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‘Cirkus’: Review

By Namrata Joshi 2022-12-23T16:29:00+00:00

Rohit Shetty’s extravagant take on ’The Comedy Of Errors’ is an exercise in excess

Source: Reliant Entertainment

Dir: Rohit Shetty. India. 2022. 112min

Bollywood star director Rohit Shetty’s big Christmas release Cirkus, about two pairs of identical twins, is more a case of double disaster than twice the fun. One would presume that, in looking to Shakespeare for inspiration, you’d have a safe story to fall back on. But here, and despite the presence of four credited writers (three for dialogue alone) the Bard’s ’The Comedy of Errors’ is turned into an unsalvageable hodgepodge.

An excruciatingly inane ride in which nothing makes much sense

Bollywood has had a disastrous 2022 with a string of big budget flops, and has been beaten on  home turf by successful films from South India, in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam languages. It has had to contend with a backlash from conservative right-wing forces and constant threat of bans and boycott calls from amorphous moral police. Much hope rested on Cirkus , directed by the industry’s hit-making machine Shetty; there was an expectation that his latest film, which releases in India and other territories on December 23, would see the industry begin 2023 on a high. Yet it feels more like another big miss than a likely hit.

Two sets of twins, both called Roy (played by Ranveer Singh) and Joy (played by Varun Sharma), have been unwittingly swapped at birth and, as adults, become embroiled in a series of comic mishaps arising from mistaken identity. One set of twins owns a circus in the hill town of Ooty in South India, in which this Roy performs an eyeroll of an electric act which has a direct impact on his long-lost twin brother, living miles away in Bangalore. Circus-owning Roy’s wife Mala (Pooja Hegde) can’t conceive and is desperate to adopt, while he puts much store in bloodline and lineage. 

In Bangalore, the other Roy is under the scrutiny of the father of his girlfriend Bindu (Jacqueline Fernandez), and all hell breaks loose when he visits Ooty to buy a tea estate and is mistaken for his brother. Confusion is increased by a gang of crooks that has an eye on the cash he is carrying for the business deal. The resulting narrative is an excruciatingly inane ride in which nothing makes much sense. It’s enough to make you long for the other versions of The Comedy Of Errors in Hindi cinema —Debu Sen’s  Do Dooni Chaar ( Two Twos Are Four , 1968) and Gulzar’s Angoor (1982) — both witty written and winsomely acted.

Cirkus , however, is populated by annoying characters played rough and loud by some of Hindi cinema’s otherwise reliable actors including Sanjay Mishra and Johnny Lever. In his double role, Singh looks disinterested rather than invested, and Hedge and Fernandez have little else to do other than being arm candy and dance partners.

Excessiveness extends to every aspect of the film; the over-the-top production design, the overwrought period setting, kitschy sets, exaggerated costumes and utterly forgettable music. Even nature feels oversaturated in the film’s frames. Ooty’s verdant cover, in the brightest shade of green, seems to have been put under some odd photo filter. So fluorescent and saturated is the colour palette that the eyes sting. 

Worst, however, is the liberty Shetty takes in using some of the most beloved Hindi classic songs, strewing the original versions indiscriminately — and, at times disrespectfully — throughout various points in the film. 

Production companies: Reliance Entertainment, Rohit Shetty Picturez, T-Series Films

Contact: Reliance Entertainment [email protected]

Producers: Bhushan Kumar, Rohit Shetty

Screenplay: Sachin Bedre, Vidhi Ghodgaonkar, Yunus Sajawal, Farhad Samji

Cinematography: Jomon T. John

Production Design: Swapnil Bhalerao, Madhur Madhavan

Editing: Bunty Nagi

Music: Badshah, D.J. Chetas, Lijo George, Devi Sri Prasad, Amar Mohile

Main cast: Ranveer Singh, Varun Sharma, Pooja Hegde, Jacqueline Fernandez, Sanjay Mishra, Johnny Lever, Mukesh Tiwari, Vrajesh Hirjee, Murali Sharma

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Cirkus Reviews

Watching Cirkus is like reading a joke typed in Times New Roman font: The humour is lost in articulation.

Full Review | Jul 20, 2023

The dialogue in Cirkus is poorly written, vast amount of scenes are unnecessarily shot in front of a green screen, and even the celebrated Deepika Padukone's cameo is lackluster.

Full Review | Jun 6, 2023

The vibrant cinematography and eye-catching production design of Cirkus are all wasted on a silly plot, bad acting, and an unjustifiably atrocious ending that ignores ethical and legal issues of deliberately switching babies at birth.

Full Review | Dec 28, 2022

Ranveer Singh can bring a great deal of natural gusto to a role. Here, too, he does pretty much the same, but the two roles that he is stuck with are awfully insipid.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 28, 2022

An unsalvageable hodgepodge.

Full Review | Dec 26, 2022

A noble thought, but the film is a mess.

Full Review | Dec 23, 2022

The worst film of 2022.

The gags don’t land; neither does, for the most part, the lead star.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Dec 23, 2022

Rohit Shetty's latest film might just be his worst work yet. Starring Ranveer Singh in double role, it fails to employ even one of him properly.

