from India. 

For a film that deals with such a heavy topic as illegal immigration, surprisingly the strongest part of this movie is the romance. The romance here is very well flushed out and quite heartfelt. We truly care about these characters and want to see them get together. This results in some very emotional scenes. Because of this even the most melodramatic scenes are emotionally effective. Because this movie focuses on giving us an emotional connection to our characters, this makes its message all the more effective. There is no way to get an audience to care about a movie's message than giving us an emotional connection to it. While some of the speeches can get a little heavy handed, the movie's heart is always in the right place. It never talks down to you, but instead talks to you in an open and honest way. Though there aren't a lot of song numbers here, each one works very well and fits the story perfectly.

The main problem with this movie is overlength. At 2 hours and 40 minutes, if it was an hour shorter it wouldn't lose much. This is especially a problem as the film can really drag early on. The tonal shifts here also do not always work, but sometimes feel quite forced. Also much of the comedy simply falls flat. 

This isn't a bad movie, but it could have been much better.