The 2025 spy thriller Dhurandhar, released on December 5, 2025, has captivated audiences worldwide by weaving together decades of South Asian geopolitical tensions, documented criminal enterprises, and covert intelligence operations into a narrative that deliberately blurs the line between historical fact and cinematic fiction.[3][8] Directed by Aditya Dhar and starring Ranveer Singh in the lead role, the film constructs an elaborate espionage narrative around "Operation Dhurandhar," a fictional infiltration mission into Karachi's notorious Lyari neighborhood that draws heavily from the real-world Operation Lyari conducted between 2012 and 2017.[7] Rather than presenting a straightforward dramatization of singular events, Dhurandhar functions as a complex tapestry incorporating three major terrorist attacks that shocked South Asia—the 1999 IC-814 hijacking, the 2001 Indian Parliament attack, and the devastating 2008 Mumbai attacks—while simultaneously exploring the intricate criminal and political ecosystems of a Pakistani city plagued by gang violence and counter-terror operations.[3][22] The film's structure deliberately interlaces these historical anchors with the fictional central narrative, creating what some commentators describe as propaganda cinema designed to flatter ruling Indian establishments, while others view it as a legitimate thriller that exposes the uncomfortable truths underlying South Asian security challenges.[38] By examining the real-world characters and events that inspired the film's protagonists and antagonists, one gains insight not merely into a entertainment product, but into the documented reality of undercover operations, militant financing networks, state-sponsored terror proxies, and the human costs of intelligence warfare across the subcontinent.
The Dhurandhar Narrative: Storyline, Scope, and Cinematic Framework
Dhurandhar opens with a negotiation sequence set on December 30, 1999, wherein India's Minister of External Affairs Devavrat Kapoor and the Director of the Intelligence Bureau Ajay Sanyal attempt to secure the release of airline hostages held in Kandahar, Afghanistan following the IC-814 hijacking, offering both prisoner releases and financial compensation to terrorist negotiators.[3][22] When this approach fails to satisfy India's security establishment, and particularly after the 2001 Indian Parliament attack demonstrates the vulnerability of Indian state institutions to Pakistan-based militant organizations, the IB Director receives approval to launch "Operation Dhurandhar"—an ambitious covert mission to infiltrate Pakistan's terrorist networks by embedding an agent deep within Karachi's criminal underworld.[3][22] The protagonist, introduced as Hamza Ali Mazari, arrives in the Lyari district of Karachi and gradually insinuates himself into the organization of Rehman Dakait, a powerful gang leader with political connections to Pakistan's ruling party, while simultaneously serving as an undercover asset collecting intelligence on weapons trafficking, counterfeit currency operations, and terror attack planning.[3][8] Throughout the narrative, Hamza witnesses and participates in gang wars, political machinations, and increasingly complex criminal enterprises while maintaining his dual identity and feeding critical information back to his handlers in India.[3] The film's second half intensifies dramatically as Hamza discovers that weapons supplied by Rehman's gang were used in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, transforming his mission from intelligence gathering into a personal crusade to dismantle Pakistan's terror network from within.[29] The climactic sequences reveal that Hamza's true identity is Jaskirat Singh Rangi, a death-row inmate from Punjab who was recruited specifically for this mission because he had nothing left to lose, fundamentally reframing the entire narrative as an exploration of how states weaponize their own marginalized citizens against external threats.[3][29] The film ends not with resolution but with escalation, as Hamza pivots toward targeting "Bade Sahab," identified as a mastermind orchestrating multiple terror attacks, setting up a sequel positioned for March 2026 release.[29]
The scope of Dhurandhar extends far beyond conventional espionage thriller mechanics to encompass multiple interrelated domains of South Asian conflict: the state-to-state intelligence warfare between India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI); the documented exploitation of criminal networks by intelligence agencies for operational purposes; the historical reality of Pakistan's use of militant organizations as proxy forces; the sophisticated international financial networks enabling terrorist financing; and the moral ambiguities inherent in undercover operations conducted across porous international borders.[22][30][35] By structuring the narrative around real historical events and demonstrable criminal actors, the film enters territory where artistic license collides with historical responsibility, raising questions about representation, accuracy, and the ethical dimensions of depicting still-living individuals and ongoing security challenges.[3][13] The inclusion of actual footage from the 2008 Mumbai attacks, audio recordings of terrorist handlers coordinating the massacre in real-time, and references to documented criminal enterprises—particularly the Khanani money-laundering network that moved funds for terror organizations, drug cartels, and organized crime syndicates—grounds the fiction within verifiable reality.[3][22][47][50]
Historical Backdrop: The Real Events Anchoring Dhurandhar's Narrative
The IC-814 Hijacking: Crisis Negotiation and the Release of a Future Terror Mastermind
On December 24, 1999, Indian Airlines Flight 814, a routine passenger flight from Kathmandu, Nepal, to New Delhi, India, was seized midair by five armed militants linked to the Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (also known as Harkat-ul-Ansar), a designation that in itself reveals the organizational fluidity and rebranding patterns characteristic of South Asian terrorist groups.[23][26] The aircraft, carrying approximately 190 people including 179 passengers and 11 crew members, entered a seven-day hostage crisis that would fundamentally shape Indian security policy, demonstrating both the vulnerability of Indian transportation infrastructure and the willingness of Pakistani-backed militant organizations to execute high-profile attacks against civilian targets.[23][26] The hijackers, operating under the direction of senior Harkat-ul-Mujahideen leaders, made three primary demands: the release of 36 prisoners held in Indian jails; the return of the body of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen founder Sajjad Afghani who had been killed during a jailbreak in 1999; and $200 million in cash.[23][26] The aircraft landed in Amritsar, India, where Pakistani authorities refused to refuel the plane, forcing the pilot to continue toward Lahore, Pakistan, where the aircraft was refueled but the hijackers grew increasingly agitated at perceived delays.[23][26] A critical turning point occurred when, frustrated by refueling delays in Amritsar, the hijackers stabbed and killed 25-year-old passenger Rupin Katyal, demonstrating their willingness to execute hostages and establishing a pattern of violence that would characterize the negotiations.[23][26] The aircraft ultimately landed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on December 25, 1999, where it was immediately surrounded by Taliban soldiers, creating a complex three-way negotiation involving Indian officials, Afghan Taliban authorities (whom India did not officially recognize, complicating diplomatic channels), and the hijackers themselves.[23][26]
