Hurdang is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhat and produced by Shailesh R Singh under his banner of Karma Media and Entertainment. The film features Sunny Kaushal, Nushrratt Bharuccha and Vijay Varma in the lead roles. The film is a love story set in the backdrop of the student agitation of 1990 in Allahabad. The principal photography commenced on 6 July 2019. It released theatrically on 8 April 2022.
REVIEW: There’s no time like today to make a conscientious and thoroughly-researched film about student politics of the 1990s, fuelled by caste and class divide. But when someone attempts a film around this crucial subject, without sufficiently sinking their teeth into the topic, the events that took place then, and the scene behind the key happenings of the era, the result looks like Hurdang, directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhat.
Spread over 122 minutes of run time, the film sets up a love story against the backdrop of the agitation among students in Allahabad (today’s Prayagraj) in the year 1990 against the Mandal Commission report’s implementation. Neither has the backdrop been researched and displayed well, nor has the love story been fleshed out in a way that it churns your insides.
Even though the actors have done their bits right, they could only go as far as the written material could take them. The fact that an artiste like Vijay Verma didn’t have a solid character to play, an arc to display or Nushrratt and Sunny didn’t have enough to elevate their performances is hard to miss. Issues like continuity jumps and the lingo that changes every few seconds in the film stand out like a sore thumb.
Had the issue in the backdrop been thoroughly researched and been put to better use visually and otherwise, the film would not only have been more layered in its approach, but it would have had more etched out characters, deeper conflicts and stronger resolutions, some humour and a message that would travel far and wide in the country today.