3 min readNew DelhiApr 15, 2026 11:05 AM IST
Dacoit review: This Telugu-Hindi thriller, meant to be a fast-paced romance between two good-looking people from opposite sides of the tracks, proves a few things: plots trying to be new shouldn’t feel familiar, it’s never a good idea to waste Prakash Raj, and that Anurag Kashyap needs to act a lot more, as he literally saves this film from sinking.
It’s good to have Adivi Sesh back in action, building on his kinetic Kshanam-Goodachari persona. But his conflicted convict Hari, out for revenge against the love of his life (Mrunal Thakur), whom he holds responsible for his ruin, is overwrought. More underwhelming is Thakur as Saraswati, the upper-class, upper-caste woman whose idea of showing her lover a good time is to teach him how to drive on a straight road.
You wish someone had pressed the clutch-and-brake harder at the convoluted proceedings, which involve Atul Kulkarni, as a former inmate, helping Hari break free. There’s a hospital overrun by shady characters, Covid sufferers floating about in masks, and the patient for a long-awaited heart transplant undergoing a huge setback, while corrupt hospital owner (Raj) and his cohorts gleefully count their ill-gotten cash.
Anyone could have warned Hari that things would not go well, as Saraswati’s family consists of your standard horrible types, including a stone-faced mother (Zarina Wahab in a blink-and-miss part) refusing to melt at her daughter’s pleas: the crime is rape-and-murder, the victim is a lower caste woman who dares to stand up for her own rights, the perpetrators are a bunch of upper caste men, and in goes innocent Hari into the clink.
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A strand involving Saraswati’s present family unit — a spouse who nurses venomous secrets, and a young daughter who has the habit of asking inconvenient questions — created while Hari is thinking his dark thoughts, adds very little to the film, which descends into teary melodrama whenever Thakur is up against obstacles, which happens more often than not.
Plenty of Bonnie-and-Clyde type scoot-and-shoots, with Hari pushing and Saraswati pulling, ensue: every type of vehicle – motorcycles, police vans, ambulances, cars — is pressed into service as the two go careering off with the police in hot pursuit. That’s when a world-weary cop (Anurag Kashyap) who has turned religious, steps up, giving the film a more effective climactic point than the leads would have managed on their own.
Dacoit movie director: Shaneil Deo
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Dacoit movie cast: Adivi Sesh, Mrunal Thakur, Atul Kulkarni, Prakash Raj, Anurag Kashyap, Zarina Wahab
Dacoit movie rating: One and a half stars
