Sunday Review: Mirzapur The Movie is bigger, not tighter
Pankaj Tripathi still owns the room. Reviews say the first half works and the Jaisalmer stretch tests patience.
Mirzapur: The Movie opened in Indian theatres on 4 September. Gurmmeet Singh directed. Puneet Krishna wrote. Pankaj Tripathi returns as Kaleen Bhaiya, with Ali Fazal, Divyenndu, Jitendra Kumar and Ravi Kishan in the main company.
Day 1 India net landed around Rs 25 crore across trackers. Sacnilk called it Excel Entertainment's biggest opener. By Saturday evening, Sacnilk had India net past Rs 56 crore and India gross near Rs 68 crore as Day 2 numbers firmed up.
The Hindu's review says the plot is scaffolding and the characters are the architecture. Tripathi's cold pauses and one-liners hold the screen. Ali Fazal's Guddu runs on raw rage. Divyenndu's Munna gets the punchlines and the insecurity under them. Ravi Kishan's Babban Yadav, a Jaisalmer drug lord eyeing Mirzapur, is the new pressure.
Times of India found the first half engaging and the second half thinner once the story leaves Mirzapur for the desert. Pinkvilla gave it 3/5 and said the bigger canvas did not bring a tighter story. Runtime sits around three hours and fifteen minutes in Glamsham's listing.
This is the franchise's theatrical bet after three Prime Video seasons. Fans already know the board. The film counts on that and barely stops to introduce anyone.
That works if you came for Kaleen Bhaiya's silences. It fails if you wanted a plot that earns three hours. Most reviews land in the same place: Tripathi delivers, Ravi Kishan adds bite, and the climax overstays.
I care about whether an OTT world can become a cinema event without turning into a greatest-hits reel. The opening numbers say the audience showed up. The reviews say the edit should have been meaner.
Sunday collections will decide if this is a front-loaded fan rush or a hold. Hanuman Ansh is still eating screens in week five. For anyone walking in cold, the series is still the better on-ramp than the film's cold open.