Archive · 19 Sep 2026
Meghna Gulzar’s Films Explore Moral Ambiguity Through Crime
Meghna Gulzar is a filmmaker who makes movies about difficult real-life problems.
Her films often begin with a crime or major event, but focus on the people affected by it.
Daayra is her new film about a high-stakes police investigation.
Prithviraj Sukumaran and Kareena Kapoor Khan play officers who are on different sides of the case.
The story is connected to the 2019 Hyderabad rape case.
Gulzar’s earlier films included Talvar, Raazi, Chhapaak, and Sam Bahadur.
These movies looked at questions about truth, duty, identity, patriotism, and survival.
The article says Gulzar tries to show more than one point of view.
It argues that she asks difficult questions instead of giving audiences easy answers.
Daayra stars Prithviraj Sukumaran and Kareena Kapoor Khan as police officers on opposing sides of a major investigation.
The film draws on the 2019 Hyderabad rape case and is scheduled to release in cinemas this Friday.
Meghna Gulzar’s recent films examine the human cost of major headlines and institutional pressure.
Talvar, Raazi, Chhapaak, and Sam Bahadur each explore difficult choices through different historical or social settings.
Gulzar’s approach emphasizes competing perspectives and avoids providing simple moral judgments, according to the article.
- Who
- Filmmaker Meghna Gulzar, with actors Prithviraj Sukumaran and Kareena Kapoor Khan starring in Daayra.
- What
- Daayra is a police procedural about two officers on opposing sides of a high-stakes investigation.
- When
- The film is scheduled to be released in cinemas this Friday.
- Where
- The story revolves around the 2019 Hyderabad rape case; the article discusses Gulzar’s Hindi-film career.
- Why
- Gulzar uses the case to examine moral ambiguity, systemic apathy, difficult choices, and competing ideas of truth.
Competing Perspectives
Easy Moral Judgments
The filmmaker’s role
Competing Perspectives
Prithviraj Sukumaran says Gulzar should act as an objective mediator and avoid taking either side in Daayra.
Easy Moral Judgments
The article notes that maintaining neutrality is difficult in a film culture that often emphasizes binaries and forceful value judgments.
How to tell crime stories
Competing Perspectives
Gulzar’s films treat the crime or headline as a starting point for examining difficult choices, disturbing truths, and different perspectives.
Easy Moral Judgments
Simpler treatments can emphasize clear heroes, villains, or ready-made answers, an approach the article says Gulzar generally avoids.
- Film
- Daayra
- Director
- Meghna Gulzar
- Lead actors
- Prithviraj Sukumaran and Kareena Kapoor Khan
- Subject
- A police investigation connected to the 2019 Hyderabad rape case
- Earlier films discussed
- Talvar, Raazi, Chhapaak, and Sam Bahadur
- Central theme
- Moral ambiguity and the human cost of major headlines
- Release timing
- In cinemas this Friday