Stream It or Skip It: ‘Dunki’ on Netflix, an Indian Immigration Saga

Dunki is a large-scale immigration story – a Bollywood comedy-melodrama about a group of Indian friends trying to make the move from near-poverty in their home country to a better life in England, even if this means undertaking a treacherous and illegal “donkey” journey across multiple borders.

DUNKI: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: In this Bollywood hit that just surprise-dropped on Netflix, an extended flashback set in the mid-90s follows a trio of friends Manu (Taapsee Pannu), Buggu (Vikram Kochhar), and Balli (Anil Grover) in their efforts to emigrate from India to London despite lacking the funds, education, or connections that could ease their passage. Eventually they’re joined in their quest by Hardy (Shah Rukh Khan), who knew Manu’s brother in his military days, and Sukhi (Vicky Kaushal), who wants to reach England to help an ex-girlfriend. Their various paths are dramatized by a mix of semi-zany comedy and more serious melodrama (along with, of course, a splashy musical number). The title refers to a complicated and dangerous “donkey” method of illegal immigration that several characters are eventually forced to pursue, involving a multi-stop journey that includes a lengthy trip in a shipping container. This aspect adds a survival-thriller element to the proceedings. 

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Bollywood movies are so distinct from their Hollywood equivalents in style, running time, and music, among other elements, that a film like Dunki resists easy comparisons to non-Bollywood productions. Some of the tonal swings are reminiscent of American filmmakers, like Tyler Perry, who feel comfortable juxtaposing comedy, tragedy, and romance in a single project, though Dunki is made with a lot more blockbuster-style visual slickness than a Perry film.

Performance Worth Watching: Kaushal recently won a Filmfare award in India for his supporting work here, but that seems at least partially based on his character’s weighty arc rather than his actual performance. His fellow Filmfare nominee Taapsee Pannu is a major highlight, playing drama, comedy, and romance as Manu. 

Memorable Dialogue: During the interview process for an English student visa, the friends know that they’ll be quizzed on their language knowledge through  – so out of desperation, they all memorize the same English passage, where they indignantly wave off small talk and boast of their (actually limited) grammar skills. When one interviewer presses Balli to simply talk about his family, he must use his limited vocabulary to improvise: “Father… dead. Mother… dead. Father’s mother… dead.” Naturally, he clears the exam. 

Sex and Skin: None. The romance is more in the old-fashioned and longing-across-decades style.

Our Take: There are plenty of American-based melodramas about the immigrant experience and its many hardships, often made with handheld, kitchen-sink authenticity. So it’s fascinating to see treatment of this material produced in a decidedly different tone (or, really, a variety of tones) without denying the seriousness underneath. These characters are seeking better lives for themselves and their families, facing obstacles that further disadvantage the poor in the guise of fairness. But – especially in the first half of the movie’s 160 minutes – Dunki also observes the comically frustrating absurdities of immigration systems, allowing its characters some goofy behavior alongside their earnest striving and suffering. At its best, this material rounds out the experience, rather than narrowing it into an instructional slice-of-life.

Sometimes that approach can be overwhelming. With the movie’s supersized runtime, several sections that might be afforded a quick montage in a shorter story are given more detailed treatment here. (This is especially true of the sequence where the characters enroll in their ill-fated English course, which takes a while to show them not learning the language.) The movie never turns boring – like some other recent Bollywood productions, it approaches the three-hour mark at an impressive clip, throwing in courtroom scenes, action scenes, and slapstick – but its eagerness to entertain results in a movie that often feels like it’s skimming the surface of both its subject and its characters. That’s especially true when it comes time for the movie to jump ahead in time, following some of its characters 25 years later. (A framing device makes clear upfront that this will happen.) There’s real poignancy in the idea of the leads longing for a better life elsewhere, then, with age, longing for a return to a home that may no longer exist. But the movie’s slick style undermines the gravity of these later scenes; no matter what time period it’s in, it has that same digital, cranked-up, streaming-ready sheen where every welcome blast of color winds up looking like artificial sweetener

Our Call: Bollywood fans who want to check out a recent award-winner should definitely check it out. Newcomers, though, might want to SKIP IT in favor of something that merges sentiment and spectacle with a little more skill.

Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.

Where to Watch Dunki