Dunki (film)

Dunki
Directed by	Rajkumar Hirani
Produced by	Gauri Khan Rajkumar Hirani Jyoti Deshpande
Written by	Rajkumar Hirani Abhijat Joshi Kanika Dhillon
Starring	Shah Rukh Khan Taapsee Pannu Vikram Kochhar Anil Grover Vicky Kaushal Boman Irani Deven Bhojani
Music by	Pritam Shantanu Moitra
Cinematography	C. K. Muraleedharan
Edited by	Rajkumar Hirani
Production company	Red Chillies Entertainment Rajkumar Hirani Films Jio Studios
Release date	21 December 2023 (2023-12-21) (Overseas) 22 December 2023 (2023-12-22) (India)
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Dunki is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language social comedy drama film based on the illegal immigration technique called "donkey flight". The film is co-written, co-produced, edited and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, under the production banners of Rajkumar Hirani Films, Jio Studios and Red Chillies Entertainment. Theatrically released in India on 21 December 2023, the film stars Shah Rukh Khan, Taapsee Pannu, Vikram Kochhar, Anil Grover, Vicky Kaushal, Boman Irani and Deven Bhojani.

Premise

World War II created a shortage of labour in England, so they started migrating workers from India in large numbers to work in their fields and factories. Many youths from Punjab took this opportunity to make a life for themselves in England, and this soon spurred other youths to find ways to migrate to England. The Commonwealth Immigration Act of 1962 put an end to migration and it was now difficult to move to England, but the dream persisted. In 2020, a middle-aged Manu Randhawa (Taapsee Pannu) escapes from a hospital in London, England and meets Advocate Puru Patel (Deven Bhojani), an immigration lawyer of Indian origin. Manu wants a visa to travel to India, but Puru states that receiving an Indian visa is difficult for her due to her past actions. Thus, Manu requests Puru's assistance in connecting her with her ex-lover, Hardayal Singh Dhillon (Shah Rukh Khan), also known as Hardy, who is ecstatic who receive Manu's phone call in Laltu, Punjab, India after 25 years. Manu asks Hardy to meet her in Dubai, UAE, so that he can bring her back to India because she is unable to receive an Indian visa. Manu and her two friends, Balinder Lakhanpal (Vikram Kochhar), also known as Buggu, and Balli Kakkad (Anil Grover), board an airplane from London to travel to Dubai and meet Hardy.

25 years ago, in 1995, Manu, Buggu and Balli are shown to be living in Laltu and yearning to immigrate to England for a better life. Manu's mansion is mortgaged and she works as a cook at a local dhaba, Buggu's mother works as a security guard at a local factory and Balli works as a barber for his mother works as a tailor to make ends meet. Poor and uneducated, the three are unable to receive a visa to England despite trying various methods. The travel agent (Rohitash Gaud) tells Manu to learn wrestling, so that she can receive a sports visa on the Indian Wrestling Team for the Olympics. One day, Hardy, an ex-soldier in the Indian Army, arrives in their village from Pathankot as his life was saved by Manu's brother, Mahinder (Suhail Zargar), when he was shot by terrorists. Mahinder was a civilian, but carried Hardy on his shoulders to the nearest military hospital and even stayed with him for many weeks till he was out of danger. After being discharged from the hospital, Hardy has come to return his tape recorder left behind, but realises that Mahinder has died in an accident, being survived by his widow (Jaanvi Sangwan) and her son and leaving Manu and her family in a poor financial situation. Hardy promises to help Manu reach London in return for her brother's kindness and starts to teach her wrestling moves. When Manu returns to the agent, she finds that he was a fraud and that he escaped after taking ₹150,000 from Buggu and ₹30,000 from Balli. Buggu was asked to pose as a kidney doctor with fake degrees, but he fails the simple questions from the immigration officer. Balli was asked to marry a UK citizen, who was supposedly in India, but it turns out that many other men had paid their agents to marry the same woman who never existed.

