Directed by Shaneil Deo, Dacoit: A Love Story (also known as Dacoit: Ek Prem Katha) is a powerful story of love, betrayal, and sacrifice. It is not just an action or romantic thriller, but a blend of both genres. In the first half, the film struggles to maintain the audience’s full engagement, but the second half becomes gripping and effectively holds their attention.
With a strong cast featuring Adivi Sesh, Mrunal Thakur, Anurag Kashyap, and Prakash Raj, the film takes viewers on a journey filled with emotions, action, and suspense. As the story unfolds step by step, it keeps you engaged, gradually building the narrative. While it follows the typical masala formula of love, separation, and reunion, the ending leaves a strong impact and connects you deeply with the main character.
The story begins with Hari (Adivi Sesh) in jail. On his birthday, Ishaq Bhai (Atul Kulkarni), a former inmate of the same Kadapa jail, visits him with his favourite sweet—halwa. From here, the film moves into flashbacks showing Hari’s romantic past with Saraswati, also known as Saru or Juliet (Mrunal Thakur). Most of these sequences help explain how he ended up in prison.
The film delivers on the theme of social inequality right from the beginning. It shows how people from weaker sections of society often face injustice. Hari is wrongly punished for crimes he did not commit, including the alleged rape of a woman from a lower caste and the murder of a man from an upper caste. He feels deeply hurt and betrayed when Juliet does not speak the truth to save him, and revenge becomes his driving motive thereafter.
Taking advantage of Covie-19 protocols and with help from some police officers, Hari escapes from prison, becoming a fugitive. Before escaping to Dubai, he meets Juliet again, only to discover that her family is going through serious health-related struggles during the pandemic. The film also highlights how some hospitals acted greedily during the Covid period, causing trauma and suffering to many people.
Driven by anger and betrayal, Hari plans to take revenge by framing Juliet in a crime, which could send her to prison just as he had been subjected to years earlier. However, unexpected truths emerge as the story unfolds further. During this journey, he realises that what he perceived as betrayal was, in fact, a sacrifice made by Juliet to protect his life by preventing his illegal police encounter. This realisation transforms him from a revenge-seeking outlaw into a redeemed protagonist.
Anurag Kashyap, playing Inspector Swamy, stands out with his performance. His character attempts to correct the wrongs committed by the police and the corrupt system against Hari. The film also includes several engaging action sequences, including police chases, shoot-outs, and heists, which keep the audience engaged.
Overall, Dacoit: A Love Story effectively shows how social inequality and corporate greed, especially in the healthcare sector, can destroy relationships and lives, using the Covid period as a compelling backdrop.
(Praveen Nagda is festival director, KidzCINEMA and Culture Cinema Film Festivals)
