Daayra Movie Review: Meghna Gulzar's Vigilante Drama Ditches Procedure for Retribution

Meghna Gulzar's Daayra abandons the forensic objectivity of Talvar to deliver an unsettling, one-sided defense of extrajudicial encounter killings starring Prithviraj Sukumaran and Kareena Kapoor Khan. The film uses the tragic 2019 Hyderabad veterinary doctor rape and murder case not to question investigative integrity, but to argue that staged police murders are the only practical substitute for India's glacial judicial machinery.

Daayra Movie Review: The Verdict

Meghna Gulzar's Daayra is a well-shot, sharply paced crime thriller that fails as an investigative procedural because director Meghna Gulzar rigs the narrative scales in favor of extrajudicial executions. Prithviraj Sukumaran delivers an intimidating, measured turn as encounter specialist DCP Raman Kumar, while Kareena Kapoor Khan struggles with a paper-thin characterization as internal investigator Ajooni Kohli. Viewers expecting the clinical, Rashomon-style balance of Talvar will instead find an emotional justification for vigilantism that confuses public bloodlust with institutional justice.

Detail	Specification
Release Date	September 18, 2026
Director	Meghna Gulzar
Runtime	138 minutes
Lead Cast	Prithviraj Sukumaran (DCP Raman Kumar), Kareena Kapoor Khan (Ajooni Kohli), Jitendra Joshi, Anuja Sathe, Biswapati Sarkar
Status	In Theatres

The Illusion of Balance: Raman Kumar Versus Ajooni Kohli

The central conflict of Daayra sets up two opposing police factions operating across alternating timelines. DCP Raman Kumar, played by Prithviraj Sukumaran, leads a relentless manhunt through semi-rural outposts to arrest four men suspected of raping and murdering a young woman. Running parallel to this chase is the internal investigation headed by Special Investigation Team officer Ajooni Kohli, played by Kareena Kapoor Khan.

Ajooni arrives in town while local crowds are showering petals on Raman's police cruiser. Her mandate is clear: interrogate Raman's team, reconstruct the crime scene, and determine whether the overnight shootout that left all four suspects dead was a genuine escape attempt or a staged execution.

The investigative structure mimics the National Transportation Safety Board dynamic seen in Clint Eastwood's Sully, where clinical desk investigators interrogate battlefield heroes. The critical difference is that Daayra treats Ajooni's vigilance as an irritating bureaucratic nuisance rather than a constitutional safeguard.

Kareena Kapoor Khan is given little room to construct an authentic interior life for Ajooni. She is directed to look skeptical, adjust tailored blazers, and deliver smug gotcha questions that wilt the moment Raman counters with street-level realities. Prithviraj Sukumaran dominates every shared frame, playing Raman not as a rogue officer in need of oversight, but as an exhausted, noble soldier cleaning up a broken social contract.

The Shift from Procedural to Retribution: The Nirbhaya Cameo and Aarushi Dhaba

Meghna Gulzar positions Daayra as the final chapter of an informal trilogy that began with Talvar in 2015 and continued with Chhapaak in 2020. In Talvar, director Meghna Gulzar mourned a broken police bureaucracy that botches forensic evidence. In Chhapaak, writer Meghna Gulzar charted how the legal process drains victims even when convictions are secured. With Daayra, written alongside Sima Agarwal and Yash Keswani, the frustration curdles into open endorsement of street-corner executions.

The film peppers the screen with callbacks to this progression:

• Raman's unit stops for a briefing at a roadside eatery named the Aarushi Dhaba.

• A passing line of dialogue directly references an unresolved acid attack inquiry.

• A pointed visual cameo introduces the freed juvenile perpetrator from the 2012 Nirbhaya case, deployed specifically to prove that due process merely frees violent predators.
  

The climactic sequence cuts between the horrific details of the assault and the rain-drenched shootout where Raman's team executes the accused. By matching the sound design of the assault to the gunfire of the encounter, the production strips away any legal neutrality. The staging forces the audience to view the custodial killings not as a crime against the constitution, but as poetic retribution.

The Indian Lens: Validating the WhatsApp Courthouse

Western crime dramas tend to focus on the corrupting psychological toll of police brutality. Daayra taps into a uniquely Indian social fracture: the complete public surrender to mob justice born of judicial exhaustion.

When the actual Hyderabad encounter occurred in December 2019, citizens celebrated in the streets, fed sweets to police officers, and demanded that other states follow suit. Daayra validates that exact impulse. Instead of questioning why police stations routinely refuse basic First Information Reports when desperate families plead for help, the screenplay shifts blame onto low-level bad apples and procedural red tape. Raman Kumar is framed as the answer to an impatient public that wants capital punishment delivered overnight without the inconvenience of a trial.=

By the time the musical score plays the song "Alag Alag Aaine" over a visual separation between Raman and Ajooni, the narrative has long discarded any pretense of dual perspectives. The movie does not present two equally valid mirrors of the law; it declares that the officer who pulls the trigger without a courtroom is simply more useful than the officer who upholds the statute book.

FAQ

Is Daayra based on a true story?

Yes, Daayra is loosely inspired by the 2019 Hyderabad gang-rape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinary doctor, along with the subsequent police encounter near Shadnagar where all four suspects were killed in custody.

Is Daayra movie worth watching?

Daayra is worth watching for Prithviraj Sukumaran's controlled performance and tight narrative pacing, but its narrative bias makes it more of a vigilante revenge drama than a balanced investigative procedural.

Where can I watch Daayra on OTT?

Daayra will be available to stream globally on Amazon Prime Video following the completion of its mandatory theatrical window.

How does Daayra connect to Talvar and Chhapaak?

Daayra completes Meghna Gulzar's thematic trilogy exploring systemic justice, featuring direct narrative nods including a sequence at the Aarushi Dhaba and references to acid violence cases.