I watched the movie on my 9-year old laptop with my mother and maternal grandmother for company. My laptop needs replacement, and I am almost stubbornly wanting it to last 1 more year before I do so. The result is that it keeps getting updated – I dutifully pay the MS license fee - but has a mind of its own.
Let me not get side-tracked with its story.
‘Dunki’ has a great premise – it intends telling the story of poor, illegal immigrants who make use of the ‘donkey flight’ technique to move out of India. While there are moments of disbelief regarding the change of clothes that the characters repeatedly obtain, there is a scene in the container with human faeces getting spilled. That was the moment I started paying more attention.
It was moving to see all the characters learn English to obtain student visas, most of them get rejected because what they learn isn’t enough, and then opt for the donkey flight as it seems the only way out. Once they reach their intended destination, more struggles await them. One of them works as a living statue (he is the only one who gets the visa), another is advised to do a sham marriage with a drug addict. As for the third, he can’t bear to see his mother wear pants and work in a factory in Laltu, and the way he expresses his anguish is sad.
Post the rejection of his visa, there is one character who dies by suicide - he doesn’t reach on time to save his ex-girlfriend who is a victim of domestic violence. This storyline moved me the most.
Then, of course, there is SRK. A former Indian soldier, he is patriotic to the core and wouldn’t lie about how his country treats him. He stays unmarried as his lover decides that moving out of India is the best course of action for her, and both lie to each other about being married to other people. Finally, they are briefly united in India before she dies of a brain tumour.
It is SRK’s character graph that left me truly disappointed. Sparkling wit is mostly missing, the love story doesn’t inspire – even if he prevents his lover from being raped, and the dramatic end to his lover is unnecessary. I couldn’t help think if he had been given a special appearance role as the IELTS teacher, it would have been more impactful.
If the movie worked for you, drop me a line, will you?
