Dhadak 2 Review: Truth of casteism and bitter reality from Rohit Vemula to wearing jeans

When you tell someone the name in India, the next question is often, what is the surname? Because as soon as the full name comes out, people identify your caste and decide what you should behave with. Roads widen, buildings became high, people started wearing suit-boots, but thinking is still imprisoned in caste walls.

Dhadak 2 ‘tries to attack casteism. The hero of the film Nilesh is afraid to mention the full name in his class, because the thinking of people changes as soon as ‘Ahirwar’ speaks. He does not even mention the name of his locality, because the area is associated with the ‘low castes’. On the other hand, the heroine is not the law caste, but the thinking tests someone from thinking. Despite being a Brahmin, she likes Nilesh, because she prefers humanity.

The film also reveals that caste discrimination is present not only among castes, but also within the same caste. As a Brahmin family carries non -vegetarian, the other sees it with a disdain. The film raises the question that what is the choice of food and dislikes to eat with caste? And who decides this rule?

Nilesh and Vidhi are students of law and the love story is woven in this background. Topics like reservation, social discrimination and caste violence have been raised in a sensitive manner. Nayak says, “Reservation has been given for 70 years, but discrimination has been done for centuries.”

The story of the film is based on the Tamil film ‘Parireum Perumal’. It touches issues like casteism, class discrimination, gender inequality and identity politics. Fellowship of a Dalit student is canceled just because he raises voice against injustice, the incident directly reminds of the Rohit Vemula case.

In the film, the family of the heroine method is also suffering from the same mentality where it is considered wrong for girls to wear jeans or run mobiles. Nilesh’s father is made a character of ridicule to dance as a woman. All these scenes are threaded well in the story, but in between, the film loses its edge.

The biggest drawback of the film is that it raises many serious issues, but cannot present them in a hard-hitting style. There are many moments when the need for a sharp injury is felt on the screen, but the writers and directors are unable to catch that intensity.

Nilesh and the romance of the method do not seem so deep. The sudden attraction towards each other does not seem reliable to the audience. This is the reason that the seriousness of the atrocities on Nilesh is not fully reached to the audience.

The work of director Shazia Iqbal is commendable. He has composed the atmosphere of the film in an accurate way and got the actors perform well. Siddhant Chaturvedi has done the best of his career so far. He has engulfed the inferiority and internal pain of a Dalit youth. Trupti Dimri also keeps the audience tied with her acting.

Despite low dialogues, Saurabh Sachdeva is successful in creating fear of his presence. Artists like Vipin Sharma and Zakir Hussain are also strong in their characters.

The film is technically strong. Cinematography and editing are impressive. However, music and song side are a bit weak.

Overall, ‘Dhadak 2’ is a courageous effort that highlights the social evils that our society still holds. If the film could have been able to present its message with more sharpness, it would have deepened.

• director: Shazia Iqbal

• Movie: Dhadak 2 (2025)

• Song: Rashmi Virag, Gurpreet Saini, Siddharth-Garima

• music: Javed-Mohasin, Interesting Kohli, Shreyas Puranik

• artist: Trupti Dimri, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Zakir Hussain, Saurabh Sachdeva, Vipin Sharma

• Censor Certificate: UA (for over 16 years of age) * 2 hours 26 minutes 8 seconds
• Rating: 3/5