Meghna Gulzar has consistently found stories in complicated spaces, where truth is rarely straightforward and justice doesn’t always come with easy answers. From a controversial murder investigation in Talvar to the emotional cost of espionage in Raazi and the aftermath of an acid attack in Chhapaak, her films have often looked beyond the headline to the people caught inside it. With Daayra, releasing on September 18, Meghna returns to crime, policing and justice, this time through the conflicting perspectives of two senior police officers.
Talvar: When truth has many versions
Talvar established Meghna’s interest in the uncomfortable side of investigations. Based on the Aarushi Talwar double-murder case, the film presented different theories surrounding the crime instead of handing audiences one definitive answer. The film’s strength was its refusal to simplify a case where even the truth remained contested. It was less about solving a murder and more about questioning how investigations themselves can shape our understanding of truth.
Raazi: The person behind the larger story
With Raazi, Meghna moved into espionage but retained her focus on the human cost of larger events. Alia Bhatt’s Sehmat is recruited as an Indian spy during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, but the film is never simply about patriotism or espionage. It is about what those choices do to a young woman. Meghna made the personal conflict as important as the national one, giving the spy thriller an emotional core.
Chhapaak: Beyond the incident
Chhapaak continued Meghna’s tendency to look beyond the event itself. Inspired by acid-attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal, the film focused not only on the attack but on everything that follows, recovery, identity and the struggle to rebuild a life. Deepika Padukone’s Malti was not reduced to her trauma, and that became the film’s most important choice.
Sam Bahadur: Looking past the legend
Even Sam Bahadur, a military biopic, fits into Meghna’s larger approach. Instead of simply glorifying Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw’s achievements, the film tried to understand the man behind the uniform, his personality, relationships and leadership. The institution remained important, but the individual was never lost within it.
Daayra: When justice becomes complicated
With Daayra, Meghna comes closest to the investigative territory of Talvar. Kareena Kapoor Khan plays DCP Ajooni Kohli, while Prithviraj Sukumaran plays DCP Raman Kumar. The two officers are investigating the same case but have very different ideas about justice, creating the central conflict of the film. What makes Daayra interesting is that Meghna is not looking at justice as a straightforward question of right and wrong. The film draws from multiple real cases, but creates its own fictional world to explore what happens when the people responsible for upholding the law begin to disagree about where justice ends and injustice begins.
That has quietly become a recurring thread in Meghna Gulzar’s cinema. Her films may move between murder investigations, espionage, social violence, the military and now policing, but the question underneath remains similar: when the truth is complicated, who gets to decide what is right? Daayra releases in cinemas on September 18.
