Gandhari Review: A promising idea that struggles to find the right emotional and narrative balance
Gandhari Movie Rating: 2.5 Stars
Watched Gandhari movie on Netflix. Let’s focus on the complete details, story, positive/negatives and at last my personal view on this movie.
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Ishwak Singh, Chhaya Kadam, Swastika Mukherjee and Mita Vashisht
Director: Devashish Makhija
Release Date: 3rd September 2026 on Netflix
Story: Movie revolves around Bani (Taapsee Pannu) and Gokul (Ishwak Singh). They have a daughter Mishty (Myrah Shivan). While on a holiday, they pass through Joypurra. At the railway station, Mishty is kidnapped. Bani runs after the kidnapper but gets injured in the process, causing her to lose her eyesight.
They reach to the police station and file a complaint for their missing daughter. It is discovered that a sex trafficking gang called ‘The Blackhole’ operates out of Joypurra and is kidnapping young girls from adjacent areas to send a consignment of girls abroad in a month’s time. To prevent this crime officer Kabir (Jatin Sarna) come to city to investigate the rising number of kidnappings of girls.
Meanwhile, Bani bumps into Jhunu Amba (Mita Vashisht), with whom she shares a connection from the past. Jhunu motivates Bani to toughen up and take on the gang responsible for Mishty’s kidnapping. To rescue her daughter and the other missing children before they vanish forever, she transforms into a powerful, almost mythical force of revenge. How Bani finds her daughter is all about this movie.
Positives
1. Performances
2. Story
3. Direction
4. Cinematography
Negatives
1. Length
2. Uneven Screenplay
3. Climax
Durgesh Tiwary’s View: When I watched the trailer of this film planned to watch this movie in my free time as liked the trailer. Bani and her husband Gokul are shell-shocked when their five-year-old daughter Mishty is abducted in broad daylight from Joypurra, a fictitious town in West Bengal. Consumed by guilt over her perceived negligence, Bani joins Gokul in a desperate search for their daughter, which eventually leads them to a child-trafficking racket. Things take a dramatic turn when Bani loses her eyesight. Can she still find her daughter and bring her back?
Gandhari has a solid premise. But screenplay is uneven while a few aspects are novel; there are places where the writing falters as well. It attempts to combine an emotional mother-daughter story with action, mystery and social commentary. The film clearly wants to say something about the vulnerability of children and the systems that allow exploitation to continue. The opening portions are among the film’s strongest. There is a sense of mystery and urgency as Bani tries to understand what has happened to her daughter. The fictional town of Joypurra also provides an interesting setting, giving the film a distinctive atmosphere and a world that could have been explored much further. The title Gandhari also suggests a potentially richer metaphor, but the film doesn’t explore that symbolism with the depth it promises. Instead, much of its thematic potential gets pushed aside in favour of action and plot developments. That said, the subject at the heart of Gandhari is important. The film draws attention to child trafficking and the vulnerability of children, and that social dimension gives the thriller more weight than a conventional revenge story.
The film’s greatest strength lies in its performances. Taapsee Pannu, as expected, delivers a fabulous performance. She’s apt for such roles and impresses not just in action but also in the emotional scenes. salvaged to an extent by Taapsee Pannu’s powerful performance, an interesting setting and a few engaging moments. Ishwak Singh puts up a sincere act but is let down a bit by the writing. Jatin Sarna leaves a tremendous mark. Mita Vashisht gets to play a badass role and performs ably. Chhaya Kadam is great and one wishes she had more screen time. The same goes for Chandan Roy. Myrah Shivan is cute. Swastika Mukherjee makes the strongest impression. Playing a silent watcher with ambiguous motives, she brings an unsettling stillness to the film that it desperately needs. There is something sinister and intriguing in her presence, even when the screenplay refuses to fully capitalize on it. Devashish Makhija’s direction is commercial. The manner in which Bani’s blindness track is handled is unexpected and unlike anything one has seen in films featuring protagonists who have lost their eyesight.
On the flipside, there are far too many cinematic liberties. In some scenes, it is difficult to believe that Bani could have pulled off certain acts without anyone getting a whiff of her true intentions. The whole kidnapping and missing girls’ angle get a bit confusing. A few characters, such as Uma and Somesh, are also introduced rather abruptly into the narrative. However, where the film falters the most is in its depiction of the bond between Bani and Gokul. The manner in which things unfold between them in the climax is highly unconvincing. One can even argue that it was not even needed in the first place. Lastly, it is bewildering and even unintentionally amusing that Bani doesn’t remember her past or the fact that she had gone through a similar ordeal earlier. The biggest problem is the writing. Gandhari seems determined to incorporate every thriller trope in the book—abduction, child trafficking, revenge, a mysterious woman, a morally ambiguous antagonist, a physical disability and an action-heavy climax. Instead of enriching the narrative, these elements compete with one another. The story moves at such a frantic pace that it rarely gives tension, fear or emotional turmoil enough time to breathe. The twists feel engineered rather than organic, and several developments are far-fetched enough to weaken the emotional investment. The film wants the audience to feel the desperation of two parents searching for their missing child, yet the writing never quite creates the empathy or anxiety that the premise demands. You remain aware of the mechanics of the plot rather than becoming emotionally consumed by it. The title Gandhari carries an obvious metaphorical weight, so it doesn’t take long for the viewer to connect the dots. But the metaphor never acquires the emotional or thematic depth it promises. The central abduction ends up frustrating you more than frightening or angering you, partly because the screenplay keeps reminding you that you are watching a constructed thriller rather than allowing the situation to feel genuinely terrifying.
Overall, movie has a compelling premise, committed performances and a relevant subject, but its uneven writing and lack of emotional depth prevent it from becoming the gripping thriller it could have been. It tries too hard to surprise, too hard to entertain and too hard to turn its protagonist into an action icon. In the process, it forgets the simplest thing a thriller needs: a reason for the audience to care. A promising idea that struggles to find the right emotional and narrative balance. My view on this movie Time Pass.
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