Rediff has published a blistering review of Gandhari, calling its effort to cloak itself in mystery laughable and its twists hard to believe. The critique lands squarely on Taapsee Pannu’s Bani, the mother at the center of a story built around child kidnapping and trafficking.
That is why Gandhari Movie 2026 is being searched now: the film has entered the conversation not as a routine thriller, but as one whose logic is already under fire. Devashish Makhija directs the film, while Kanika Dhillon is credited as producer, creative producer, story, screenplay and dialogue writer, putting the weight of the film’s setup and payoff on a team the review says does not deliver either.
In the story, Bani and Gokul’s five-year-old daughter is taken by a sari-clad stranger at Joypurra railway station, and Bani suffers temporary blindness after running after the offender. From there, the film pushes her through a fictional West Bengal town where the cops are described as least interested in finding the girl, and the Anti Human Trafficking Unit steps in because child kidnapping and trafficking are treated as part of the town’s routine. Ishwak Singh plays Gokul, and Jatin Sarna appears as a blank-faced officer from that unit, while Chhaya Kadam, Swastika Mukherjee, Mita Vashisht and Prashant Narayanan show up in roles that widen the film’s gallery of oddball figures.
But the review’s harshest point is not that the film is busy. It is that it keeps promising hidden layers and then offers none. One line says there are no secrets up its sleeve, and another says the story is hidden in plain sight, which leaves the mystery device looking less like a reveal and more like an empty pose. The recurring mention of the deadly Black Hole gang is meant to create a menacing mood, yet the same review says the plot twists do not make sense, and even Bani’s transformation into a gymnast, fighter and detective is presented as a stretch rather than a progression.
There is also a gap the film does not bridge: how Bani and Gokul became familiar with brand new surroundings in less than a month is left unexplained, even as the story moves toward a festival around the corner that links Bani’s mission to the mythical goddess Chaumukhi’s victory over evil Magrasur. The Mahabharata echo is there, but the review argues that the film’s own world-building cannot support it. For now, the verdict is plain: Gandhari is being talked about less for suspense than for a mystery setup that the review says collapses under its own weight.