Cirkus is a busy film filled with a battery of characters put together with a purpose to make us laugh, but is far from that.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 23, 2022

Ranveer Singh, who was so good with one-liners in Simmba, is perhaps given the most underwritten role (s) of his career. He’s known for his flamboyance both off and on screen and it’s strange to see him in a role which doesn’t play to his strengths.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 23, 2022

How long will Hindi film-goers have to settle for rhyming lines and malapropisms in place of intelligent slapstick? (...) To make stupidity funny without taking the viewer for granted is an art of which Cirkus is a poor example.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.75/5 | Dec 23, 2022

Over populated, over the top, extra bright, super loud beasts happy to laugh loudest at their own jokes, Rohit Shetty's formulaic entertainers act and sound the same. Cirkus is all that and, also, remarkably boring and puerile.

• TN Navbharat
• Times Drive
• ET Now Swadesh

entertainment news

Cirkus movie review: Sanjay Mishra steals the show in Rohit-Ranveer's bland family entertainer

Updated Dec 23, 2022, 10:00 IST

• Cast: Ranveer Singh, Varun Sharma, Jacqueline Fernandez, Pooja Hegde, Sanjay Mishra, Siddharth Jadhav, Anil Charanjeett
• Director/ Producer: Rohit Shetty
• Critics Rating: 2.5/5

Cirkus movie review : Storyline

Cirkus movie review: performances, here comes the star, cirkus movie review: direction, cirkus movie review: conclusion.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Indian adaptation of Shakespeare play is boring and crude.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The movie tries to make a case for nurture vs. nat

Dr. Joy Jamnadas works at an orphanage and cares f

Women play second fiddle to the plot that focuses

An elderly person is repeatedly slapped. Numerous

One extremely brief scene depicts a wife trying to

Casteist and classist slurs and phrases -- some of

Brief shot of a signboard with the Indian bookstor

Parents need to know that Cirkus is an offensive Indian adaptation of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors , which is neither funny, nor entertaining. The story involves two sets of twins who are switched at birth by a doctor who wants to test the nature vs. nurture debate. It uses the crudest cliches to…

Positive Messages

The movie tries to make a case for nurture vs. nature and the merits of adoption. But it's use of homophobic, sexist, body shaming, and ableist comments and slurs leave the lasting impression.

Positive Role Models

Dr. Joy Jamnadas works at an orphanage and cares for orphans. He tries to dissuade his brother and colleague Dr. Roy Jamnadas' unethical practices. Though Dr. Roy ultimately wants to prove that adopted children are just as capable of fostering familial love as biological children, he toys with human lives when he switches babies who are about to be adopted, separating two sets of identical twins from their actual siblings. He does not intervene for a number of years despite a character suffering repeated electrocutions when their biological twin -- who they were separated from at birth by Dr. Roy -- comes into contact with electricity. The twins themselves, especially the two Joys are devoted to their brothers and one of them not only supports his brother, Roy, when he has seizures, but also attempts to smooth things over when Roy is having marital trouble.

Diverse Representations

Women play second fiddle to the plot that focuses entirely on men. In fact, one of the twin's partners barely has a role. An elderly man promotes patriarchal ideas and equates masculinity to physical strength. The film unfairly portrays women as materialistic, such as when a wife is appeased by her husband, following an argument, when he buys her jewelry instead of the husband actually solving their issues. A character's seizure-like movements are insensitively used as comic relief. Mild reference to a homoerotic double entendre. Offensive caricaturing of South India, and its diverse languages and cultures.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

An elderly person is repeatedly slapped. Numerous fight scenes are presented as comic relief -- no gore. A circus act involves a character electrocuting themselves. Although it doesn't appear to hurt them, their biological twin -- who they are separated from -- feels it.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

One extremely brief scene depicts a wife trying to subtly seduce the man she thinks is her husband.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Casteist and classist slurs and phrases -- some of which are extremely offensive -- are used casually. Fatphobic and homophobic comments are made. Sexist and derogatory language.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Brief shot of a signboard with the Indian bookstore chain Higgin Botham's written on it and characters frequently visit a fictional "Madras Cafe." But these seem to be non-commercial appearances of the names of these real-life businesses. A main character buys a diamond necklace for their spouse to make up for a fight on their anniversary.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Cirkus is an offensive Indian adaptation of Shakespeare 's The Comedy of Errors , which is neither funny, nor entertaining. The story involves two sets of twins who are switched at birth by a doctor who wants to test the nature vs. nurture debate. It uses the crudest cliches to force humor that is outrightly offensive to disabled people, people with seizure disorders, medical professionals, adopted children, and women. The two sets of twins are portrayed by Ranveer Singh who plays Roy 1 and Roy 2 and Varun Sharma who plays Joy 1 and Joy 2. Roy 1 makes eugenist statements and refuses to even have a direct dialogue with his wife regarding adoption. Such stonewalling and passive aggressive behavior toward his wife makes it hard to relate to or sympathize with him. As Roy 2, Singh acts out seizures for comic relief even as everyone around him starts to avoid him and discriminate against him for apparently having a seizure disorder. This mocking of disability along with the use of homophobic and fatphobic jokes make it apparent that no one in the writer's room was sensitive to any marginalized communities. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

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What's the Story?

