Daayra Movie Review: Prithviraj and Kareena’s Crime Thriller Fails to Deliver a Powerful Punch

Movie Name: Daayra

Release Date: September 18, 2026
Starring: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Jitendra Joshi, Kshitee Jog and Others
Director: Meghna Gulzar
Producer: Dhaval Jayantilal Gada
Music Director: Amit Trivedi
Cinematographer: Saurabh Goswami ISC
Editor: Charu Shree Roy

Related Link: Trailer

Daayra is the latest investigative crime thriller featuring Prithviraj Sukumaran and Kareena Kapoor Khan in the lead roles. Directed by renowned filmmaker Meghna Gulzar, the film is now playing in cinemas. Based on real incidents, Daayra takes up a serious and thought-provoking subject. Let’s see how it fares.

Story

A gruesome rape takes place, and the incident quickly becomes a major topic of discussion. The police arrest four criminals, but public outrage continues to grow, with people demanding instant justice.

DCP Raman Kumar (Prithviraj Sukumaran) and his team encounter the accused during a crime scene recreation. Raman creates a narrative that they retaliated only after the criminals attacked them and took away some of their weapons.

Amid mounting pressure from the Human Rights Department, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) is formed, with DCP Ajooni Kohli (Kareena Kapoor Khan) leading the investigation.

What happens next and how the investigation unfolds form the crux of the story.

Plus Points

Daayra takes some time to get going, but things become interesting after a while. One of the film’s biggest strengths is the gloomy atmosphere it creates and maintains throughout. This tone suits the serious nature of the story perfectly.

The first half works fairly well, thanks to a few interesting moments. The way the cops track down and capture the criminals is presented in a realistic manner.

The scene where Kshitee Jog lashes out at the cops over their careless attitude is emotionally effective.

Prithviraj Sukumaran once again delivers a strong performance. He is excellent as a cop who has his own interpretation of what justice means and brings considerable intensity to the character.

Minus Points

Daayra attempts to build a moral battle between Prithviraj and Kareena’s characters, with the story drawing a clear distinction between instant justice and justice delivered through the judicial system.

Considering the premise and the setup in the first half, the audience naturally expects the second half to feature strong face-off and confrontation moments between the two leads, particularly around their contrasting ideologies.

Unfortunately, the film offers only one brief moment involving the leads, and that comes towards the end. The eventual payoff is extremely weak.

It is disappointing that Daayra doesn’t explore its subject matter more deeply, especially the contrasting opinions surrounding a staged encounter. There was plenty of scope for stronger conversations and debates around the central issue.

Interestingly, Prithviraj’s own film Jana Gana Mana, which is also based on the Hyderabad Disha case, explored the other side of the issue through more insightful episodes and revelations.

Kareena Kapoor Khan also gets limited screen time, which is one of the key reasons the film feels less convincing. Her character needed to be written and presented more strongly to create the intended impact.

The entire second half moves without a clear sense of direction and eventually becomes boring.

Technical Aspects

Ketan Sodha’s background score is fine, while Saurabh Goswami impresses with his visuals. The cinematography suits the serious tone of the film, and some of the intercuts are neatly executed.

The production values are good.

However, Meghna Gulzar’s direction is not at the level expected from her. Considering her body of work, Daayra comes across as a mediocre outing and falls well short of satisfactory levels.

The film needed more combination scenes between Prithviraj and Kareena to properly establish and explore the moral battle at its core. Greater emphasis on the conflicting ideologies of the two leads could have made the narrative much more impactful.

Verdict

On the whole, Daayra is an underwhelming film that fails to make the most of its intriguing premise. The first half is neatly built and has some gripping moments, but just when the film needs to raise the stakes and deliver a stronger impact, the second half loses steam.

The ideological differences established between Prithviraj and Kareena’s characters in the first half should have eventually resulted in a powerful confrontation and a strong climax. Unfortunately, Daayra doesn’t deliver on that promise.