There is no easy answer in Daayra. Meghna Gulzar’s latest film places two police officers on opposite sides of a controversial encounter and asks a difficult question — when the system fails, how far can those responsible for enforcing the law go?
Starring Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran as DCP Ajooni Kohli and DCP Raman Kumar, Daayra is less interested in giving the audience a conventional hero or villain and more focused on the grey space between justice, law and public anger.
That approach works for much of the film. But despite a strong premise and two compelling performances, the film occasionally feels like it is stopping just short of making the impact it promises.
Daayra Movie Review: What Is The Film About?
The story begins with the brutal killing of a young woman, Ragini Poojari. Her death triggers public outrage, while DCP Raman Kumar takes charge of the investigation. His team eventually tracks down the accused, leading to a controversial police encounter. Raman becomes a public hero, with many seeing the incident as swift justice.
But questions remain over what really happened. That brings DCP Ajooni Kohli into the picture. She is tasked with investigating the encounter and begins retracing the events that led to it. What initially appears to be a straightforward police success gradually becomes far more complicated. The film’s real conflict is therefore not simply between two officers. It is between due process and instant justice.
Daayra Movie Review: Kareena Kapoor Is Excellent As Ajooni
Kareena Kapoor Khan plays Ajooni without the usual larger-than-life cop mannerisms. There is no unnecessary shouting or forced aggression. Instead, Kareena gives the character an understated authority. Ajooni listens, observes and follows the evidence, even when what she discovers becomes increasingly uncomfortable.
Her strongest moments come when the film allows her to simply investigate rather than turn her into an action heroine. There is also an interesting personal layer to Ajooni through her father, a retired judge played by Kanwaljit Singh. The film hints at how his own experience with the justice system has shaped her worldview, but this thread is not explored enough.
That feels like a missed opportunity because a little more depth here could have made Ajooni an even more complicated character.
Daayra Movie Review: Prithviraj Sukumaran Makes Raman Compelling
Prithviraj Sukumaran is equally effective as Raman. Raman believes the conventional system is too slow to deliver justice. He has seen how legal procedures can allow criminals to exploit loopholes, and he believes that sometimes immediate action is necessary.
The interesting part is that Daayra doesn’t simply turn him into a villain. Prithviraj plays Raman with enough restraint to make his thinking understandable, even when his methods become difficult to defend. That creates the film’s most interesting tension: the audience can understand why Raman feels the way he does while still questioning the consequences of his approach.
The professional friction between Kareena and Prithviraj becomes the film’s biggest strength.
Daayra Movie Review: Meghna Gulzar Keeps The Story Grounded
Meghna Gulzar doesn’t turn Daayra into a conventional police thriller. The film moves between different timelines and gradually reveals what happened, using parallel editing to connect the crime, the police investigation and the encounter inquiry.
This structure keeps the story moving, particularly in the first half. The procedural portions are also among the film’s strongest sections because they show how institutional failures can happen through seemingly ordinary decisions, a complaint not being handled properly, paperwork being pushed around and crucial details being overlooked. The film is also visually controlled. The cinematography and editing help maintain the tension without relying on constant action.
But the pacing becomes uneven in places. At 143 minutes, Daayra occasionally takes longer than necessary to reveal information, and some of its character threads don’t receive the same attention as the central investigation.
Daayra Movie Review: The Biggest Problem Is The Payoff
The biggest issue with Daayra is not its subject or performances. It is the gap between what the film sets up and what it ultimately delivers. The ideological clash between Ajooni and Raman promises a major confrontation. The entire film builds towards their opposing views of justice meeting head-on. Yet when that moment arrives, it feels surprisingly restrained.
The film wants the audience to wrestle with both positions, but it doesn’t push either character far enough to make that conflict truly uncomfortable. The result is thoughtful rather than explosive. That is not necessarily a flaw in itself. In fact, the film’s refusal to spoon-feed an answer is admirable. But after spending so much time establishing the stakes, the final stretch could have carried considerably more emotional and dramatic weight.
Daayra Movie Review: Final Verdict
Daayra is a serious, well-acted crime drama with something meaningful to say about justice, institutional failure and the temptation of instant solutions. Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran are the film’s biggest assets. Their contrasting performances give the central debate weight, while Meghna Gulzar keeps the narrative grounded in the investigation rather than turning it into a formulaic cop drama.
The film’s biggest weakness is that it sometimes plays its most interesting ideas too safely. The personal histories of its central characters could have been richer, the pacing could have been tighter and the final confrontation needed more impact. Still, Daayra is worth watching for its performances and the questions it leaves behind. It may not completely deliver on the potential of its premise, but it does something increasingly rare in crime dramas, it asks you to think before deciding who is right.