CIRKUS is the story of two sets of identical twins -- both of whom are called Roy ( Ranveer Singh ) and Joy (Varun Sharma) -- who are switched at birth by the unethical Dr. Roy Jamnadas (Murali Sharma). One set of identical twins has a cosmic connection to each other so that when one of them is electrocuted, the other feels the effects instead, leading him to live with epilepsy-like symptoms. Meanwhile his unaffected twin makes a career out of electrocuting himself and escaping seemingly unscathed. After 30 years, the two sets of twins finally cross paths, leading to confusion and mayhem.

Is It Any Good?

Even with source material as rich as Shakespeare 's The Comedy of Errors , this dreadful Indian comedy-drama adamantly refuses to be funny. The dialogue in Cirkus is poorly written, vast amount of scenes are unnecessarily shot in front of a green screen, and even the celebrated Deepika Padukone 's cameo is lackluster. Director Rohit Shetty displays no skill, and opts to self-indulgently pay homage to his own previous movies. Sharma, as the twin Joys, tries hard to lend some sincerity but everyone else behaves like they are in a high school play. Even experienced actors like Johny Lever and Sulabha Arya are severely limited by the banal screenplay, while the songs and music are plain awful. For what is essentially a movie that specifically makes a mockery of seizures every five minutes, there are far, far better films to spend your time watching.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the portrayal of disability and seizure disorders in Cirkus . Do you think it was sensitively handled? Why, or why not? What can we do if someone has a seizure in public? How can we be mindful of not using stigmatizing/ableist language?

Discuss the debate around nature vs. nurture. How did the film use adoption to illustrate this debate? Was this something you felt comfortable with?

What are the ethical implications of medical professionals withholding information? Should anyone be allowed to separate twin babies like Dr. Roy did?

Talk about some of the language used. How might it be viewed as offensive? Did it contribute anything to the movie?

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 23, 2022
• On DVD or streaming : February 17, 2023
• Cast : Ranveer Singh , Varun Sharma , Pooja Hegde
• Director : Rohit Shetty
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Zee Studios
• Genre : Comedy
• Run time : 139 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : June 6, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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Cirkus Movie Review : All the characters, colours and chaos cannot make up for lack of comedy

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Cirkus - Official Teaser

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Users' Reviews

Refrain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks, name calling or inciting hatred against any community. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by marking them offensive . Let's work together to keep the conversation civil.

angelinadoly 420 days ago

I really liked the movie ,l laughed in every single minute of it <br/>Ranveer ,it was great to see another side of you ,love uuu

Aishwarya Garg 131 426 days ago

In the beginning 10 minutes one might feel that it may turn out to be a boring, cliche, twin separation plot based movie, but after that the movie becomes a one time watch entertainer, of course not a brilliant one at that but one can sit through and enjoy, based on the plot of Comedy of errors --- the plot has been woven with other fun providing incidents and characters, among them Jacqueline's father and Johnny lever gave some much needed comic moments, overall

Anant Divekar 465 days ago

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Sunit C 548 472 days ago

I didn't understand what kind of confidence this people have on themselves.

prashant parekh 6889 475 days ago

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Cirkus Review: A Great Fall For Both Rohit Shetty And Ranveer Singh

Cirkus review: ranveer singh can bring a great deal of natural gusto to a role. here, too, he does pretty much the same, but the two roles that he is stuck with are awfully insipid..

Ranveer Singh in Cirkus .(courtesy: YouTube )

Cast: Ranveer Singh, Pooja Hegde, Johnny Lever, Jacqueline Fernandez, Varun Sharma, Sanjay Mishra, Mukesh Tiwari, Siddharth Jadhav, Murli Sharma, Tiku Talsania, Brijendra Kala, Saurabh Gokhale

Director: Rohit Shetty

Rating: One star (out of 5)

Producer-director Rohit Shetty's latest shot at slapstick comedy - a genre that he has had a great deal of success with over the years - is cinema's equivalent of a trash can. It is full of garbage.

The golmaal is that the vapid caper film goes round and round in circles as it recycles exceedingly trite tropes, shoves them into a garish and turgid package and leaves a bunch of actors led by the effervescent Ranveer Singh (in a double role) with no chance at all of rising above the muddle.

Yes, Cirkus is abysmally bad. It is a mind-numbing film that would have done the world a favour by not advancing beyond the script stage. It does neither the medium nor the genre any justice. The only thing that is truly comical about Cirkus is its unmitigated ineptitude.

The film has one foot planted firmly in the past, which by itself is not such a bad thing. It makes a song and dance about the debt that it owes to comedy movies of yore. But with no real imagination on display, Cirkus demonstrates what is amiss with contemporary Hindi films that are aimed at giving a mass audience its money's worth.

Old Hindi movie songs constitute the spine of the Cirkus background music. The film's gaudy colour palette makes real backdrops look like painted ones. Its 'comic' gags are pathetically unfunny. And the acting all around is consistently substandard.

The lead actor tries hard - way too hard - and the effort shows. Even a proven performer like Sanjay Mishra is saddled with a role that that can only get on one's nerves. As for Pooja Hegde and Jaqueline Fernandez, the less said the better.

Hindi movie fans know Ranveer Singh as an actor who can bring a great deal of natural gusto to a role. Here, too, he does pretty much the same, but the two roles that he is stuck with are awfully insipid. His performance comes unstuck owing the sheer inanity of the writing.

Yunus Sajawal's screenplay runs logic to the ground in search of laughs. It stretches a thin, puerile storyline into a full-length film about two pairs of twins whose paths cross three decades after being deliberately separated by a doctor who is out to prove that a person's character is determined by upbringing, not the bloodline.