The resolution of the crisis came through a decision that remains controversial and which Dhurandhar uses as its narrative foundation: on December 31, 1999, after six days of negotiations, India's External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh personally traveled to Kandahar with three militants from Indian custody—Masood Azhar, Umar Sheikh, and Mushtaq Zargar—whom India exchanged for the remaining hostages.[23][26][60] This exchange would prove consequential far beyond the immediate crisis, as Masood Azhar, the primary figure released, would subsequently establish Jaish-e-Mohammed in 2000, an organization that would conduct multiple major terror attacks against India including the 2001 Parliament attack and numerous operations in Kashmir.[23][26][60] Azhar's release under pressure has been characterized as a "diplomatic failure" by figures including Ajit Doval, who would later become India's National Security Advisor, with critics arguing that the Indian government capitulated to terrorism and enabled the subsequent formation of a terror organization that would claim responsibility for attacks killing thousands.[26][60] The hijacking thus represented not merely a discrete security incident but rather a pivotal moment exposing the strategic vulnerabilities of Indian security infrastructure and demonstrating the efficacy of terrorism as a coercive instrument against democratic states.[23][26]
The 2001 Indian Parliament Attack: State Vulnerability and Escalatory Terrorism
On December 13, 2001, exactly two years after the resolution of the IC-814 hijacking, India's Parliament faced a direct terrorist assault when five armed militants belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed drove a car bearing fake Home Ministry and Parliament identification credentials through the gates of the Parliament complex in New Delhi.[40][43] The attack occurred despite numerous security protocols and the presence of dedicated security forces, demonstrating that even India's most fortified institutions remained vulnerable to coordinated militant assault.[40] Constable Kamlesh Kumari of the Central Reserve Police Force became the first casualty, shot dead by the militants as she raised an alarm, her sacrifice buying precious seconds that allowed parliamentarians and government officials to escape or secure themselves within the building.[40][43] The militants proceeded to open fire indiscriminately, detonating explosive vests and automatic weapons fire in what would become a five-minute firefight that claimed nine lives including six Delhi Police personnel, two Parliament Security Service personnel, and a gardener, with at least 17 others injured.[40][43] All five terrorists were killed by security forces, but the psychological impact reverberated throughout India and internationally: the nation's legislative heart had been directly targeted, members of parliament and cabinet ministers had been present during the attack, and the incident demonstrated that Pakistan-based terror organizations possessed both the capability and will to strike at the highest levels of Indian state authority.[40][43]
The attack occurred under the direction of Jaish-e-Mohammed, the very organization founded by Masood Azhar following his release in the IC-814 exchange, completing a cyclical narrative wherein a decision to negotiate with terrorists directly enabled the formation of an organization that would subsequently conduct one of the most audacious terror attacks on Indian soil.[40][60] The investigation confirmed that the militants had received direct instructions from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and that the operation represented a carefully planned assault rather than an improvised attack.[40][43] Following the Parliament attack, India-Pakistan relations deteriorated dramatically, with India mobilizing its largest military deployment since the 1971 war, stationing troops along the border in what became known as the 2001-2002 India-Pakistan standoff.[40][43] The diplomatic and military tensions nearly escalated into full-scale conventional war, with nuclear-armed nations positioning military forces in confrontational postures, creating what many analysts characterized as the most dangerous moment in post-Cold War South Asian geopolitics.[40][43] Dhurandhar uses this attack as the triggering event for "Operation Dhurandhar," depicting it as the moment when India's security establishment decides that conventional deterrence and diplomatic negotiation have failed and that infiltration operations into Pakistan's militant infrastructure become operationally justified.[3][22]
The 2008 Mumbai Attacks: Terrorism as Economic Warfare and International Incident
On November 26-29, 2008, ten militants belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based terror organization with documented support from Pakistan's ISI, launched coordinated attacks across Mumbai targeting crowded civilian and high-profile locations including the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, the Leopold Café, two hospitals, a theater, and the Nariman House (a Jewish outreach center).[24][45] The attacks resulted in 166 deaths and approximately 300 injuries, making it the deadliest and most ambitious terror attack since 9/11 and the most consequential act of terrorism in Indian history.[24][27][45] The operational sophistication was striking: the ten militants received prolonged guerrilla warfare training in Lashkar-e-Taiba camps in Pakistan, traveled from Karachi by sea aboard an infiltrated commercial vessel, killed the crew, and launched inflatable dinghies toward the Mumbai coast before dispersing into the city in four coordinated teams.[24][45] Their targeting patterns revealed sophisticated intelligence: they specifically attacked Western-owned hotels frequented by foreign nationals, indicating either operational direction toward global jihadist objectives or an attempt to create maximum international incident impact.[24][45] Nine of the ten attackers were killed in police and military counterassaults, while the tenth, Ajmal Amir Kasab, was captured alive and subsequently provided crucial testimony implicating Lashkar-e-Taiba's senior leadership, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, and connections to al-Qaeda in the planning and execution of the attack.[24][27]
