There is a line in Daayra that hits with unexpected force. DCP Ajooni Kohli tells her subordinate Vishal, while discussing a system that has failed a young woman, “System change hote hain Vishal, log nahi. Attitude kaise change karoge?” The line lingers because it sums up what Meghna Gulzar's film is attempting to examine — a system in which the first reaction when a girl does not return home can still be, somewhere in society's collective thinking, to question the girl herself.
Daayra has meaningful points to make. The issue is whether it delivers them forcefully enough.
The film begins with DCP Raman Kumar, portrayed by Prithviraj Sukumaran, receiving public praise. His team has killed four men accused of assaulting and setting 24-year-old Ragini Poojari on fire before abandoning her remains near a Delhi highway. The public celebrates the police action, but doubts remain over whether the encounters were genuine or staged.
Ajooni Kohli, played by Kareena Kapoor Khan, then enters the story. As an officer from Internal Vigilance, she is assigned to investigate the encounters. She travels to Suryapur with her team and starts reconstructing the events from the beginning. The investigation gradually reveals what happened to Ragini, the four accused and the police officers connected to the case. The story appears to draw inspiration from the 2019 Hyderabad gang rape and murder case.
However, Daayra is less concerned with the encounters themselves than with the events that preceded them. A missing-person complaint was not properly registered. Ragini's family was repeatedly told to return later, complete additional paperwork or approach another police station. CCTV footage happens to have a crucial gap. By the time Ragini's body is discovered the following morning, the system has already failed her repeatedly.
This is where the film is most effective. Ajooni's reconstruction of those crucial hours — the family's desperate attempts to approach different police stations, the dismissive responses, endless paperwork and casual lack of concern — is genuinely difficult to watch. The film successfully creates the sense of anger and frustration it wants the audience to experience.
Kareena Kapoor delivers a strong performance as Ajooni, portraying her as controlled, focused and economical with both words and actions. One of her strongest quieter moments comes when she visits Ragini's family and listens to their account of the missing hours. Ajooni is not presented as a conventional hero. Instead, she is a woman committed to doing her job within a system she believes in, even as the evidence around her repeatedly challenges that faith.
The film introduces an intriguing aspect of Ajooni's background but does not explore it deeply enough. Her father, played by Kanwaljit, is a retired judge who was shot inside court premises. This makes her faith in the justice system deeply personal rather than merely professional. The film could have explored whether her father's fate strengthened her belief in due process or left her privately angry with the system she continues to defend. It could also have examined whether she fears eventually becoming someone like Raman. Instead, these possibilities are introduced and then largely abandoned. A few additional minutes focused on the father-daughter relationship could have added considerable complexity to Ajooni's character.
Prithviraj Sukumaran is convincing as Raman Kumar, whose worldview is established early in the film. He believes the system failed Ragini and is likely to fail another girl in the future. The film does not necessarily ask viewers to support his position, but it does attempt to make his reasoning understandable. Prithviraj achieves that without turning Raman into a sympathetic figure who can be easily excused.
The more effectively Daayra makes the audience angry about Ragini's fate, the easier it becomes to understand the emotional reasoning that might lead someone like Raman to take matters into his own hands. That contradiction is exactly where the film could have become especially compelling. It recognises the conflict but does not explore it deeply enough.
Daayra chooses to function more as a commentary than as a conventional thriller, and that appears to be a deliberate decision by the filmmaker. Rather than explicitly declaring one side correct, it presents competing viewpoints and leaves the audience to consider them. Statistics shown at the end — including the figures on reported rape cases, encounters and convictions — reinforce the film's central argument.
The weakness becomes apparent in the way Ajooni and Raman are positioned as ideological opposites from the outset. Their eventual meeting at the airport, when Ajooni confronts him after his return, should have served as the film's defining moment. Their opposing beliefs, personal experiences and approaches to justice should have collided in a way that forced viewers to reconsider both perspectives.
Instead, the confrontation feels restrained and almost courteous, lacking the emotional and dramatic force expected from such a moment.
For a film that spends nearly two hours building towards this ideological clash, the actual impact is surprisingly limited. The investigative cat-and-mouse dynamic never fully develops, and by the time the final confrontation occurs, the film has already made each character's position clear. There is little surprise, no meaningful challenge to their convictions and no moment that fundamentally alters the audience's understanding of either side.
Jitendra Joshi delivers dependable work in a supporting role, while Biswapati Sarkar, playing Raman's senior, makes an impression despite limited screen time. Kanwaljit Singh's portrayal of Ajooni's father is effective, although the character is given too little material to make a deeper impact. Kshitee Jog, as Ragini's mother, is particularly impressive and communicates her grief with great intensity.
Daayra is driven by strong intentions and genuine conviction. Meghna Gulzar uses the film to raise important questions about justice, the judiciary and the women who can become victims of gaps within institutions meant to protect them. The procedural portions are effective, while Kareena Kapoor and Prithviraj Sukumaran deliver strong performances. The film's frustration with institutional failure also feels sincere.
However, the film is less effective when it needs to become more forceful. Ajooni's personal journey remains underdeveloped, the climactic confrontation does not have the desired impact, and the central moral dilemma is never pushed far enough to make viewers truly uncomfortable.
Daayra is worth watching, but its execution may leave audiences wishing it had gone further with the questions and conflicts it introduces.