Besides the doctor, the script throws in a trio of small-time thieves - they are called Momo, Mango and Chikki but their pranks are anything but palatable - in pursuit of a duffel bag filled with cash. All they do is make fools of themselves. The audience is supposed to laugh at their antics. We do laugh, but only at the sheer vacuity that is on show.

The makers of Cirkus have no clue whatsoever about the distinction between inspired lunacy and brainless buffoonery. The former eludes them completely. They run with tiring doses of the latter. This is entertainment so infantile that goes back and forth between the manic and the moronic without serving any real purpose.

If the plot seems hackneyed, there is an obvious reason. Cirkus borrows its central idea from William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors , which has already seen two iterations in Hindi - Do Dooni Chaar (1968) and Angoor (1982), the former written by Gulzar, the latter also directed by him to make amends for the failure of the first film.

Angoor , with Sanjeev Kumar and Deven Verma in their elements, ranks among the finest comedies ever to emerge from Mumbai. Cirkus is a blotchy tribute to that much-loved film devoid of the wit and sophistication of the script that it is inspired by but lacks the wherewithal to replicate.

Cirkus  also weaves a nature-versus-nurture theme into its hollow core - as aspect of the raggedy romp that may or may not remind one the 1951 Raj Kapoor classic Awara and the conversely-themed 1975 melodrama produced by the showman, Dharam Karam. Either way, Rohit Shetty's imbecile has no redeeming features that might make all the huffing and puffing appear worthwhile.

A doctor played by Murli Sharma, an actor who knows his onions by all reckoning, pops up on the screen every now and then to fill us in with the details of the rigmarole. Electricity connects two twins separated at birth - one can withstand high-voltage shocks, the other is assailed by waves of electric current that he has no control over.

It is 1942. The doctor who runs an orphanage decides to perform an experiment to prove his detractors wrong. He breaks up two pairs of new-born twins and gives them up for adoption. One duo goes to a couple in Bangalore, the other ends up in a home in Ooty.

Thirty years on, the Bangalore pair, Roy and Joy (Ranveer Singh and Varun Sharma), travels to the town where the other duo, also Roy and Joy (Ranveer Singh and Varun Sharma), lives and works in a thriving family-owned circus. Needless to say, their arrival in Ooty sparks confusion all around.

The performer-protagonist is endowed with a special skill; his twin in Bangalore suffers the consequences of the act that the latter performs in the circus arena. The goings-on on the screen are orchestrated in the belief that it all is going to be a hoot. It is anything but.

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The biggest problem with Cirkus is no different from the drawback that most Hindi movies are undone by these days. It has no respect for the audience. The anything goes approach to filmmaking springs from a combination of creative bankruptcy and complacency. Cirkus is utterly hare-brained. It is easy to see why.

Cirkus aspires to be a highwire act. The tightrope it walks is precariously weak and frayed. The result is a great fall for both Rohit Shetty and Ranveer Singh. Stay away.

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Cirkus Devesh Sharma, April 21, 2023

• Times Of India

Nature versus nurture debate has fascinated scientific minds for ages. Dr Roy (Murali Sharma), wants to prove the theory that nurture always trumps nature and to do so he separates two sets of identical twins who were set up for adoption. The first pair of boys is adopted by a circus owner and are named Roy and Joy in honour of the good samaritans who run the orphanage. Strangely, the other couple who adopts the next set too names them Roy and Joy for the same reason.

Roy (Ranveer Singh) and Joy (Varun Sharma) now run their father’s circus in Ooty. Roy is married to Mala (Pooja Hegde), who writes mystery novels under a pseudonym. The other pair are raised in Bangalore by a rich businesswoman. This Roy has a girlfriend called Bindu (Jacqueline Fernandez), whose rich father Rai sahab (Sanjay Mishra) and his secretary Prem (Anil Charanjeett) are always spying on them. A psychic connection exists between the two Roys. The circus performer has the ability to handle live electricity without getting harmed. Whenever the current flows through the Ooty Roy, the Bangalore Roy feels the shock. Dr Roy has been monitoring both sets of twins for the last 30 years and acts as the film’s narrator. 

Siddhartha Jadhav plays Momo, a thief with sidekicks called Mango and Chikki. Momo’s boss is Polson, played by Johnny Lever. Momo and company want to rob the Bangalore Roy and Joy as they were seen carrying a lot of money. They have come to Ooty to buy a tea estate and what follows is a case of mistaken identities as the two pairs are mistaken for each other.

The film’s message, that orphans too deserve a loving home, has been lost somewhere in this erroneous comedy. It’s inspired by both Shakeseare’s The Comedy Of Errors and Gulzar’s Angoor (1982) and does justice to neither. Director Rohit Shetty has made some odd choices. Both sets of Roy and Joy are as bland as they come. There’s one physical gag, that of the Bangalore Roy feeling shock when his Ooty twin touches a livewire but after a while it loses novelty. The other comic device is Sanjay Mishra being made to deliver dialogue like stock comic villains. The Ajitesque dialogue doesn’t suit his personality. He gamely spouts one cheesy line after another but this too loses steam after a while. And you can’t expect Sanjay Mishra, who is no Mehmood or IS Johar, to shoulder a film starring Ranveer Singh. Sanjay’s forte is subtle comedy and his over the top hamming just doesn’t hold sway. The same is true of the antics of other comedians like Siddhartha Jadhav and Johnny Lever – all good actors in their own right but struggling here for lack of decent material. The overtly bright and colourful colour scheme jars as well. 