The significance of the 2008 Mumbai attacks extended beyond the casualty count to encompass multiple strategic dimensions: it demonstrated that Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistani intelligence possessed the capability to execute a multi-day siege of a major global financial center; it revealed documented connections between Lashkar-e-Taiba, Pakistani ISI officials, and international terrorist networks including al-Qaeda; and it established that sophisticated terrorist operations could be coordinated across international borders using modern technology and communication systems.[24][27][45] Kasab's testimony revealed that handlers in Karachi, reportedly including ISI officials, maintained real-time contact with the militants via cellular communications, directing them to specific targets and providing tactical guidance throughout the attacks, creating an extraordinary intelligence failure for Indian security services who were unable to interdict the operation despite having sophisticated electronic surveillance capabilities.[24][27] The attacks killed six Americans among the 166 casualties, creating international diplomatic pressure on Pakistan to dismantle the terror networks operating from its territory.[24][27] The United States, United Kingdom, and numerous allied nations issued diplomatic demands that Pakistan take action against Lashkar-e-Taiba, though implementation remained limited despite public commitments.[24][27][45] depicts the moment Hamza learns of the 2008 attacks with profound emotional devastation, describing it as the moment when his mission transforms from intelligence gathering into personal vendetta, motivated by the realization that his operational failure to prevent the attacks resulted in mass casualties.[3][29]
The Key Characters: Fictional Roles and Real-World Inspirations
The complexity of Dhurandhar emerges most clearly in its treatment of characters, whereby director Aditya Dhar constructs cinematic personas based upon documented historical figures while maintaining sufficient fictional alterations to technically constitute original creative works. The film's opening credits include disclaimers asserting that all characters are fictional and that any resemblance to real persons is coincidental, yet simultaneously the narrative repeatedly emphasizes its grounding in actual events, creating deliberate cognitive dissonance between disclaimers and content.[3][22] This section examines five primary characters and their historical inspirations, recognizing that the film deliberately constructs composites and fictionalized versions rather than biographical adaptations.
Hamza Ali Mazari / Jaskirat Singh Rangi: The Undercover Agent
Ranveer Singh's portrayal of Hamza Ali Mazari, whose true identity as Jaskirat Singh Rangi is revealed in the film's climactic sequences, represents the most contested character attribution, as the filmmakers have explicitly denied that the role was based upon Major Mohit Sharma while simultaneously depicting an undercover operative infiltrating terrorist organizations with remarkable thematic parallels to Sharma's documented military career.[31][22] The film describes Jaskirat Singh Rangi as an Indian death-row inmate from Punjab recruited specifically because he possessed nothing left to lose and could therefore be deployed on extraordinarily dangerous missions without creating security vulnerabilities through family or social connections.[3][29] This characterization draws inspiration from multiple documented elements of Indian intelligence operations: the historical use of undercover operatives who develop false identities and embed themselves within target organizations over extended periods; the documented practice of Indian military and intelligence services recruiting individuals from underworld or criminal backgrounds for specialized operations; and the theoretical framework wherein expendable operatives can accomplish mission objectives that would be impossible for conventional military or intelligence personnel.[31][35]
However, the character also reflects broader historical patterns of undercover espionage documented in South Asian intelligence histories. RAW, India's external intelligence agency formed in 1968, has conducted infiltration operations against Pakistan since its inception, with agents embedding themselves within Pakistani military, intelligence, and militant organizations.[30][33] One famous historical example is Ravindra Kaushik, known as "The Black Tiger," an RAW operative who infiltrated the Pakistan Army's Military Accounts Department and operated as an undercover asset from 1975 until his exposure in 1983, collecting intelligence on Pakistani military operations for nearly a decade before being captured, tortured, and imprisoned, ultimately dying in a Pakistani jail in 2001.[33] Kaushik's recruitment, training, and deployment pattern established precedents for the type of long-term infiltration that Dhurandhar depicts: RAW trained him in Delhi for two years, provided him with a false Muslim identity and Urdu language training, and inserted him into Pakistan where he survived detection for years by carefully managing his cover and gradually accumulating intelligence access.[33] The film's Hamza arc parallels these documented operational patterns, though with fictionalized specifics.[3]
The controversy surrounding the Hamza character specifically emerged when the family of Major Mohit Sharma filed a petition in the Delhi High Court before the film's December 2025 release, alleging that the film drew substantial inspiration from Sharma's documented military career without providing proper attribution.[31] Major Mohit Sharma (1978-2009) was an Indian Army officer from the elite 1st Para Special Forces who conducted multiple undercover infiltration operations against militant organizations in Kashmir, most notably an operation wherein he infiltrated the Hizbul Mujahideen under the assumed identity "Iftikhar Bhatt," even maintaining a heavy beard and dressing as a local to perfect his cover while collecting intelligence and eliminating high-level militants.[31][28] For this operation, Sharma received the Sena Medal for Gallantry in 2004, and his final mission in March 2009, wherein he led an assault against infiltrating militants in the Kupwara forest, resulted in his death after killing four militants despite receiving a gunshot wound to his chest, earning him the posthumous award of the Ashoka Chakra, India's highest peacetime military decoration.[31][28] Sharma's mother allegedly claimed that the filmmakers had drawn substantially from her son's life story without authorization, particularly regarding the undercover infiltration operations and the recruitment of operatives with "nothing to lose."[31]
The filmmakers have responded to these allegations by consistently stating that the character is entirely fictional and not based upon Major Mohit Sharma, clarifying that while Sharma's documented operations in Kashmir involved infiltration of militant organizations, Dhurandhar's protagonist operates in a fictional context involving both criminal enterprises and terror networks in Karachi with substantially different operational parameters.[3][31] Furthermore, the film's creators noted that the historical record documenting RAW and Indian military undercover operations is extensive enough that dramatizing such operations does not require direct attribution to specific individuals, as the general operational patterns represented in Dhurandhar are consistent with multiple documented cases across Indian intelligence history.[31] The controversy ultimately highlights the contested nature of intelligence history and the ethical complexities involved in depicting real-world individuals and operations in cinematic contexts.
