Dange (film)

Por (transl. War) / Dange (transl. Rioting) is a 2024 Indian action drama film directed by Bejoy Nambiar. The film was shot simultaneously in Tamil and Hindi and stars Arjun Das and Kalidas Jayaram in the Tamil version, while Harshvardhan Rane and Ehan Bhat play the lead roles in the Hindi version. Nikita Dutta, Sanchana Natarajan and TJ Bhanu appear in supporting roles.^[3]

Por / Dange
Theatrical release poster of Tamil version
Directed by	Bejoy Nambiar
Tamil dialogue by	Vignesh Srikanth
Hindi dialogue by	Punit Sheth Bejoy Nambiar
Screenplay by	Bejoy Nambiar Mithila Hegde Francis Thomas Neil Julian Balthazar
Produced by	Bejoy Nambiar Prabhu Antony Madhu Alexander
Starring	Arjun Das Kalidas Jayaram Harshvardhan Rane Ehan Bhat Nikita Dutta Sanchana Natarajan TJ Bhanu
Cinematography	Jimshi Khalid Presley Oscar D'Souza
Edited by	Priyank Prem Kumar
Music by	Score: Modern Tape Scores (Sachidanand Sankaranarayanan & Harish Venkat) Gaurav Godkhindi Songs: Sanjith Hegde Dhruv Visvanath
Production company	T-Series Films
Distributed by	AA Films
Release date	1 March 2024 (2024-03-01)
Running time	Tamil version: 151 minutes[1] Hindi version: 150 minutes[2]
Country	India
Languages	Tamil Hindi

Por / Dange was released on 1 March 2024 to mixed reviews from critics, and is available for streaming on Netflix.

Premise

Yuvaraj "Yuva" joins St. Martin's university for studies and learns that his childhood friend-turned-foe Xavier "Zee"/Prabhu Selvan is the senior student in the college. Yuva, who shares bitter memories with Zee/Prabhu, locks horns with Zee/Prabu and sets out exact vengeance.

Cast

Cast (Tamil)	Cast (Hindi)	Role (Tamil)	Role (Hindi)
Arjun Das	Harshvardhan Rane	Prabu Selvan	Xavier "Zee"
Kalidas Jayaram	Ehan Bhat	Yuvaraj "Yuva"
Sanchana Natarajan	Nikita Dutta	Rishika "Rish"
TJ Bhanu		Gayatri "Gayu"
Amrutha Srinivasan	Zoa Morani	Surya Sabapathy	Siddhi
Nithya Shri	Taniya Kalrra	Vennila Ponnusamy	Ambika
Nakul Roshan Sahdev		Bosco
Shreema Upadhyaya		Bhama
John Vijay		SHO
Dev Ramnath[4]	Mridul Das	Arjun
Bala Suresh Babu	Keshav Lokwani	Bala
Siddharth Menon		Akilan	Kabir
Vivek Rajgopal		Vikas
Jeeva Subramanian[5]		Gayatri's friend
Danish Sait		Church father (cameo)[a]

Tamil version

• Vinod Sagar as Dean
• Mervyn Rozario as Prabhu's friend
• Thomas Mathew as Bald Senior
• Hanumankind as Student
• Vikkals Sibi as Student
• Monish Elamaran as Young Prabu

Hindi version

• Vinit Mainkar as Hostel owner

Soundtrack

The background score was composed by Modern Tape Scores (Sachidanand Sankaranarayanan and Harish Venkat) ^[7] and Gaurav Godkhindi, while the songs were composed by Sanjith Hegde and Dhruv Visvanath.^[8]

Tamil tracklist

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Asaraadhe[9]"	Kritika Nelson	Sanjith Hegde	Sanjith Hegde, Varsha S Krishnan	2:26
2.	"Nanpagal Neram[10]"	Vignesh Srikanth	Dhruv Visvanath	Kapil Kapilan	2:54
3.	"Por Theme[11]"	—	Gaurav Godkhindi	—	2:37
4.	"Ping Pong[12]"	Mohan Rajan	Sanjith Hegde	Sanjith Hegde, V. M. Mahalingam	2:28
5.	"Nam Kural"	Mohan Rajan	Elroy Vincent	Chinmayi
Total length:					10:25

Hindi tracklist

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Le Le Pangey[13]"	Kausar Munir	Sanjith Hegde	Sanjith Hegde, Anurag Kulkarni, Varsha S Krishnan	2:25
2.	"Yeh Pal Hain Apne[14]"	Vishwadeep Zeest	Dhruv Visvanath	Dhruv Visvanath	2:53
3.	"Dange Theme[15]"	—	Gaurav Godkhindi	—	2:37
4.	"Aa Bid Jaa Re[16]"	Siddhant Kaushal	Sanjith Hegde	Sanjith Hegde	2:28
Total length:					10:23

Release

The film was released on 1 March 2024 in Hindi and Tamil languages.

Reception

Dange/Por received mixed reviews from critics with praise for its acting, cinematography, technical aspects, action sequences and music, but criticized the excess characters and sub-plots.

Por

Roopa Radhakrishnan of The Times of India gave 3/5 stars and wrote "There are a lot of characters and subplots in Por, and it's quite natural that the film isn't able to justify all of them."^[17] Narayani. M of The New Indian Express gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "It’s a cinematic rollercoaster ride, and you would want to stand up and clap for its technical brilliance. Yet amidst the exhilarating ride, there’s a lingering sense of disappointment as the narrative fails to rise to the occasion."^[18] Gopinath Rajendran of The Hindu wrote "‘Por’ features some fascinating ideas, decent performances and looks stylish, but the sub-plots don’t come together cohesively resulting in a predictable drama that’s all over the place."^[19] Latha Srinivasan of Hindustan Times wrote "Por is a film that goes down fighting to win over the audience with its youth story. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t have the spunk of Arjun Das nor the fury of Kalidas Jayaram to keep us engaged and invested."^[20]

Dange

Titas Chowdhury of News18 gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Much like Bejoy Nambiar’s previous works, Dange is marked with a distinct style, voice, colour and texture. Its biggest strength lies in its fresh appeal and treatment."^[6] Dhaval Roy of The Times of India gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Despite decent performances and atmosphere, Dange's plot meanders, often losing focus on the point of it all, which makes the direction seem overindulgent."^[21] Rohit Bhatnagar of The Free Press Journal gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Dange is enjoyable, but highly recommended for a one-time watch."^[22] Devesh Sharma of Filmfare gave 3/5 stars and wrote "There’s a raw energy to Dange. It’s another film celebrating hyper-masculinity, which seems to be the flavour of the season. Watch it for a glimpse of what happens beneath the facade of respectability associated with institutes catering to higher education."^[23] Rahul Desai of Film Companion wrote "The craft is so proudly visible in director Bejoy Nambiar’s film that it overwhelms everything else."^[24]

Notes

1. A critic credited his character's name as "Father Francis", though that name is never mentioned in the narrative.^[6]