The best thing about the film is the song Current laga re, featuring Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh. The duo display oodles of oomph and chemistry in it and how we wish the same treatment was given to the rest of the film as well. 

Pooja Hegde’s character is said to be a suspense novelist but all we see of her is a weeping willow who wants to be a mother at all costs. Jacqueline Fernandez is seen in the opening ten minutes and then disappears, only to return in the last ten. Varun Sharma, who can be relied to provide light hearted moments is given a dazed expression throughout for some reason in both his roles. And Ranveer Singh, who was so good with one-liners in Simmba, is perhaps given the most underwritten role (s) of his career. He’s known for his flamboyance both off and on screen and it’s strange to see him in a role which doesn’t play to his strengths. 

Trailer : Cirkus

Ronak kotecha, december 23, 2022, 1:31 pm ist.

Cirkus Story: Two sets of identical twins separated at birth, end up in the same town at the same time, years later. The confusion and misunderstanding that ensues throws their lives into a tizzy. Cirkus Review: A square and B square are the names of the twins, who are later christened as Roy (Ranveer Singh) and Joy (Varun Sharma) by the two different couples, who adopt them. Thus, unknowingly putting in place a recipe for disaster and confusion that is bound to play out when these four boys grow up and bump into each other. That’s precisely the one-line story (if we can call it that) of this Rohit Shetty film that's supposed to be a comedy of errors but is abysmally low on that ingredient. Set in the picturesque green hills of Ooty and carefully created colourful and unreal set pieces that look like a theme park, ‘Cirkus’ is based in the late 60s or early 70s era, as the film desperately tries to pay a tribute to the cinema of the time. Many classic Bollywood numbers pop up in the background at every given opportunity and the only thing louder than the yesteryear costumes of the actors, is their acting. It’s an all-out slapstick comedy but the problem is not that, as Bollywood has seen several films in that genre that have taken the audience along with it for a joyride. It also includes some films from Rohit Shetty’s stable. Collectively, barely a scene or two manage to evoke the kind of laughter we are used to experiencing in a Rohit Shetty film. Sample this, our hero Roy is immune to high voltage shocks and his showstopper act at his ‘Jubilee Cirkus’ is to dramatically make two live wires kiss each other, with his bare hands. But everytime he does that his judwaa bhai experiences a massive electric shock and so does anyone who touches him. All is well with him once the act is over. If you can get past this, then you’d perhaps have a little less discomfort in sitting through the rest of the plot that involves caricatures, good actors wasted in stereotypical characters, unfunny dialogues, and situations that literally go nowhere. The screenplay offers nothing fresh in terms of comedy and punchlines and suffers from abject repetition. Ranveer Singh tries to do his best in portraying both his characters, but sadly both the parts lack enough conviction. Deepika Padukone’s cameo in the song ‘Current Laga Re’ is a highlight that comes as a true respite. Varun Sharma’s comic timing is criminally wasted here and, in the end, it's upto the ever-so-dependable Johny Lever (as Polson bhai) to bring in some much-needed organic laughter. The ace comedian creates more rib-tickling moments in his few minutes of screentime than the entire cast put together. Pooja Hegde looks resplendent in her sombre role of Roy’s wife Mala. Jacqueline Fernandez steps in to add the glam quotient as Roy’s girlfriend and does just that. Sanjay Mishra once again takes one for the team in a role that isn’t funny, but the actor makes up for the lack in the writing and the missing punchlines, which is a recurring problem of this unfunny mess. ‘Cirkus’ is a busy film filled with a battery of characters put together with a purpose to make us laugh, but is far from that. Entertaining the audience with slapstick comedy and drama is a tightrope that Rohit Shetty has successfully walked before but this time he seems to have tripped several times along the way. Also See: Cirkus box office collection Day 2: Rohit Shetty and Ranveer Singh's film falls flat on Saturday

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Cirkus movie review: Sparsely funny, mostly listless Comedy of Errors with a message

Ranveer Singh and Rohit Shetty team up to spoof the 1960s and ’60s Hindi cinema while entering the long-running nature-vs-nurture debate with good intentions.

Cast: Ranveer Singh, Varun Sharma, Jacqueline Fernandez, Pooja Hegde, Murali Sharma, Siddharth Jadhav, Johnny Lever, Vrajesh Hirjee, Sanjay Mishra, Sulabha Arya, Cameo: Deepika Padukone

Director: Rohit Shetty

Language: Hindi with a handful of Tamil

Two pairs of doppelgangers living in different parts of India land up in the same town. One of them, a man called Roy (Ranveer Singh), is a human conductor of electricity. This quirk of nature has given him a career as The Electric Man in a circus. Whenever he allows bijli through his body, his duplicate in another city – also named Roy (also Ranveer, of course) – gets a massive shock at the exact same time and passes it on to anyone who touches him just then.

Each Roy has a sibling called Joy (both played by Varun Sharma). You will learn how this freak situation came about if you watch director Rohit Shetty’s Cirkus , a comedy of errors in which there are inevitable mix-ups involving spouses, lovers, concerned parents and crooks until the truth is revealed at the nth hour.