Rehman Dakait / Abdul Rehman Baloch: The Criminal-Political Nexus
Akshaye Khanna's portrayal of Rehman Dakait directly references Abdul Rehman Baloch, commonly known as Rehman Dakait (the Urdu word "dakait" translates as "bandit" or "robber"), who was a documented and verified criminal actor operating in Karachi's Lyari neighborhood from the 1980s until his death in 2009.[36][39][46][49] The historical Rehman Dakait (1980-2009) emerged from poverty in Lyari and gradually rose through the criminal hierarchy during the 1980s and 1990s when Afghanistan's Soviet jihad flooded Pakistan with sophisticated weapons and heroin trafficking networks, transforming Lyari from a location dominated by small-scale hashish peddlers and pickpockets into a center of organized crime involving arms trafficking, drug smuggling, kidnapping for ransom, and contract killing.[36][39][46] During the 1990s, Rehman operated as a lieutenant within the Laloo Gang led by Haji Lal Mohammad, gradually accumulating power through demonstrated violence and criminal acumen until Haji Laloo's arrest in 2001 left a power vacuum that Rehman exploited, fragmenting the original organization and establishing his own criminal fiefdom.[36][39][46] The critical transition occurred around 2008 when Rehman transformed himself from a conventional gangster into a political actor, establishing and leading the Peoples' Aman Committee (PAC), ostensibly a community organization dedicated to peacekeeping and conflict resolution in Lyari but in reality serving as a vehicle for political patronage by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) while maintaining criminal operations including extortion, weapons trafficking, and territorial control.[36][39][46]
The relationship between Rehman Dakait and Pakistan's ruling political establishment represents one of the most significant aspects of his historical role and the central thematic concern of Dhurandhar: the symbiotic relationship between organized crime and political power in post-independence Pakistan. According to multiple historical accounts, the Pakistan Peoples Party, then-ruling Pakistan under President Asif Ali Zardari's direction, explicitly empowered Rehman Dakait as a mechanism for controlling Lyari's vote bank and suppressing rival political organizations.[18][36][46] This arrangement, brokered by then-Sindh Interior Minister Zulfiqar Mirza and President Zardari, provided Rehman with political protection and legitimacy in exchange for ensuring PPP's dominance in local elections and eliminating rival political movements.[18][36] Under this political umbrella, Rehman's criminal operations expanded dramatically: he controlled the supply of illegal drugs, managed extortion networks targeting Lyari businesses, coordinated kidnapping for ransom operations, and directed weapons trafficking while simultaneously positioning himself as a community benefactor and local protector. The historical record indicates that Rehman distributed wealth earned from criminal enterprises to poor Lyari residents, cultivating an image as a "Robin Hood" figure protecting his community from external exploitation, an image that resonated sufficiently that his 2009 death resulted in massive funeral attendance and ongoing community division regarding his legacy.[36][13][20]
However, by 2009, Rehman's relationship with his political patron PPP had deteriorated as national and provincial political dynamics shifted. With the 2009 elections approaching and political competition intensifying, the PPP's commitment to protecting Rehman wavered, particularly as Lyari's gang violence had created an untenable security situation attracting international attention and complicating governance.[18][36] On August 9, 2009, Rehman Dakait was intercepted by police superintendent Chaudhry Aslam Khan and his Lyari Task Force in a steel town operation, resulting in a violent firefight in which Rehman and his companions were critically wounded; Rehman subsequently died from his injuries, officially recorded as an encounter killing by police.[36][39] However, substantial controversy surrounds the circumstances of his death, with supporters and family members claiming it was an extrajudicial killing orchestrated through political-police collaboration rather than a legitimate law enforcement operation, allegations that gain credibility when examining Aslam Khan's documented encounter history and the political pressure to eliminate Rehman at that specific moment.[36][16]
Akshaye Khanna's cinematic portrayal of Rehman Dakait captures multiple dimensions of the historical figure: his gradual rise through criminal ranks; his sophisticated understanding of how to cultivate political relationships for protection; his efforts to position himself as both a feared criminal operator and a community benefactor; his eventual entrapment between rival political forces and state security operations; and his violent death under circumstances that remain contested between official narratives and popular accounts.[8][36] The film also incorporates the historical reality that Rehman had a cousin named Uzair Baloch who served as his second-in-command and who would subsequently take control of the Peoples' Aman Committee after Rehman's death, leading to an even more violent period of Lyari gang warfare from 2009 to 2017.[36][17][20][56]
Ajay Sanyal / Ajit Doval: The Strategic Intelligence Director
R. Madhavan's portrayal of Ajay Sanyal, Director of the Intelligence Bureau in Dhurandhar, is explicitly based upon Ajit Kumar Doval, India's current National Security Advisor and one of the most influential figures in contemporary Indian security policy.[59][62] The filmmakers have acknowledged this inspiration directly, with the character even receiving substantial prosthetic makeup to physically resemble Doval, and the narrative intentionally placing Sanyal in scenarios that parallel documented moments in Doval's career.[59][62] Ajit Doval (born 1945) is a retired Indian Police Service officer from Kerala who transitioned into intelligence work and has served as National Security Advisor since 2014, currently in his third term, making him the primary security advisor to India's Prime Minister and a central figure in India's national security strategy.[59][62] Doval's career encompasses multiple significant security operations and intelligence initiatives spanning several decades.
