Dhadak 2, a daring commentary on caste-based discrimination and violence, released in theatres today, August 1, 2025. The fact that the movie hit the screens days after the alleged honour killing of 23-year-old Dalit techie from Chennai who was reportedly targeted for being in an inter-caste relationship with a woman, only hits home.
Bankrolled by a mainstream banner Dharma Productions and featuring rising stars Siddhant Chaturvedi and Triptii Dimri, this movie also benefits from the courageous direction by Shazia Iqbal -- known for her short Bebaak which questioned patriarchy.
Dhadak 2 is unsettling and doesn't pull any punches. In the first half, the viewer is almost led into believing that whatever violence they see is subtly shown either in the background or is internalised. The term Dalit is never used in the entire film. The makers aren't afraid to call a spade a spade, but the ending feels inconclusive, sudden, and too good to be true.
The state is Madhya Pradesh and the city where the action is based is Bhopal - they never name the capital but Dhadak 2 opens with the shot of the grand Raja Bhoj Statue on the Upper Lake (Bada Talaab). Raja Bhoj was both an able warrior and a patron of the arts and culture. It's there perhaps where the film's larger message is laid bare: "Ladne aur marne mein se agar kuch chunna ho, toh ladna".
Neelesh lives in Shivaji Nagar, Bhim Nagar, in a shanty-ish one-room BHK with his family. He is also the member of the Bhim Baaja Dhol Boys who perform at weddings. It's understood that he comes from a lower caste and he agrees to become a lawyer on his spirited mother's insistence after she is thrashed by an unruly cop for defending her son in a false case of trespassing.
The day Neelesh starts college at the fictional National University of Law, much like Pariyerum Perumal, the 2018 Tamil film from which Dhadak 2 has been adapted for Hindi, he is both directly and indirectly told that he doesn't belong here.
The class, led by Professor Tripathi, is full of Bhardwajs, Vermas, Malhotras, and Singhs. Not a single student from a lower caste is in sight. Neelesh, who is an Ahirwar and comes from an SC/ST, is shaking in his boots. Anyway his self-esteem is at an all-time low as this is an English-medium college. He still manages to stand up to his upper caste professor and proudly introduces himself as "Neelesh BA LLAB". If only education was enough to cut through caste discrimination and violence.
There is a lower caste campus neta called Shekhar bhai, an Ambedkarite, who is all about debating and protests against the fellowship being stopped for the students who have attained a seat via quota. Wrapped in blue scarves and armed with the slogan of Jai Bhim, Shekhar shelters Neelesh from bullies and also unsuccessfully involves him into the campus politics.
Shekhar's death by suicide in his hostel room harks back to the Rohith Vemula suicide in 2016. Like Rohith Vemula, Shekhar also leaves behind a poem in blue paint, a colour associated with Dalit resistance, but only more hopeful that what the University of Hyderabad student wrote.
Siddhant Chaturvedi is excellent as Neelesh, who wants to stick out his neck and use education as an equaliser of sorts in society. Neelesh is beaten black and blue and peed upon, his family humiliated on multiple occasions.
Initially, Neelesh whimpers, sobs and retreats when there's violence. Later when he has had enough, he takes matters in his own hands and refuses to back down when his newly blossoming relationship with his upper caste classmate Vidhi Bhardwaj, played by Triptii Dimri, threatens to endanger his family's safety and dignity.
In all those agonising moments one sees flashes of the actor, who before breaking out on the scene with MC Sher in Gully Boy who was first noticed for playing a small-town meek bowler in Inside Edge, and it is a good sign.
Triptii Dimri is fiery as Vidhi Bhardwaj, an inquisitive upper caste aspiring lawyer who has been allowed a lot of freedom by her lawyer father. She uses her "privilege", in her own words, to help Neelesh with English and Latin, the languages used most commonly to practice law. At one point of time, she says, her ex-boyfriend had a mardon wali beemari: toxic masculinity. (Any Animal haters out here?)
Her family tries every trick in the book to pull her and Neelesh apart but the headstrong Vidhi doesn't want to budge. While she understands that caste exists, she believes it was a relic of the past until she sees Neelesh facing its very real repercussions.
Vidhi fights her family, not in arguments but also physically, for Neelesh and their love. However, her outburst about wearing jeans, eating noodles, and having a smartphone, hinting at all those national headlines about khap panchayats raising issues with women doing what they want to do, a tad bit packaged to make a point. Her scream towards the end is too much on the nose.
There's also an angle of Shankar, played by Saurabh Sachdeva, a upper caste, low class furniture maker who is a self-appointed custodian of protecting the upper caste by doing samaaj ki safaai which is his jeene ka maqsad. Saurabh Sachdeva oozes Saswata Chatterjee's Bob Biswas vibes from Kahaani and his character deserves a spin-off.
The main quibble with Dhadak 2 is that it wants to be too many things. It wants to tackle almost all social evils: casteism, patriarchy, privilege, and class at the same time. The film ends with Neelesh, Vidhi, and her horrible casteist cousin Ronny taking an exam.
When Neelesh struggles with his pen, Ronny offers him his pen as a peace gesture after a lot of kicking and beating each other. They smile at each other, and as the scene unfolds, so does Vidhi, who is now spotted wearing a blue kurta.
It's a hopeful and simple ending, but does a disservice to the larger story after almost three hours of the depiction of harrowing caste-based discrimination and violence.
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