Dunki (2023) Review: Big Heart, Rough Journey

Is Dunki worth watching?

Yes, if you can forgive its lurches in tone. Dunki is a generous, sincere film about people desperate enough to risk everything for a foreign visa, and its best scenes carry real emotional force. Rajkumar Hirani brings his familiar mix of broad comedy and moral argument, and Vicky Kaushal gives the film its most affecting performance in a supporting role. The reservations are its length, a first half that leans on repetitive jokes, and a second half that tells the audience what to feel a little too often.

What is Dunki about?

In a small village in Punjab, four friends share one dream: to get to England. They have no money for tickets, no hope of a visa and, in most cases, not enough English to pass the test. Then a soldier, played by Shah Rukh Khan, steps off a train and promises to help them get there. When the legal route fails, the group turns to a “dunki”, the slang term for the dangerous, irregular journeys migrants make across borders, deserts and seas.

Taapsee Pannu plays the most determined of the friends, with Vikram Kochhar and Anil Grover as two others and Boman Irani as the eccentric teacher who runs an English-language coaching class. Dunki is directed by Hirani, who co-wrote the screenplay; it is in Hindi and runs 159 minutes. Released in December 2023, it was Shah Rukh Khan’s third film of that year and his first collaboration with the director.

Hirani’s comedy with a cause

Hirani has built a career on crowd-pleasers with a message, and Dunki follows the pattern. The first half is essentially a comedy of aspiration: villagers cramming for English exams, cooking up schemes to fool visa officers, and bickering their way through a system designed to shut them out. Some of these scenes are genuinely funny, particularly the classroom material, but the jokes about broken English are repeated until they lose their edge.

The film is at its most interesting when it takes the villagers’ reasons seriously. Poverty, family debt and the feeling that there is no future at home are sketched with sympathy, and Hirani refuses to treat illegal migration as a punchline. The second half turns towards the journey itself and becomes much darker, and the shift is where the film’s heart really shows.

Performances that carry the journey

Shah Rukh Khan plays the soldier as a big-hearted, straight-talking outsider, and his warmth suits the material, even if the film asks him to play younger than is comfortable at times. Taapsee Pannu gives her character a stubborn energy, and her scenes with Khan have a gentle charm.

Vicky Kaushal, in a smaller role as another young man desperate to leave, is the standout. He gives the film its most painful and human scenes, and he makes the cost of the dream feel personal rather than abstract.

Where the message overwhelms the story

At 159 minutes, Dunki is long, and it feels it. The tonal shift from village comedy to harrowing journey is abrupt, and the later stretches lean heavily on speeches about borders, dignity and the unfairness of visa systems. The argument is heartfelt and worth making, but the film often states it outright when the images have already made the point. Some ageing make-up and a few convenient turns in the plot also undercut the realism Hirani is reaching for.

Who should watch Dunki?

It suits viewers who enjoy Hindi comedy with a social conscience, admirers of Hirani’s earlier work, and Shah Rukh Khan fans who want to see him in a gentler role than his 2023 action hits. Plan for a long evening. The film deals with dangerous migrant journeys, desperation and loss, with some distressing moments, but it avoids graphic violence and is suitable for older children and families.

Worth watching alongside it:

• 3 Idiots, Hirani’s defining blend of friendship comedy and social critique, and a tighter film.
• PK, where the director again uses an outsider to question the systems people take for granted.
• Bajrangi Bhaijaan, another emotional cross-border journey that mixes humour with a plea for common humanity.

The verdict

Dunki is not Hirani’s sharpest film, and its length and sermonising will test some viewers. But its sympathy for people who risk everything for a better life is genuine, and the performances, especially Vicky Kaushal’s, give it moments that land with real weight.

Rating: 3.5/5