Doval's documented career includes service during the 1988 siege of the Golden Temple in Operation Black Thunder, where he infiltrated the complex by posing as an ISI agent, mapping positions of Khalistani separatists and conducting espionage for Indian security forces.[59] His role during the 1999 IC-814 hijacking crisis represented a pivotal national security moment: Doval was among India's key negotiators in Kandahar, attempting to secure hostage release while simultaneously resisting terrorist demands; however, when the Indian government decided to release Masood Azhar and other militants, Doval reportedly characterized the decision as a "diplomatic failure," reflecting disagreement with the negotiating outcome.[60] Between the 1970s and 1990s, Doval served as an undercover agent in Pakistan for approximately seven years, collecting information on militant activities and Pakistani military operations, establishing him as one of India's most experienced undercover operatives and providing him with deep knowledge of Pakistani security apparatus and militant infrastructure.[59][62]
The film's depiction of Sanyal reveals thematic emphasis on the character's frustration with Indian governmental indecision and perceived weakness in responding to terror attacks, portraying him as a strategic thinker constrained by bureaucratic and political limitations.[3][22][38] A pivotal scene in Dhurandhar shows Sanyal advocating for aggressive infiltration operations while his bureaucratic superiors express hesitation, establishing the narrative tension between security establishment desires for decisive action and political leadership concerns about international relations and legal constraints.[3] In the film, Sanyal characterizes the 2001 Parliament attack as the moment when restraint becomes strategically untenable and infiltration operations become operationally justified, reflecting arguments made in Indian security circles that Pakistan-based terror networks require offensive counter-measures beyond conventional deterrence.[3][22] The historical Doval has indeed advocated for aggressive counter-terror operations, and the 2016 surgical strikes on Pakistani territory (officially framed as responses to a 2016 terror attack in Uri, Kashmir) and the February 2019 Balakot airstrikes against alleged terrorist camps were coordinated under Doval's strategic direction as National Security Advisor.[59] The film thus draws parallels between the fictional Sanyal's advocacy for "Operation Dhurandhar" and the historical Doval's documented support for direct military action against Pakistani-based terror infrastructure.
Major Iqbal / Mohammed Ilyas Kashmiri: The Militant-Terrorist Hybrid
Arjun Rampal's portrayal of Major Iqbal, the antagonist who controls sophisticated terror operations and counterfeit currency networks, is based upon Mohammed Ilyas Kashmiri, a documented Pakistani military officer turned Islamist militant and international terrorist who was among the most dangerous jihadi operators of the 2000s and 2010s.[25][41][44] Ilyas Kashmiri (1964-2011) represented a particularly dangerous archetype within the broader terror ecosystem: a professionally trained military operative who transitioned into jihadi militancy and who possessed both military expertise and international terrorist network connections.[41][44] Born in 1964 and trained as a soldier in Pakistan's armed forces, Kashmiri developed a reputation as a ruthless and highly skilled military operative before deserting conventional military service to join jihadist organizations in Afghanistan during the Soviet war, where he trained Afghan mujahideen rebels in explosives and military tactics.[41][44]
Following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Kashmiri transitioned into Kashmir-focused jihadist operations, founding or leading multiple militant organizations including Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) and the "313 Brigade," conducting cross-border militant operations into Indian-controlled Kashmir and establishing a reputation as one of the most operationally successful jihadi commanders in the region.[41][44] Kashmiri's documented activities included kidnappings, bombings, targeted assassinations, and direct combat operations against Indian security forces, accumulating multiple periods of imprisonment and capture before escaping each time through either security lapses or alleged political interventions.[41][44] Critically for understanding Dhurandhar's portrayal, Kashmiri was associated with numerous major terror attacks including the 2008 Mumbai attacks (which he reportedly proposed to al-Qaeda leadership as a mechanism for creating India-Pakistan war that would distract international attention from al-Qaeda), the 2010 Pune bombing that killed 16 people at a German bakery, and the assassination of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari's ally General Amir Faisal Alvi.[41][44] Kashmiri maintained documented connections with al-Qaeda leadership, with deceased al-Qaeda operative Mustafa Abu al-Yazid posthumously describing Kashmiri as heading "Qaedat al-Jihad in Kashmir," effectively making him an al-Qaeda operational commander.[41]
The United States designated Kashmiri as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" in August 2010, and the United Nations subsequently added him to its al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee blacklist, freezing his assets and banning international financial transactions with him or his organizations.[41][44] Kashmiri was reported killed on September 7, 2009, when a U.S. drone strike hit him in Machikhel, North Waziristan, though subsequent rumors suggested his survival and reemergence, until al-Qaeda officially confirmed his death in June 2011 through an audio statement.[41][44] The film's portrayal of Major Iqbal captures several dimensions of Kashmiri's historical profile: his military training and professional military bearing; his sophisticated understanding of weapons systems, counterfeit currency operations, and terror network logistics; his ability to move seamlessly between military, intelligence, and militant spheres; and his role in coordinating major terror attacks with international reach and sophisticated planning.[25][41]
Devavrat Kapoor / Jaswant Singh: The External Affairs Minister
The film's portrayal of Devavrat Kapoor, India's External Affairs Minister depicted as approving Operation Dhurandhar and negotiating during the IC-814 crisis, is based upon Jaswant Singh, who served as India's External Affairs Minister during 1998-2004 and thus was directly involved in both the IC-814 hijacking negotiations and the immediate aftermath of the 2001 Parliament attack.[37][61] Jaswant Singh's role during the IC-814 crisis was particularly significant: he personally traveled to Kandahar to negotiate with the hijackers and ultimately handed over three militant prisoners—including Masood Azhar—in exchange for hostage release, a decision that remains controversially analyzed in Indian security circles as either pragmatic crisis management or a capitulation to terrorism that subsequently enabled the formation of Jaish-e-Mohammed.[23][26][60][61] Singh's subsequent role as External Affairs Minister during the 2001 Parliament attack and the resulting India-Pakistan standoff positioned him at the center of India's diplomatic and security response to escalating terrorism.[37][61] The film's characterization of Devavrat Kapoor captures Singh's documented role as a politician-diplomat willing to make difficult decisions under extraordinary pressure while simultaneously facing criticism from security establishment figures who believed the government was responding inadequately to Pakistan-based terror threats.[37]
The Historical Reality of Operation Lyari and Lyari Gang Warfare
To fully comprehend Dhurandhar's narrative architecture and character portrayals, one must understand the documented reality of Lyari, the Karachi neighborhood that serves as the film's primary setting and which experienced genuine gang warfare, state counter-terror operations, and the documented infiltration of criminal networks by Pakistani and allegedly foreign intelligence services.[7][18][49] Lyari, historically known as Karachi's "Little Brazil" for its football culture and working-class identity, has undergone profound transformation from a labor colony into a center of organized crime and political violence, a transformation that reflects broader patterns of urban decay, gang warfare, and state fragmentation visible throughout Karachi.
