Why does a Rajkumar Hirani film have to take a David-Dhawan-Priyadarshan route to get to the point? Where has the story-telling disappeared? It is almost like Hirani didn’t have faith in his subject or in his capacity to engage the audience with the topic. The meandering path to the start of the actual ‘dunki’—the illegal route that migrants take—is so long that there is little time left to empathise with the actual plight and inhuman situation that migrants exist in.

It made me miss SRK’s self-referential jokes and the wide-arm stretch. And that is not a compliment.

Sure, Hirani’s forte has been to convey a message with a light-hearted spirit. But, I guess here the material is so dark, that he lost perspective on the cheeriness and didn’t know where to stop with it. Both the quality and quantity of the humour didn’t seem like it was under his control, right from the beginning.

This left a lot of room for Shah Rukh Khan to ham. And Tapsee Pannu followed suit, like she had no other option. You could see every bit of the effort that they had put into their act. And that never translates well to the viewer. Both look great. 58-year-old Khan even passes off as a 30-year-old. Looks-wise, he is even believable as the love interest of a 20-year younger Pannu. But his act took me back to the 90s. And no, that is not a good thing. Dunki also has them play their characters’ older selves. And those bits, which is about 40% of the film, are quite unbearable. I can’t believe I am writing this, but it made me miss SRK’s self-referential jokes and the wide-arm stretch. That is not a compliment. And yet, even that is better than the show put together here.

And this is despite a decent show by the rest of the supporting cast. Even if, when I say decent, for Boman Irani, I might just mean, “at least he was not louder-than-normal”. Vicky Kaushal’s special appearance stood out because it seemed the most restrained, even though it felt like over-acting too.

It is sad that a ‘why borders’ argument, such an important message, got such a lame film. Maybe the point would have been made better if it started coming through a lot earlier in the film. But, that we will never know. A run time of over 2.5 hours. Half of which is the set-up. Which in turn is littered with very bad and long-drawn-out jokes. Of course, you are moved by the horrific conditions humans are put through. But Dunki seems like a disservice to them.

– meeta, a part of the audience