🇨🇳 In Sichuan's remote mountainous regions, China subsidizes farmers' train fares so they can use them for traveling with livestock
The goats seem happy about that, the other passengers, less so
Writers: Mhedi, Ian
gaurav gera despite years in the industry looks so overwhelmed with the response he’s getting post dhurandhar. honestly, these are the people who deserve attention and hype not clout chasers like orry
Why Dhurandhar?
D-Day came out in 2013, had excellent performances (Rishi, Irrfan, Rampal), but was a flop. Why? Because people could not resonate with the story of India fighting back against Pakistan. It wasn't a badly made movie, but political fiction requires some link to the real world. The UPA years had none of it.
Fast forward to 2025-26 (Dhurandhar 1 and 2). You have Ranveer, Akshay, Rampal, Madhavan, Dutt, Rakesh Bedi, and this movie is a magnum opus. What changed in these thirteen years?
People resonate with the story. Why? Because they see how India now responds to Pakistan. The politics is subjective, but the kinetic action is tangible and visible. Surgical strikes in 2016, Balakot Strikes in 2019, and Operation Sindoor in 2025. They read about the unknown men every month. They connect the dots.
You want to go ahead and call it propaganda, sure, be my guest. However, doesn't explain why a story about Dawood Ibrahim getting caught and killed didn't find an audience in 2013 (and Rishi Kapoor was stunning in his craft), but a story about the internal decimation of Pakistan becomes a magnum opus in 2026?
The crowd cheering during that one real-life political cameo in Dhurandhar-2 has some answers.
A small community got brutally thrown out of Persia. It came to India, used its genius to become part of India's elite, a status it retains to this day. The community is integral to India's #1 city. Sure we are "gold standard", by the std of the real world perhaps platinum;)
'Ishq Jalakar' has a beautiful english translation.
My heart lies shattered
I came here leaving
My love scorched and tattered
Into the sky I soar
and my heart exhilarates some more
In my passion lies my peace
My heart is now obsessed it seems
#Dhurandhar#Netflix#RanveerSingh
The whole picture: this has gone far beyond a fringe movement. It is as close to mainstream as the American far right has ever got to in decades. This was engineered with X’s algo actively promoting anti-Indian racist content two years ago. It snowballed over time. Obscure handles were quoted and supported openly by this platform’s owner. Racist material got amplified by Silicon Valley tech leaders, venture capitalists and eventually, mainstream politicians.
It was always a political and geopolitical project. The bot farm locations lend an entirely American project a cover of plausible deniability. We cannot miss the forest for the trees.
Random trivia - In storytelling, the football scene is something that will be considered as a 'Chekhov's Gun'. Unlike a Chekhov’s Gun, an Easter egg is not required to matter to the plot.
Brace yourself!
As soon as the authorities declare the Red Fort blast a terror attack, the intellectual whitewashing gang will wake up to brand it an “inside job” by the govt to influence the Bihar election, while parroting their “sarhad par tanav hai kya, pata to karo chunav hai kya” roadside-philosopher garbage, dressed up as deep thought.