The roots of Lyari's criminal ecosystem extend to the 1960s and 1970s when the neighborhood emerged as a node in hashish trafficking networks, with early gangsters including the notorious "Kala Nag" (Black Serpent) who operated in the 1960s before his death while fleeing police, followed by subsequent gang leaders including "Sheru" and "Dadal" who engaged in territorial violence using primarily knives and fists rather than sophisticated weapons.[46][49] The transformation to armed, organized crime occurred during the 1980s and 1990s when the Afghan jihad against Soviet occupation flooded Pakistan with automatic weapons, heroin trafficking networks, and thousands of trained militants, fundamentally altering Lyari's criminal ecology.[46][49][53] By the late 1990s and early 2000s, Lyari's gang structure had crystallized around powerful figures including Haji Lal Mohammad ("Haji Lalu"), Arshad Pappu (son of Haji Lalu), and Rehman Dakait, with territorial conflicts generating hundreds of casualties annually and creating an untenable security situation for Karachi's government.[36][39][46][49]
The 2001-2009 period witnessed the consolidation of Rehman Dakait's power within Lyari through combination of criminal ruthlessness and political patronage by Pakistan's ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, with Rehman establishing the Peoples' Aman Committee (PAC) as a political organization nominally dedicated to peacekeeping while serving as criminal enterprise management structure.[36][39][46][49][57] However, by 2012, the political calculus shifted dramatically as Rehman's relationship with his PPP patrons deteriorated and as Lyari's persistent violence created international pressure and governance crises for Karachi authorities. The result was "Operation Lyari" commenced on April 27, 2012, when Pakistani government security forces launched a large-scale crackdown against Lyari gangs, specifically targeting Uzair Baloch (Rehman's cousin who had taken control of PAC after Rehman's 2009 death) and his criminal organization.[18][49] The operation represented one of Karachi's most significant security actions since the 1990s, with police and paramilitary forces encountering fierce resistance involving rocket-propelled grenades, automatic weapons, and sophisticated defensive positions.[18][49]
Operation Lyari's initial phases generated substantial civilian casualties and attracted criticism from political quarters, eventually leading to operational pauses and negotiations.[18][49] However, after initial stalling, the operation resumed with greater intensity, ultimately contributing to the establishment of the broader "Karachi Operation" (2013-2017) wherein Pakistan Rangers, federal paramilitary forces, conducted systematic operations against all criminal and militant networks throughout Karachi, resulting in thousands of arrests and hundreds of documented extrajudicial killings.[18][49] By 2017, Lyari had transformed from an ungovernable criminal fiefdom into a relatively normalized neighborhood, though observers note that gang structures persist beneath the surface and that the massive violence utilized to achieve this normalization raises substantial human rights questions.[18][49] The film's narrative regarding Operation Dhurandhar thus parallels real-world Operation Lyari's objectives—dismantling organized crime networks and eliminating powerful criminal actors—while fictionalizing specific operational mechanisms and intelligence methodologies.
The Crucial Supporting Characters: Intelligence Officers, Politicians, and Criminal Facilitators
Beyond the five primary characters examined above, Dhurandhar incorporates several significant supporting characters whose real-world inspirations are documented and historically verified, adding layers of complexity to the film's narrative structure.
SP Chaudhry Aslam Khan: The Encounter Specialist
Sanjay Dutt's portrayal of SP Chaudhary Aslam Khan depicts a decorated police officer leading the Lyari Task Force established to eliminate organized crime, based directly upon Chaudhry Aslam Khan (also known as SSP Chaudhry Aslam), a documented and highly controversial figure in Karachi's security history.[19][16] The historical Chaudhry Aslam Khan (dates of birth and death contested; died 2014) was a Senior Superintendent of Police who gained international notoriety and domestic fame/infamy for his "encounter specialist" approach to eliminating high-profile criminals and militants in Karachi, reportedly conducting over 100 extrajudicial encounters during his career where suspects were killed in police operations rather than arrested for trial.[16][19] Aslam's documented career included significant early operations against the Mutahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a Karachi-based political organization with armed wings, participation in counter-terrorist operations against Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) extremists, and direct involvement in the elimination of numerous gangsters and militant commanders, earning him the informal title "Super Cop" within Pakistani security circles.[16] Aslam's operational tactics generated enormous controversy: human rights organizations documented allegations of extrajudicial killings, torture, and disappearances, while simultaneously Pakistani state authorities and sections of the Pakistani public celebrated him as a hero fighting terrorism and organized crime.[16]
The critical historical event involving Aslam relevant to Dhurandhar's narrative is his direct involvement in Rehman Dakait's death on August 9, 2009, when Aslam's task force intercepted Rehman in Steel Town, Karachi, resulting in a gunfight that left Rehman mortally wounded.[16][19][36] This operation occurred at the moment when political pressures were mounting for Rehman's elimination, with allegations emerging that Aslam coordinated with political figures (specifically politician Nabil Gabol) to target Rehman as a mechanism for consolidating power within Lyari.[16][17][19][49] The circumstances of Rehman's death have generated substantial controversy, with supporters and family members alleging that it constituted an extrajudicial killing and premeditated encounter rather than a legitimate police operation, allegations that gain credibility when examining Aslam's documented history of similar operations.[16][36] Aslam himself faced multiple investigations into alleged extrajudicial killings, was imprisoned on charges related to a fake encounter, was released, and returned to duty, ultimately being assassinated on January 25, 2014, in a suicide bombing attack claimed by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, an organization whose leadership Aslam had targeted through his counter-terror operations.[16][19] Aslam's death occurred through a massive bomb blast targeting his vehicle, killing him instantly, with multiple individuals celebrating his death as revenge while simultaneously mourning him as a fallen security hero, exemplifying the ambiguous legacy of security officers who operate in gray zones between law enforcement and extrajudicial violence.[16]
The film's depiction of Aslam captures his documented dual character: his ruthlessness in eliminating criminal and militant targets; his willingness to operate outside formal legal processes; his complicated relationships with political actors who simultaneously utilized him for their own purposes and positioned him to take political fallout for controversial operations; and his ultimate vulnerability despite his formidable security apparatus.[8][19] The film depicts Aslam and Hamza (the intelligence agent) coordinating Rehman's death through direct operational collaboration, a fictionalized version of the historical reality that Aslam's operations against high-profile criminals often involved coordination with multiple security and intelligence entities.
