DAAYRA
Daayra — When Justice Has More Than One Meaning
Intro: Daayra is a 2026 Hindi crime thriller written and directed by Meghna Gulzar. Inspired by real events, the film stars Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran as two police officers who find themselves on different sides of a difficult question about law, justice and police action. The film released in theatres on 18 September 2026.
Review (90 Words): Another Meghna Gulzar film and another real-life story after Talvar, Raazi and Sam Bahadur. Daayra takes me closest to Talvar, with the same case seen through two different perspectives. I liked the slow police-procedural approach, though the background music felt too loud for the mood. Kareena Kapoor and Prithviraj Sukumaran are good, but I expected more from their final scene together. If someone asks me whether to watch it, I would say wait for OTT. There is enough here to hold your attention, but for me, it doesn't demand a theatre visit.
Full Review: Another Meghna Gulzar film. Another story inspired by real events.
After Talvar, Raazi and Sam Bahadur, I was naturally curious about Daayra. And while all four films are very different, I kept going back to Talvar while watching this one.
The biggest similarity for me is the way the story looks at the same case from two different perspectives.
In Talvar, different versions of the same case made you question what you were seeing. Daayra takes a similar route. Here, the difference is between two police officers and their understanding of justice.
Kareena Kapoor plays DCP Ajooni Kohli, while Prithviraj Sukumaran plays DCP Raman Kumar. One believes that the police must stay within the limits of the law. The other has a stronger emotional connection to the victims and believes that sometimes the system itself can stand in the way of justice.
That makes Daayra more of a slow police procedural than a conventional crime thriller. I liked this approach. The investigation takes its time, and the film allows the two viewpoints to develop rather than rushing towards a conclusion.
I also noticed the name Ajooni.
It is a word with a deeper Sikh meaning — generally understood as beyond birth or unborn. I don't know whether that was deliberately chosen as a reference by the filmmakers, but it did make me stop and think about the names Meghna gives her characters. I had a similar curiosity with Gargi — the name itself made me wonder whether there was another layer behind it.
Kareena and Prithviraj both fit their roles well. But one thing that didn't work for me was the background music. For a film that mostly follows a slow and restrained police investigation, I felt the music was too loud in places.
And then came the final scene between the two leads.
After everything the film had built, I expected more from that conversation. It felt like an opportunity for the two opposing viewpoints to finally meet in a much stronger way, and I wanted that scene to leave a bigger impact.
So, would I recommend watching Daayra in a theatre?
For me, no. I'd wait for OTT.
There is a good story, a strong central conflict and some solid performances. But the slow pace, the loud background score and the final interaction between the leads kept it from becoming a theatre-essential watch for me.
Still, as another chapter in my Meghna Gulzar journey, Daayra was interesting — especially because it took me back to Talvar and made me look at the idea of perspective once again.
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