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Dhadak 2
2025 Indian film by Shazia Iqbal From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Dhadak 2 (lit. 'Heartbeat 2') is a 2025 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film written and directed by Shazia Iqbal and produced by Dharma Productions, Zee Studios and Cloud 9 Pictures.[3][4][5] A spiritual sequel to Dhadak (2018) and a remake of the Tamil film Pariyerum Perumal (2018),[6] it stars Siddhant Chaturvedi and Triptii Dimri in the lead roles.[7][8][9] Dhadak 2 was released theatrically on 1 August 2025 with positive reviews.
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Plot
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Neelesh Ahirwar is a youth hailing from Shivaji Nagar village near Bhopal, and belongs to an Dalit caste. The film begins with the murder of his beloved dog, Birju due to caste hegemony.
Neelesh moves on to secure a seat at National University of Law, where he wishes to become a lawyer like B. R. Ambedkar. He meets Vidhi Bharadwaj, a naive girl who takes it upon herself to teach Neelesh English. She eventually falls for his innocence and honesty. This newfound friendship irks Ronnie Bharadwaj, a fellow law student and Vidhi's cousin. He awaits a chance to teach a lesson to Neelesh and establish his caste superiority. He does so while the blissfully unaware Vidhi invites Neelesh to a family wedding.
In another part of the town, an old man is seen engineering unique methods to kill innocent people, for example, strangling a young girl, then hanging her, and drowning a student in the river. At the wedding that he was invited to, Neelesh is almost beaten to death by Ronnie and his friends, and they also urinate on him. It is stopped, and Neelesh is warned by Vidhi's father to stay out of her life. Vidhi, unaware of all this, berates Neelesh the next day for not attending her sister's wedding as he was the only one from her college, who she had invited.
Neelesh, who becomes upset the next day, drinks alcohol and attends the class, which leads him to the principal's room. When he is asked to bring his father, he bribes a person to be his father, and the man does the job successfully. Another day, Neelesh's teacher tries to reconcile Neelesh with Vidhi, but Neelesh notes that Vidhi gave an invitation-only to him, making it clear that he treats her only as his friend, which infuriates her. On the same day, he sits on Ronnie's bench. The latter gets infuriated as he does not see Neelesh as his equal, pushes Neelesh into the ladies' toilet, and locks the door. This gets Neelesh in trouble once again, and Neelesh is called to the principal's room. Neelesh is again asked to bring his father. This time, he brings his real father, who is a folk dancer in drag clothing.
The principal understands Neelesh's innocence and asks him to be brave and continue to fight like this. As Neelesh comes out of the principal's room, he finds his father brutally hazed by Ronnie and his mates, and they pull Neelesh's father's dhoti. Neelesh's father runs out of college half-naked, followed by Ronnie and his group, and Neelesh runs after them. Neelesh takes his father to a hospital for medical treatment. Meanwhile, Vidhi's father realises that his daughter is madly in love with Neelesh. Fearing humiliation and ostracisation from his caste if his daughter elopes with someone from a lower caste, he hires the old man. It is then revealed that the old man is an assassin who murders people to protect the honour of the people of his caste. Old man reveals that he looks at his work as a divine ordinance and promises that the day that he is unsuccessful, he will kill himself.
Old man and Neelesh know each other, and Maistry even offers to fix the problem by talking to Neelesh. Neelesh, who is by his father's bedside at the hospital, contemplates taking revenge, but his mother asks him not to do so. She reminds him that humiliation and oppression are things that they have dealt with their whole lives, and that violence will not fix anything. He is informed that Vidhi is waiting in the hospital for him. An emotional Vidhi makes Neelesh realise how important he is to her, and though she loves him, she asks him to be the same old Neelesh, who was very friendly with her. Neelesh makes a promise to be like that.
Old man asks for a ride on Neelesh's cycle and tries to kill him by tying Neelesh on a railway track, in the same way that Birju was killed, but Neelesh escapes, which leads to a fight between old man and Neelesh. Pariyan realises that he was sent by Vidhi's father and Ronnie. He beats Ronnie and others brutally. He then tells Vidhi's father that the life he is living is a gift from Neelesh because if Vidhi becomes aware of the activities of her father, she will not spare him. Neelesh asks him to stop harassing him and leaves. Old man, having failed to kill his mark for the first time, commits suicide on the railway track.
Vidhi, who remains completely oblivious to the violence around her, brings her father to meet Neelesh, and as she goes to buy tea for them, Vidhi's father asks for an apology for his behaviour. He speaks cordially to Neelesh, who replies that as long as he remains the same and expects Neelesh to remain a dog, nothing will change.