Jameel Jamali / Nabil Gabol: The Political Manipulator
Rakesh Bedi's portrayal of Jameel Jamali, a senior politician from the Pakistan Awami Party (PAP) who initially supports Rehman Dakait before pivoting to eliminate him, is based upon Nabil Gabol, a documented and highly controversial Pakistani politician with a lengthy political career in Karachi, particularly in Lyari.[48][49][56] The historical Nabil Gabol (born November 16, 1962) is a member of the Pakistan Peoples Party who has served in multiple legislative capacities including the Sindh Provincial Assembly and National Assembly, representing Karachi constituencies across several decades.[48] Gabol's political career has been marked by substantial allegations of involvement with organized crime figures, gang networks, and utilization of criminal actors for political purposes, allegations that have generated controversy but have not resulted in criminal convictions.[48][49]
The critical historical moment involving Gabol relevant to Dhurandhar's narrative concerns his alleged coordination with police officials, specifically SSP Chaudhry Aslam Khan, in targeting Uzair Baloch and other Lyari gang leaders during the 2012 Operation Lyari phase.[17][49] According to a 2012 Vice News documentary titled "Guide to Karachi," Nabil Gabol and Chaudhry Aslam had aligned strategically with the objective of eliminating Uzair Baloch's dominance over Lyari, with Gabol leveraging his political position and Aslam utilizing his security apparatus to coordinate operations against Uzair's gang.[17][49] The documentary noted that despite being Lyari's elected political representative, Gabol had not visited the area for approximately four years prior to the operation, yet when he returned, he did so armed and describing Lyari as a "Chicago-like mafia," revealing political posturing disconnected from genuine community concern.[17][49] Gabol's political career has also been characterized by accusations from political opponents and civil society organizations of contributing to gang violence through patronage of criminal actors and utilization of gang members for electoral mobilization and political intimidation.[48][49] The film's characterization of Jameel Jamali captures Gabol's documented political opportunism: his willingness to cultivate relationships with criminal actors; his pragmatic shift from supporting Rehman/PAC to targeting Uzair Baloch when political calculus shifted; his utilization of state security forces for political purposes; and his positioning as a community representative while maintaining distance from community concerns.[8][49]
The Khanani Brothers: Terror Finance Networks
The film incorporates "Khananis" as characters representing counterfeit currency and money laundering operations allegedly connected to terror financing, based upon Javed Khanani and his brother Altaf Khanani, documented international money launderers and financial facilitators for terrorist organizations, criminal syndicates, and drug cartels.[47][50] Javed Khanani and his brother Altaf established Khanani & Kalia International (KKI), a money exchange house that at its peak controlled approximately 40 percent of Pakistan's foreign exchange market through hundreds of branches across multiple countries, functioning as what one observer characterized as the "McDonald's of Money Exchange."[47][50] However, beneath the legitimate corporate facade, KKI operated as a sophisticated money laundering operation serving multiple illicit purposes, including movement of funds for Lashkar-e-Taiba terror attacks, Taliban operations, al-Qaeda financing, drug cartel money laundering, and organized crime enterprises.[47][50]
The operational mechanism was extraordinarily sophisticated: a terror organization or criminal network would deposit Pakistani rupees into KKI branches; KKI would contact agents in Dubai or Mumbai; the Mumbai agent would release equivalent Indian rupees to the terror network's local cell; the transactions would be balanced through ledger entries without physical cross-border movement of currency, avoiding SWIFT banking system triggers and regulatory oversight.[47][50] This "hawala-style" informal financial system transferred billions of dollars annually and provided critical enabling infrastructure for terror attacks including the 2008 Mumbai attacks.[47][50] In September 2015, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration conducted an undercover sting operation, with an agent posing as a representative for a South American drug cartel contacting Altaf Khanani and offering to launder drug money; Altaf accepted without hesitation, subsequently in secret recorded meetings in Panama boasting of his ability to launder billions for "any entity," including the Taliban and al-Qaeda.[47][50] Altaf's arrest in Panama and extradition to the United States resulted in U.S. Treasury designation of Khanani & Kalia International as a "Transnational Criminal Organization," with financial sanctions freezing their assets and prohibiting U.S. financial transactions.[47][50] Javed Khanani subsequently died by suicide (or was liquidated, according to some analyses) in what observers characterized as a "liquidation of a different kind," collapsing the financial infrastructure that had enabled terror financing across South Asia.[47] The film's depiction of counterfeit currency operations and money laundering networks thus reflects documented historical reality regarding the sophisticated financial mechanisms enabling terror attacks and criminal enterprises in the region.