The facts in the preceding paragraphs are all in the trailer. (Spoiler alert for this sentence) What you don’t see in that video is that the Roys and Joys were part of a social experiment by a doctor in the 1940s whose goal was to prove that a human being is a product of their upbringing and not their bloodline. (Spoiler alert ends) The present-day happenings in Cirkus take place in the 1960s, giving the writers an opportunity to spoof that decade and its cinema even while revisiting the Shakespeare classic most frequently adapted by Hindi film comedy writers.

Since this is a Rohit Shetty venture, in case you didn’t get the point that Cirkus is an ode to The Bard, early in the film the camera closes in on a large image of him.

In its opening half hour or so, Cirkus is not half bad if you are in a mood for some old-fashioned slapstick humour. Old-fashioned cannot mean repetitive though, and too soon it settles into a sameness that comes from recycling a million ideas from earlier films in the genre. Right at the start, for instance, as soon as the Electric Man concept is unveiled, it becomes possible to predict that at some stage we will see an entire chain of human beings affected by Roy’s electric charge. And whaddyaknow, sure enough that moment does come. Unoriginality apart, the film is also quickly afflicted by an absence of energy.

At first, it is nice to watch Ranveer’s lack of self-consciousness. Just last December, the actor had shown remarkable restraint in the role of the legendary cricketer Kapil Dev in Kabir Khan’s 83 . In Cirkus , he flings himself into the sillyfest with unbridled zest for its frivolity. The repeated remixes of old Hindi film hits in the narrative are also enjoyable, as are the other bows to the ’60s in the form of hairstyles, clothes, a villain with a mole on his cheek, a two-wheeler with a sidecar and an obstacle in one Roy’s love story who goes by the moniker Raisaab. The sets are intentionally plasticky, reflecting the film’s intended disconnect from reality, and share space with occasional shots of the natural beauty of Ooty/Udagamandalam where Cirkus is set.

There’s only so far that an actor’s innate talent, nostalgia and kitschy images can take a film. Soon enough, Cirkus blurs the line between imitation and tribute, until the fun completely ceases. Sanjay Mishra is initially entertaining, but after a while the clichéd dialogues written for him and other character artistes become a yawn.

Men take precedence in this script, but women are not irrelevant – they are just intermittently forgotten before they resurface to play their part in the larger drama. Pooja Hegde is fair enough in the limited writing at her disposal, though the sub-plot involving her secret career is utterly superfluous. On the other hand, Jacqueline Fernandez, who proved in 2016’s Dishoom that she has a penchant for comedy, is strangely unrecognisable and her face curiously frozen into expressionlessness in Cirkus .

The characters given the best deal by the script are played by Ranveer, Sanjay and Sulabha Arya. The latter seems to be having a blast playing a gun-toting Tamilian old lady. The comedian Siddharth Jadhav contorts his face and voice into a Johnny Lever II such that when the real Johnny Lever enters the scene late in the day, it feels like he’s been around for a while.

Ironically, Rohit Shetty’s much-lambasted comedies give us more authenticity in the use of language in southern Indian settings than most commercial Hindi cinema bothers with. Chennai Express infuriated many south Indians, but the fact remains that in a country where Hindi supremacism is a sad reality, this director got all of north India to happily watch a film in which a sizeable portion of the dialogues were in Tamil. In Cirkus we hear tiny snatches of Tamil (including in the song Current Laga Re for which Deepika Padukone makes an appearance), which is more than can be said of most Hindi cinema located in Tamil Nadu. Cirkus does not position itself as cerebral or realistic, yet in this department, it is better than many films that position themselves as sensible and real.

Rohit and Ranveer had teamed up in 2018 for Simmba , a film that made terrible use of sexual violence within its storyline. Cirkus does a better job of delving into societal divisions in the social experiment at its centre, even if the theme is not explored with depth. That’s a small saving grace in a film with its heart in the right place but its writing and direction off key.

To get an idea of the triteness in Cirkus , sample this conversation that takes place when Sulabha Arya’s character aims a firearm at a man:

He: “ Meri Nirupa Roy, give me that toy.”

She: “First leave Joy.”

How long will Hindi film-goers have to settle for rhyming lines and malapropisms in place of intelligent slapstick? Yes, there is such a thing as “intelligent slapstick”. To make stupidity funny without taking the viewer for granted is an art of which Cirkus is a poor example.

Rating: 1.75 (out of 5 stars)  

Cirkus is in theatres

Anna M.M. Vetticad is an award-winning journalist and author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. She specialises in the intersection of cinema with feminist and other socio-political concerns. Twitter: @annavetticad, Instagram: @annammvetticad, Facebook: AnnaMMVetticadOfficial

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• Home » Movies » Rohit Shetty Cirkus Movie Review

Cirkus review: This Rohit Shetty directorial is more a ‘Golmaal’ than ‘Comedy of Errors’

Director Rohit Shetty squanders the strong source material of Shakespeare’s work; perhaps, it’s time he reworks his strategy!

Published:Dec 24, 2022

Pooja Hegde, Ranveer Singh, Rohit Shetty, Jacqueline Fernandez, and Varun Sharma during a promotional event of 'Cirkus'. (RanveerOfficial/Twitter)

A massive letdown from Rohit Shetty!

