Daayra Review: Meghna Gulzar’s Compelling Moral Debate That Needed More Emotional Firepower
Director Meghna Gulzar chooses not to approach Daayra through a straightforward crime narrative. But she places two opposing beliefs against each other and the urgency of punishment and the necessity of due process.
Spoiler Alert:
The film opens with DCP Raman Kumar (Prithviraj Sukumaran) being celebrated after his team kills four men accused of the crime.
The public sees him as a symbol of action and accountability.
But beneath that celebration lies the central question, was this justice, or was it a violation of the very system meant to protect justice?
Then enter DCP Ajooni Kohli (Kareena Kapoor Khan), who is assigned to investigate the encounter. As she begins digging deeper, Daayra moves beyond the crime itself and focuses on the failures that happened before it.
A missing complaint that was not handled with urgency, a family desperately searching for help, procedural delays and institutional apathy slowly reveal a much larger tragedy.
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These portions are where Meghna Gulzar’s storytelling is at its strongest. The film understands that a system rarely collapses in one dramatic moment.
It happens through small acts of negligence, through indifference and through people refusing to recognise the seriousness of a situation until it is too late.
Kshitee Jog delivers one of the film’s most affecting performances as the victim’s mother.
Prithviraj Sukumaran is undoubtedly the film’s biggest strength. As Raman Kumar, he brings complexity to a character who could easily have become a one-dimensional representation of a “hero cop”.
What makes his performance compelling is that he does not play Raman as someone seeking glory. He plays him as a man convinced that the system has failed repeatedly, and that conviction gives the character an unsettling credibility.
I found myself particularly drawn to the moments where Raman’s certainty begins to crack. Prithviraj captures that internal conflict beautifully and allow us to understand the character’s frustration without making his actions easy to justify.
Kareena Kapoor Khan plays her as a disciplined officer who believes that the rule of law cannot be abandoned, regardless of public sentiment.
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There are moments where Kareena brings genuine emotional depth, especially when Ajooni interacts with the victim’s family.
However, I felt the writing does not give Ajooni enough layers. The film introduces an interesting personal history involving her father, a retired judge, suggesting that her relationship with justice is not merely professional but deeply personal.
Unfortunately, that thread remains largely unexplored. Ajooni had the potential to become a far more conflicted and emotionally complicated character, but the screenplay often keeps her at a distance.
That is the larger issue with Daayra. The film repeatedly introduces fascinating possibilities but does not always develop them fully.
The moral conflict between Raman and Ajooni is undoubtedly powerful.
Can a society demand absolute faith in the law when the law has repeatedly failed victims?
At the same time, can a police force be allowed to decide guilt and punishment without a trial?
These are difficult questions, and I appreciate that Gulzar does not provide simplistic answers.
But I also felt that the film occasionally becomes too careful.
It presents both sides of the debate but rarely pushes either perspective into truly uncomfortable territory.
A film dealing with such a volatile subject needed more emotional intensity, more unpredictability and perhaps more courage in confronting the contradictions it raises.
The investigation portions have moments of genuine strength, but the thriller elements never fully come alive. The tension that should build between Ajooni’s pursuit and Raman’s defence of his actions remains subdued.
By the time the two characters finally confront each other, the emotional impact is not as powerful as it should have been.
The film has moments of brilliance, but there are also instances where the treatment feels overly deliberate.
The background score sometimes tries too hard to create intensity, even when the performances and situations already carry enough weight. A quieter approach might have allowed the film’s strongest moments to breathe better.
But, Daayra deserves credit for attempting a conversation that is uncomfortable and necessary.
It looks at the complicated relationship between public anger, institutional failure and the idea of justice itself. It refuses to offer easy comfort, and that is valuable.
Yet, for a film built around such a provocative conflict, I expected a sharper emotional impact.
The ingredients were all there, but what was missing was the final spark that could have transformed an important film into an unforgettable one.
Timeline Verdict:
Daayra stays with you because of the questions it raises, even if it does not always find the most powerful cinematic language to express them.
Rating: 3/5
Cast: Kareena Kapoor, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Pragati Mishra, Kshitee Jog, Kanwaljit Singh, Achint Kaur
Crew:
Director: Meghna Gulzar
Writers: Meghna Gulzar, Sima Agarwal, Yash Keswani
Producers: Vineet Jain, Dhaval Gada
Cinematography: Saurabh Goswami
