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Tharoor posted his reaction to the film on his official YouTube channel and said that he liked the second part more than the first part. “As a work of fiction, as a work of entertainment, there is no doubt that the second part is superb,” he said. The politician added that the “gruesome violence” shown in the film was “totally excessive and over the top.”

“There was no need to show so much violence, blood, mayhem, cruelty and some of the most disgusting scenes ever seen in Indian cinema,” he said.

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Dhurandhar faced criticism from a section of the audience, who labelled it “propaganda”. Responding to the criticism, Tharoor said, “There is a lot of propaganda stuff built into it obviously and I gather the film has been banned in many countries, not just in Pakistan, but many of the Gulf countries have banned it, saying it would needlessly create bad blood between Indians and Pakistanis, so I can understand those feelings.”

He added, “I don’t know how Pakistanis will react if they see this. Some of the lines, I think Pakistanis will laugh. Some of the other things, I think Pakistanis will realise how much wrong has been done in their name.”

Since Dhurandhar follows an undercover intelligence operative, Shashi Tharoor said that while he has dealt with many real-life intelligence officials in the past, his experience has been far more “civilised”. “I have dealt with a lot of our intelligence people but in a very civilised way, having analysis, conversations, information exchanges but not really getting into any cloak and dagger stuff. I am certainly not aware of commands being given that lead to explosions in faraway capitals. That’s not the world I have ever lived in,” he said.

Tharoor also spoke about the character played by R Madhavan, which was loosely based on Ajit Doval, and said that he would not have been in the same position from the late 1990s to now as “that is not how bureaucracies work” and many different people would have been in charge. However, he understood why a fictional film would have the same character through this time period. “I think it would be too much of a stretch to assume that’s true. So I would see this as a fictional film that tells a story which obviously is meant to impart a certain sense of lessons as well,” he said.

Praising the two Dhurandhar films, Shashi Tharoor said that these were “vividly made” and were “bound to have an impact on anyone who has an imagination or a mind.” He also praised the “competent acting” and “superb sort of sets, design, direction.” He concluded his thoughts by saying, “At the end of 8 hours, you feel you have been through a major cinematic experience.”

The Dhurandhar franchise collectively earned over Rs 3100 crore worldwide. Led by Ranveer Singh, the films also starred Akshaye Khanna, Arjun Rampal, Rakesh Bedi, Sanjay Dutt, Sara Arjun and R Madhavan.

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