When Hardy informs Manu, Buggu and Balli that it is easier to receive a UK student visa by passing the IELTS test, they all enroll at an IELTS coaching class taught by Geetu Gulati (Boman Irani), where they meet Sukhi (Vicky Kaushal). Sukhi wants to travel to London to save his ex-girlfriend, Jassi, who was forcefully married off to an NRI man and is physically abused by him. When Geetu mocks Hardy in class, Manu stands up for him and defends him by stating that a good teacher is like Hardy, who supports the students and makes them practice instead of mocking them. Since Geetu is not an effective teacher, Hardy comes up with a generic speech which can be delivered against any topic in the speaking test and makes everyone memorize it. However, the IELTS test goes differently for everyone, with only Balli receiving the opportunity to use the generic speech. Balli eventually clears the exams and flies to London with a student visa, while the other four fail and are left in a fix in India. Once in London, Balli sends photographs of himself in front of a big house and a car, making his friends and family in India believe that he has made it big in the UK. He also calls Sukhi to break the news of Jassi having committed suicide after learning about Sukhi failing in IELTS, causing a devastated Sukhi to douse himself in kerosene and commit self-immolation. At Sukhi's funeral, Hardy, who is traumatised by Sukhi's death, promises to take Manu and Buggu to London himself through the last resort available: the Dunki route which is the Indian version of the donkey route for the people who enter a foreign country illegally without a passport or visa.

The film then transverses through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey as Hardy, Manu and Buggu make a bid for England and are joined by Chameli Nagra (Komal Sachdeva), Parminder Dingra (Diwanshu Gambhir), also known as Pampi, and Gulab Nagra (Vishnu Kaushal), who are three more village folks from Laltu. While crossing through Iran, they run into a ruthless border patrol and Chameli, Pampi and Gulab are tragically shot dead at the hands of them. The patrol detains the three survivors, but when one of the officers attempts to rape Manu, an enraged Hardy retaliates by eliminating him and the other two patrol officers. Hardy, Manu and Buggu proceed to hop aboard a train, travelling through the scorchy deserts and encountering snowy mountains, and board a freight container on the last leg of the sea voyage, in which they miserably spend 27 days and the conditions are worse than a sewer. Finally, much to their happiness, the group manages to reach London, where they are shocked to find Balli working as a living statue and realise that the photographs that Balli had sent were fake. Balli is actually leading a hand-to-mouth existence in England as the college of his student visa never existed. He shares a small ramshackle slum with a number of other illegal immigrants sleeping in bunk-beds, and in constant fear of being discovered by the police and immigration authorities.

Initially, the quartet finds jobs as cleaning staff in malls and large grocery stores, or as selling adult films in London. They meet Puru, who advises Manu to go through a sham marriage as an easy way to receive British citizenship. Manu reluctantly agrees to do so by marrying a drug addict for 100 pounds. Puru states that once Manu is a British citizen, she can divorce the drug addict and then help the others become British citizens too. During the marriage ceremony in church, Hardy is enraged by the drug addict's attempt to kiss Manu, and they engage in a fight due to which the entire group is arrested by the police. However, Puru visits them in prison and advises them to seek right of asylum in the court, by claiming that their lives are in danger in India due to war and persecution in order to stay in the country. As an ex-soldier, Hardy refuses to betray his country, and makes a moving speech to the judge that asylum due to poverty or prosecution makes no difference. However, the judge follows the law and ignores that human tragedy behind the curse of poverty. but the others follow through, rationalising their decision by pointing out all the hardships they have faced in making it so far, and the financial consequences of leaving England. As a result, Hardy is deported back to India by the police, while Manu, Buggu and Balli receive asylum in England and become British citizens, initially working as living statues.

Back in the present, Manu, Balli and Buggu reunite with Hardy in Dubai after 25 years. At this point, Manu reveals to Hardy that she never got married and only published a marriage card for Hardy, so that he moved on with his life and got settled back in India. Manu, Buggu and Balli wish to return to India to spend their remaining life in their hometown, but their visa was denied by India as they had claimed asylum in England. With Geetu's help, Hardy visits Bakir, a local agent, who arranges for them to return home through the Dunki route. Armed with all the Indian paraphernalia (from clothing to mobile phones to newspapers) and surrendering their passports to Bakir, the quartet attempts to leave for India through a cargo container in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, but Bakir falsely informs the Saudi immigration authorities about four Indians travelling to London in a container, having planned the same with Hardy. After they are arrested, they deceive the immigration officials into believing that they are actually Indian citizens travelling illegally to London, with assistance from Geetu in India. Manu, Buggu and Balli give their names as Chameli, Pampi and Gulab, who are still listed as missing Indian citizens and India accepts them and Hardy back. The Saudi immigration authorities prove in the court that the four are Indians and deport them back to India on an airplane.