Cirkus (Hindi)

• Cast: Ranveer Singh, Varun Sharma, Pooja Hedge, Jacqueline Fernandez, Murali Sharma, Sanjay Mishra, Mukesh Tiwari, Siddarth Jadhav, Johnny Lever, and Deepika Padukone (special appearance)
• Director: Rohit Shetty
• Producers: Rohit Shetty and T series
• Music: Devi Sri Prasad, Badshah, and Lijo George-DJ Chetas
• Runtime: 2 hours and 18 minutes
• Cast: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Emraan Hashmi, and Revathy
• Director: Maneesh Sharma
• Producer: Aditya Chopra
• Music: Pritam Chakraborty
• Runtime: 2 hours 35 minutes

William Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors  is a play that naturally lends itself to a delicious comedy. The play has seen several movie adaptions in different languages.

For example, in 1982, Gulzar made Angoor with Sanjeev Kumar and Devan Verma. It was much appreciated for its subtlety and clever humour. The performances, led by Sanjeev Kumar, were the icing on the cake.

There is also the Kannada film Ulta Palta which was remade in Telugu by the same name.

Cirkus , directed by Rohit Shetty, is the latest addition to the movies inspired by Comedy of Errors . But the sensibilities of Rohit are vastly different from that of a filmmaker like Gulzar.

Rohit primarily specialises in two kinds of films: First is the Golmaal franchise which runs on slapstick comedy, and the other is the macho cops seen in Singham and Simbaa , among others.

Although slapstick in nature, the Golmaal films were fun to watch because there was a method to the madness. However, Rohit Shetty’s Cirkus comes across as a hurried project where the director took the audience for granted.

Here, Rohit Shetty tries to incorporate a social message: How a person’s nurturing is more important than his bloodline. It is a noble idea. However, it is something which comes across as more of an afterthought.

Out Now! #Aashiqui https://t.co/sLZJF422LA @Its_Badshah @TSeries Advance Booking Open Now! #CirkusThisChristmas — Rohit Shetty Productionz (@rs_productionz) December 21, 2022

An experiment with twins

The film begins with the introduction of Dr Roy (Murali Sharma) who is hell-bent on proving that nurture always trumps nature.

To prove that he is right, Dr Roy separates two sets of identical twins who have been set up for adoption. The first pair of boys are adopted by a circus owner and are named Roy and Joy. Strangely, the other couple also names the twins with the same names!

A poster of Rohit Shetty’s ‘Cirkus’. (rs_productionz/Twitter)

The first Roy (Ranveer Singh) and Joy (Varun Sharma) run the circus of their late father. Roy’s wife Mala (Pooja Hedge) writes thrillers under a mysterious pen name.

The second Roy (Ranveer Singh) and Joy (Varun Sharma) are raised in Bangalore by a rich businessman. The second Roy has a girlfriend Bindu (Jacqueline Fernandez) whose father Rai Sahab (Sanjay Mishra) and his secretary Prem (Anil Charanjeet) are always spying on them.

There is a unique connection that both the Roys share. The first Roy, who lives in Ooty, can handle live electricity without getting harmed. Whenever current flows through him, the other Roy who lives in Bangalore, feels the shock.

Murali Sharma acts as a doctor-cum-narrator who monitors both sets of twins while not letting the secret out.

Things take a comic turn when the second Roy and Joy have to go to Ooty. From here on, we move to mistaken identities and deliberately over-the-top situations.

The rest of the story is about how all the mess is cleared up and what happens at the end.

Welcome to the Cirkus 😉 #cirkusthischristmas #aashiqui pic.twitter.com/A6VrHsAczI — Pooja Hegde (@hegdepooja) December 20, 2022

The positives

Before getting into the negatives, it is necessary to get done with the few positives.

Cirkus is majorly set in the 1960s and, to give credit where it is due, the retro music has been smartly integrated.

Particular mention has to be made of the situations where the characters mimic signature steps of that era while they are under electric shock. It becomes repetitive after a point. But still, it brings in some laughs.

The movie has a huge ensemble but the actor who stands out is Sanjay Mishra.

The senior actor embraces the overtop tone and somehow manages to make his lines funny. His interactions with both the Ranveers are fun to watch.

Anil Charanjeet as the secretary is also pitch-perfect in his portrayal.

Ranveer gives it his all to the double role. He is more effective than the first Roy. It is refreshing to see the actor playing a family man. There is also some physical comedy which Ranveer pulls off convincingly.

Out of the two heroines, Pooja Hedge fares better, although her being a writer could have been better explored.

Bring back the Old Bollywood charm 🎵 Sun Zara Out Tomorrow ❤️ #cirkusthischristmas #sunzara pic.twitter.com/kka94HT1Uz — Pooja Hegde (@hegdepooja) December 15, 2022

The negatives

The biggest issue with Rohit Shetty’s Cirkus is the lack of connective tissue. Many of the jokes feel recycled from the Golmaal films and this becomes bothersome pretty fast.

Also, the angle of nature versus nurture gets buried under the slapstick humour. It resurfaces towards the end but it is too late by then.

Rohit Shetty handled multiple characters with success in the past. But here, the characterisations are mostly sketchy.

