While ‘Mirzapur: The Movie’ continues to draw strong numbers at the box office following its September 4, 2026 release, the film has also faced criticism from some viewers. Author and columnist Shobhaa De has now shared a particularly scathing review of the crime drama, revealing that she even dozed off for around 15 minutes during its more than three-hour runtime.
Shobhaa De pulls no punches in her review of ‘Mirzapur: The Movie’
In a reel shared on Instagram, Shobhaa De admitted that she approached the film with considerable expectations despite not having watched the original ‘Mirzapur’ series. However, she said the film failed to live up to the hype surrounding the franchise.“I just finished watching ‘Mirzapur: The Movie’. All I can say is the movie maybe should not have been made at all. I have not watched the series, but I went here with a lot of expectations, given the hype, given the whole build-up to the brand Mirzapur. And came away feeling, what the hell was going on?” she said.
Shobhaa De praises Ravi Kishan and Ali Fazal
Despite her disappointment with the overall film, Shobhaa De singled out Ravi Kishan and Ali Fazal for praise. She described Kishan’s performance as “brilliant” and lauded Fazal for his portrayal of Guddu. At the same time, she criticised Pankaj Tripathi’s performance, suggesting that his portrayal felt repetitive because of what she perceived as similar expressions and delivery.“A fantastic star cast, and the two standout performances for me are Ravi Kishan, just brilliant, and of course, Ali Fazal, who is unbelievably good as Guddu. Mr Tripathi playing Mr Tripathi in the movie, it’s become a bit too monotonous. It’s the same old expressions, the same old delivery,” she said.
Shobhaa De questions the film’s violence and storyline
Shobhaa De also highlighted what she described as an unexpected intimate scene involving Pankaj Tripathi’s character and Rasika Dugal’s character. She further criticised what she felt was excessive violence and a storyline that failed to hold her attention.“But, well, in this there’s a big, big surprise is Mr Tripathi, a goody, goody, doing an actual sex scene. Yes, you heard right. Full on. That too with Rasika Dugal playing the Lady Macbeth or a vampish stepmother. Otherwise, there’s violence of every conceivable kind and for no reason, the story that goes nowhere, and frankly, I fell asleep for something like 15 minutes. And I heard two women at the back snoring too. Maybe it’s meant for men. It wasn’t meant for me,” she said.
Shobhaa De takes a dig at the film’s plot
In the caption accompanying her reel, Shobhaa De continued to question the film’s narrative choices. She listed several unusual elements from the movie and suggested that the different set pieces felt disconnected rather than forming a cohesive story.“I spent 900 rupees on the ticket, 260 rupees on bhel, and close to 4 hours wondering why I was watching a movie which had multiple set pieces randomly strung together. I mean…come on…the dwarf? Camel’s milk? A menacing villain who stitches sexy bralets for my ‘love’? A headless chicken, scampering for cover,” she wrote.
About ‘Mirzapur: The Movie’
Directed by Gurmeet Singh and written by Puneet Krishna, ‘Mirzapur: The Movie’ is based on the popular crime series and is produced by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar. The film features Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Divyenndu, Jitendra Kumar, Ravi Kishan, Abhishek Banerjee, Rasika Dugal, Shweta Tripathi Sharma, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Harshita Gaur, Sushant Singh, Mohit Malik, Sheeba Chadha, Rajesh Tailang, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Shaji Choudhary, Anjum Sharma, Sonal Chauhan and Anangsha Biswas in key roles.