Over a decade after Talvar (2015), Meghna Gulzar returns with a story where the truth is not quite what it seems. In Dyaara, her next directorial, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran play cops with contrasting ideas of justice, setting up a tense battle of wills.
As revealed in the trailer, Prithviraj plays DCP Raman Kumar, a police officer suspected of staging a fake encounter. Raman was transporting a rape and murder accused when, according to the police, the suspect attacked his captors and attempted to escape. The cops claim they shot him in self-defence. Was that really what happened? At the behest of human rights advocates, an SIT is constituted to investigate the incident. “What happened on the night of October 7?” presses DCP Ajooni Kohli (Kareena Kapoor Khan), who suspects foul play. As the plot deepens and multiple points of view emerge, Raman and Ajooni find themselves on opposing sides of the same case.
Backed by Junglee Pictures and Pen Studios, Dyaara is scheduled to release in theatres in September 18. Meghna Gulzar has directed acclaimed films like Talvar, Raazi, Chhapaak and Sam Bahadur. In an earlier statement, she described the new film as a story that will “make us reflect on the society we live in and its institutions that pilot us.” The script, co-written by Gulzar, Sima and Yash, seeks to focus on “unravelling the greys within the black and white.”
For Kapoor, Dyaara follows up a run of diverse roles in Crew, The Buckingham Murders and Singham Again. In The Buckingham Murders, she played a grieving detective investigating a child’s murder. Dyaara marks another foray into the thriller space for the actor after Jaane Jaan and The Buckingham Murders.
Prithviraj, meanwhile, has continued to move between Malayalam, Hindi and pan-Indian cinema. He was most recently seen in the action thriller Khalifa: The Ruler. His other credits include The Goat Life, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, L2: Empuraan, Sarzameen and Vilayath Buddha.