Soon after, the quartet arrives in Laltu and Manu, Buggu and Balli are delighted to find their families whom they left behind hale and hearty courtesy the money they earned over the years. Hardy has also renamed Manu's mansion "Manu Di Kothi" ("Manu's Mansion) from "Randhawa Di Kothi" ("Randhawas' Mansion") and has created a Big Ben clock on top of it. While they are watching the Diwali fireworks in the night, Hardy shockingly confesses to Manu that he never got married because he continued to love her by the time they were separated. Hardy then takes out an engagement ring and proposes to her for marriage and a delighted Manu accepts it. However, in the moments immediately following the event, Manu silently dies from the brain tumour of which she was a patient for one month and which prompted her desire to return to Laltu. Hardy, stricken by grief at her sudden death, puts the engagement ring into her hands and hugs her dead body, watching the Diwali fireworks with tears in his eyes. All his life, he waited for this moment but when it came, Hardy could not be together with his love. Six months after Manu's death, Hardy, Balli and Buggu meet an agent who offers to take them to London through the Dunki route. Hardy throws the agent down on the ground and then all three of them walk away.

The film ends with an epilogue that no visa was required to enter any country just 140 years ago and that with visas came discrimination in migration. Today, borders bar only the poor who are refused visas on the basis of wealth and education. Each year, more than 1 million people try to cross borders illegally in search of a better life, and many die on the way, their bodies never to be found. Their families cannot perform the last rites, as they never know if their loved ones are alive or dead, and of those who survive, only few are able to come back to the home they once left.

Cast

• Shah Rukh Khan
• Taapsee Pannu
• Dia Mirza
• Boman Irani
• Dharmendra
• Satish Shah
• Parikshit Sahni
• Vicky Kaushal (cameo)

Production

Development

In late 2020 it was rumoured that Shah Rukh Khan would team up with Rajkumar Hirani. In August 2021 Scripting was completed. The company made a public announcement on 19 April 2022, confirming the project with a humorous announcement video.

Hirani co-wrote the film's script along with Abhijat Joshi and Kanika Dhillon. Cinematographer Amit Roy left the film due to creative differences with Hirani and was replaced by C. K. Muraleedharan who had already worked with Hirani for 3 Idiots, Lage Raho Munna Bhai and PK.

Casting

Mukesh Chhabra was the casting director. Taapsee Pannu was finalised as the female lead opposite Khan. Later Vicky Kaushal, Boman Irani, Dia Mirza and Satish Shah joined the cast.

Filming

Principal photography commenced in September 2021, Khan started shooting his part from April 2022 in Mumbai. After that team went internationally to Budapest and London In July 2022, and it was wrapped up in August. In October Khan shot a massive bike sequence with 500 people in Mumbai. Next scheduled of 12 days was held in November in Saudi Arabia. The film become the first Bollywood film to shoot in Neom. There was also an underwater sequence shot in Mumbai. The team went to Kashmir in April 2023 for a 4-day scheduled shoot in Sonamarg and Pulwama.

Music

The soundtrack are composed by Pritam. It includes songs from singers like Shaan, Arijit Singh and Sonu Nigam.

Release

Theatrical

It is scheduled to release on 22 December 2023, coinciding with Christmas. It was rumoured that it will be postponed to 2024, but Khan confirmed in the Jawan success press meet that it will release on the said date. The teaser of the film is expected to be attached with Tiger 3.

Distribution

Yash Raj Films is distributing it in overseas market including North America.

Home Media

Non-theatrical rights of the film were sold for around ₹230 crores. The post-release streaming rights were acquired by JioCinema for ₹155 crores, one of the highest ever for a single language Indian film.

External links

• Dunki at IMDb
• Dunki at Bollywood Hungama