The Blurred Line Between Fact and Fiction: Narrative Construction and Political Messaging
A central critical question regarding Dhurandhar concerns the filmmakers' deliberate blurring of factual history with cinematic fiction, a strategy that generates both interpretive ambiguity and ethical complexity. Director Aditya Dhar's approach differs fundamentally from conventional biographical or historical films that maintain clear demarcation between documented fact and creative interpretation: instead, Dhurandhar incorporates actual footage from the 2008 Mumbai attacks showing real violence and real deaths, incorporates audio recordings of actual terrorist communications, references documented criminal enterprises and real historical figures by name or obvious reference, yet simultaneously presents the central narrative of "Operation Dhurandhar" and specific operational details as entirely fictional.[3][22][38] This hybrid approach creates deliberate cognitive dissonance, wherein audiences must simultaneously engage with historical reality and cinematic fiction without clear boundaries between them.[3][22]
The film's opening credits and closing disclaimers assert that all characters are fictional and that resemblance to real persons is coincidental, yet this disclaimer sits in tension with the filmmakers' explicit acknowledgment in interviews and marketing materials that the film draws inspiration from real events and real figures.[3][22] Dhar's previous directorial effort, "Uri: The Surgical Strikes" (2019), similarly employed this hybrid approach, depicting India's 2016 surgical strikes on Pakistani territory through fictionalized characters and scenarios while incorporating genuine security establishment figures and actual military operations.[38] Critics have characterized this approach as propaganda cinema designed to flatter ruling Indian establishments and existing government narratives regarding military superiority and security prowess, while simultaneously generating public mobilization around state security narratives and national pride discourse.[38] Commentators have noted that Dhar's films characterize India's security decisions as uniformly justified and necessary, Pakistani actors as categorically threatening, and internal Indian political dissent as potentially destabilizing, creating narratives that reinforce nationalist security discourse.[38]
The specific political messaging in Dhurandhar becomes evident in critical scenes wherein the IB director character expresses frustration with governmental weakness and corruption, implying that only decisive security establishment action unrestrained by bureaucratic or political hesitation can adequately respond to terror threats.[3][22][38] A scene set in 2008 depicts the IB director suggesting that preserving evidence regarding Pakistani counterfeit currency operations requires waiting for "a politician who will act," widely interpreted as referencing the anticipated arrival of Narendra Modi's government in 2014, which has indeed pursued more assertive military and intelligence policies against Pakistan.[22][38][59] The film concludes with the claim "Yeh Naya Bharat Hain, Ghar Mein Ghuske Maarta Hain" (this is new India, it will enter your [enemy's] home and attack you), directly referencing security establishment rhetoric associated with Modi-era policies including the 2016 surgical strikes and 2019 Balakot airstrikes.[3][22][38] This explicit political messaging, combined with the filmmakers' incorporation of real events and real figures, creates a narrative that functions simultaneously as entertainment and as political communication designed to mobilize support for government security policies.
Conclusion: The Convergence of History, Narrative, and Strategic Communication
Dhurandhar represents an extraordinarily complex cultural artifact that cannot be adequately categorized as either pure entertainment, historical documentation, or political propaganda, but rather encompasses elements of all three simultaneously. The film's construction draws from documented historical events of tremendous significance—the 1999 IC-814 hijacking that resulted in terrorist release enabling future terror organizations, the 2001 Parliament attack demonstrating state vulnerability, and the 2008 Mumbai attacks representing mass casualty terrorism—while depicting these real events through fictionalized characters and scenarios that incorporate inspiration from verified historical figures including intelligence leaders, police officers, gangsters, money launderers, and militants. The key characters—Hamza Ali Mazari representing undercover operatives generally, Rehman Dakait representing documented criminal-political nexus dynamics, Ajay Sanyal representing decision-making within security establishments, Major Iqbal representing militant-terrorist operators, and supporting characters representing broader security, political, and financial ecosystems—collectively establish a narrative wherein intelligence operations, criminal enterprises, terrorist networks, and political systems interpenetrate in complex webs of relationship and dependency.
The underlying historical reality depicted in Dhurandhar, particularly regarding Operation Lyari, the Karachi security situation, and the role of documented figures such as Chaudhry Aslam Khan and Nabil Gabol, reveals genuine complexities that cinematic dramatization necessarily simplifies: the persistent ambiguity regarding whether security force operations constitute legitimate law enforcement or extrajudicial violence; the symbiotic relationship between political actors and criminal enterprises; the reality that multiple competing power centers (state security forces, political parties, criminal organizations, international intelligence agencies) operate simultaneously within urban spaces without clear hierarchical relationship; and the extraordinary human costs of attempting to impose security through force-based interventions in complex socio-political environments. The film's engagement with these realities, while simultaneously incorporating them into nationalist security narratives and political messaging supportive of particular governmental approaches, exemplifies contemporary challenges in representing contested historical events through popular cultural media.
For scholars of South Asian security, intelligence history, and contemporary terrorism, Dhurandhar functions as a fascinating case study in how cinematic narrative construction shapes public understanding of complex historical events, how governments leverage popular culture for security communication, and how entertainment products engage with verified historical actors and events while claiming fictional status. The controversy surrounding character inspirations, the family of Major Mohit Sharma's legal action regarding representation, and the ongoing debates regarding operational accuracy and political messaging demonstrate that the film has stimulated precisely the types of critical engagement and historical reflection that complex works should generate. Whether one views Dhurandhar as principally entertainment, political communication, or historical engagement, its engagement with real events, real figures, and documented security challenges ensures that the film will remain a significant artifact for understanding both South Asian contemporary history and twenty-first-century popular culture's relationship to geopolitical conflict.