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Cast
- Siddhant Chaturvedi as Neelesh Ahirwar
- Triptii Dimri as Vidhi Bharadwaj
- Zakir Hussain as Principal Haider Ansari
- Saurabh Sachdeva as Shankar
- Deeksha Joshi as Nimisha
- Vipin Sharma as Mr. Ahirwar Neelesh's father
- Saad Bilgrami as Ronnie Bharadwaj
- Harish Khanna as Arvind Bharadwaj, Vidhi's father
- Priyank Tiwari as Shekhar
- Aditya Thakare as Vasu
- Abhay Joshi as Prakash Bharadwaj, Vidhi's uncle
- Anubha Fatehpura as Mrs. Ahirwar Neelesh's mother
- Manjari Pupala as Richa
- Javed Khan King as Himself
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Production
Dhadak 2 began pre-production in April 2023, with Siddhant Chaturvedi and Triptii Dimri leading the cast under the production of Karan Johar. The film's official announcement was made on 15 May 2025, introducing the characters of Dimri and Chaturvedi in a musical teaser.[10][11] Principal photography began in November 2024.[12] Major parts of the film were shot in Bhopal and Sehore in Madhya Pradesh. Somaiya Vidyavihar University in Mumbai served as the backdrop for the college scenes in the film.[13]
Soundtrack
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The music of the film is composed by Rochak Kohli, Tanishk Bagchi, Javed-Mohsin and Shreyas Puranik while the lyrics is written by Rashmi Virag, Siddharth–Garima, Gurpreet Saini and Ozil Dalal.[14]
The first single titled "Bas Ek Dhadak" was released on 16 July 2025.[15] The second single titled "Preet Re' was released on 21 July 2025.[16] The third single titled "Duniya Alag" was released on 28 July 2025.[17]
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Release
The film was initially scheduled for a theatrical release on 22 November 2024, but it was postponed multiple times—first to 21 February 2025 and then to 1 August 2025. All previous release dates were missed due to various delays, including issues related to CBFC clearance.[18][19] It was later released on 1 August 2025.[20]
Reception
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Box Office
Dhadak 2 has grossed ₹17.42 crore (US$2.1 million) till date.[2]
Critical Reception
Dhadak 2 received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the performances and the themes but some critics compared it unfavorably to the original. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express rated the film 2.5 stars out of 5 and said that "This is a film which is clearly on the right side of many of the hot button issues we need to be pressing: casteism, classism, feminism, gender identities. While at it, you can see an awareness of the wrongs and injustices which have made, and continue to make headlines."[21] Rahul Desai of The Hollywood Reporter India commented that "Shazia Iqbal’s remake of Pariyerum Perumal is a brave and intuitive entry in the canon of anti-caste storytelling."[22] Divya Nair of Rediff.com awarded 4 stars out of 5 and noted that "After a long time, here's a film that does justice to the people whose stories are never heard or written about."[23] Writing for The Hindu, Anuj Kumar called the film a mixed bag mentioning,"In Dhadak 2, a remake of the Tamil film Pariyerum Perumal, where caste becomes the villain in a young romance, debutant director Shazia Iqbal struggles to strike a balance between retaining the voice of the original and applying a Dharma polish to a social reality that has been mainly out of the syllabus for Bollywood biggies."[24]
Nandini Ramnath writing for Scroll.in observed that "The Hindi adaptation would have done well to dispense with the overreach of some of its source material. While Dhadak 2 starkly reveals the manner in which casteism undermines the body, intellect and soul, the 146-minute movie piles on the misery for Neelesh, particularly in the heavy-going sections leading up to the climax."[25] Sana Farzeen of India Today rated 3/5 stars and said that Dhadak 2 has its heart in the right place and boasts compelling performances, but it stops short of becoming the powerful, unapologetic film it had the potential to be."[26] Rishabh Suri of Hindustan Times rated 2.5/5 stars writes in his review that "Dhadak 2 is a film that carries a powerful message but fumbles with its storytelling. It wants to speak about caste, oppression, and systemic injustice- and when it does, it hits the right notes. But it's weighed down by an uneven narrative and an overstretched runtime. This could have been a hard-hitting social drama. Instead, it settles for moments of brilliance buried under a ton of missed opportunities."[27]
Radhika Sharma of NDTV gave 3 stars out of 5 and said that "The Shazia Iqbal film calls a spade a spade, but the ending feels too good to be true."[28] Vinamra Mathur of Firstpost gave 3 stars out of 5 and observed that "Dhadak 2 may not change the scheme of things despite shedding light on the dark side of the nation. It also at times bites more than it can chew, with the screenplay juxtaposing horror and humour together."[29] Devesh Sharma of Filmfare rated it 4/5 stars and said that "This film isn't for the faint-hearted. It will make you uncomfortable, and that’s exactly the point. Because it should. As a society, we’ve learned to take caste discrimination in stride. We treat it like something that exists only in headlines, not in real life. Even when it happens right in front of us, we often choose to look away."[30] Writing for Mint, Uday Bhatia mentioned,"Shazia Iqbal’s Dhadak 2, a Hindi remake of Pariyerum Perumal, takes a great deal from Mari Selvaraj’s superb 2018 Tamil film. I don’t remember this scene, though. It's a throwaway joke, but a telling one. Unlike most Hindi films about caste, which either tiptoe around the issue or are boringly instructional, Dhadak 2 can imagine how people who’ve seen oppression their whole lives might turn it into gallows humour."[31]
Subhash K Jha writing for News 24 gave 4.5 stars out of 5 and writes that "Dhadak 2 is an experience far beyond the original. This is not a remake. It is an intelligent emotional recreation which irons out the rough edges, makes the original characters sharper and more authentic, adds new ones, imbuing the end product with a vigorous glow."[32] Shachi Chaturvedi of News 18 rated it 3.5/5 stars and commented that "It is a compelling romantic thriller tackling caste issues in modern India. Don't miss it.[33] Critic of Bollywood Hungama gave it 3.5 stars out of 5 and said that Dhadak 2 makes an important comment on the caste system and works due to the subject, performances, hard-hitting scenes and powerful climax."[34]
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References
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