What happens when the law repeatedly fails you, and you decide to take matters into your own hands? Meghna Gulzar’s Daayra ventures into that deliciously uncomfortable grey area where a cop can be both a hero and a fraud. Where revenge appears as justice, and the phrase ‘The law will take its course’ becomes less reassuring and more like a monologue. Daayra puts Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran on opposite sides of this moral minefield. Two cops, a rape-murder case, and an uncomfortable question: where does justice end and vengeance begin? While the film asks such explosive questions, does it actually explode or play it too safely? Read this Daayra movie review to find out.

Daayra movie review: A scorching moral dilemma served lukewarm

Ragini Pujari (Pragati Mishra), a young girl, goes missing. After a distressed call to her brother about her scooty being stolen and getting a lift from a nearby truck, her phone dies. Her mother, Parvati (Kshitee Jog), and her brother, Kabir (Bhavesh Babbani), rush to the nearest police station to lodge a complaint. But senior officer Anoop Bala doesn’t take them seriously. He has them running from one station to another and fails to file a proper FIR. The next morning, police discover a burnt body in the nearby area, and on identification, it turns out to be Ragini, raped, murdered, and dumped in the middle of the night mercilessly by four men.

DCP Raman (Prithviraj Sukumaran) is assigned to lead the case, and with his team, he hunts down all the accused and brings them in for questioning. All four, scared of what’ll come next, confess to their crimes, and the details enrage you. Raman, who knows that justice could be years away in a courtroom, takes matters into his own hands. He executes the perfectly planned encounter and closes the case. But due to some PILs, a special investigation team is set up to investigate the police proceedings and extrajudicial killings of the four accused. The team is led by DCP Ajooni Kohli (Kareena Kapoor Khan).

Raman vs Ajooni: The hot and cold conflict we deserved

Raman files an airtight, textbook investigation case, with no room for error. The only thing is, Ajooni doesn’t buy it one bit. Her no-nonsense attitude while investigating her colleagues quickly makes it clear that she knows how to do her job. She knows that it was a setup, and she starts questioning Raman’s team. Ajooni recreates the whole encounter and quickly finds discrepancies and abnormalities. While Raman believes the system had failed Ragini and delivers the punishment himself, Ajooni believes in letting the law do its duty. So, does that make Raman a criminal in uniform? Nothing is black and white, and the conflict should have raised burning questions through narratives, storyline, and screenplay.

But what we get is a missed opportunity. Daayra is loaded with ammunition; it is ready to fire, but the direction forgets to pull the trigger. And the casting or performances are hardly ever the problem.

Prithviraj Sukumaran as DCP Raman brings conviction to his role, while Kareena gives Ajooni a careful, controlled, and watchful energy. They might be on opposite sides of a moral dilemma, but deep down, both know what the end should be. They both hold their ground and add an edge, mystery, and depth to their characters. But the storyline remains too safe, too subtle, to let either of them come to an explosive conclusion.

Daayra puts across uncomfortable questions. It tries to hold your faith in a broken system that has failed many. But is justice still justice when the process becomes punishment? Can years of court hearings, legal proceedings, and delayed accountability be justification for taking a life? The movie wants to put you in a grey area and leave you conflicted. Instead, it leaves you in a beige area and confused.

Daayra is now running in cinemas near you.

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