Rohit Shetty’s ‘Cirkus’ troupe. (hegdepooja/Twitter)

The sketchiness becomes even more glaring with how Varun Sharma has been portrayed. The actor becomes more of a sidekick. As a result, neither of the Joys leaves an impact.

Further, the much-needed comic camaraderie between Ranveer and Varun Sharma is sorely missing.

In keeping with Rohit Shetty’s previous films, Cirkus is also colourful to look at. However, the colours feel too statured after a point.

The music composed by Devi Sri Prasad, Badshah and Lijo-George DJ Chetas is pleasant to hear.

“ Sun Zara ” sung by Shreya Ghosal and Papon is soothing. On the other hand, “ Current Laga Re ” has an energetic beat. Ranveer’s dance with his real-life partner adds some masti.

Cirkus is a massive letdown from a director who has been successful in entertaining the masses. It is time for Rohit Shetty to rethink his strategy!

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'Cirkus' Review: An unendurable waste of time!

Movie: Cirkus Rating: 2/5 Cast: Ranveer Singh, Pooja Hegde, Jacqueline Fernandes, Johny Lever, Sanjay Mishra and Varun Sharma. Cinematography: Jomon T. John.  Music: Devi Sri Prasad, Badshah and Lijo George. Director: Rohit Shetty  Release Date: Dec 23, 2022

'The Bard of Avon' can never go wrong. The timeless Shakespeare, 400-plus years after he entertained Queen Elizabeth I and her courtiers, continues to resonate in different ways with each generation. And his 'Comedy of Errors' has been a favourite of Bollywood filmmakers.

After Kishore Kumar's 'Do Dooni Chaar' and Sanjeev Kumar's 'Angoor' and a few other forgettable adaptations, comes Rohit Shetty's 'Cirkus', featuring Ranveer Singh playing two sets of identical twins who are accidentally separated at birth. Sadly, though, Bollywood is as bad at adapting as it is at conceiving fresh ideas.

So, what does the film have to offer? Old gags, insufferable jokes, bad acting and a plot that just doesn't take off. Even when writers Farhad Samji, Sanchit Bedre and Vidhi Ghodgaonkar attempt to Indianise the much-amended tale, there's nothing out there in terms of a creative twist in this over-two-hour-long film.

Twins Roy and Roy (Singh) and Joy and Joy (Sharma) get separated at birth. Coincidentally, the two pairs get adopted by two different sets of parents -- one Roy is deliberately paired with another Joy and the other Roy with the other Joy in Ooty and Bengaluru, respectively.

From the basic premise, this should have been a laugh riot as the identical twins who live in different cities come together and mistaken identity causes a host of ludicrous situations. The two sets of twins run into each other several years later, when they are coincidentally in the same town. Needless to add, misunderstandings reign supreme when people mistake one for the other.

One Roy works in a circus and is unaffected by electric currents, causing much awe and laughter among the audience. His act of holding naked electric wires has everyone enthusiastically applauding him for an encore. He earns his living professionally, but whenever his body touches an electric wire, his twin in another city feels the shock as the current flows through his tissues.

Short of getting electrocuted, the twin brother experiences the severity of the shock to such an extent that whoever comes in contact with him, feels it too. Now, that could have led to not one but numerous funny moments.

And though the writers do their best to introduce characters, such as the mothers (Ashwini Kalsikar and Sulabha Arya) and girlfriends Mala and Bindu (Hegde and Fernandes) to add to the mix-ups, chaos and disorder, all we have are pathetic example of poor writing skills and excruciatingly unbearable situations, so much so that even the gifted Ranveer Singh can barely salvage the film. His character repeats himself so often that he probably didn't have to memorise his lines -- nor did he get any opportunity to deliver a dialogue impulsively.

From among the ensemble cast, which is comprised of veterans Tiku Talsania, Vrajesh Hirje, Mukesh Tiwary, Brijender Kala, Sanjay Mishra and Johny Lever, not one of them has a scene that could be described as hilarious, comical or mildly amusing.

Shetty, who has specialised in a certain kind of humour in superhits such as 'Singham', 'Golmaal' and 'Chennai Express', fails miserably in raising laughs. The only thing that works for the film is Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh's sudden impromptu jig to 'Current laga re'.

That's the only 'paisa vasool' part of the film, which must go down as a massive wasted opportunity.

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Cirkus Movie Review: CIRKUS suffers from poor writing and forced humour, and appeals only in bits and pieces.

Cirkus review 2.0/5 & rating. watch cirkus official trailer video, listen songs, movie news updates, movie review and checkout public movie reviews soon., cirkus review {2.0/5} & review rating.

CIRKUS is the story of mistaken identity. The year is 1942. Dr. Roy Jamnadas (Murli Sharma) and Joy Jamnadas (Uday Tikekar) run the Jamnadas Orphanage. As part of an experiment, he separates two sets of twins and hands them over to two families for adoption. The first set gets adopted by an Ooty couple who run the Jubilee Circus. The other set is adopted by the Shenoys of Bangalore. Interestingly, both name their adopted children Roy and Joy, after Roy and Joy Jamnadas! The story then moves 30 years ahead. Roy # 1 ( Ranveer Singh ) and Joy # 1 ( Varun Sharma ) run the Jubilee Circus after the death of their foster parents. Roy is known as the 'electric man' as he is able to perform electricity-based stunts. Audiences are surprised to see that the current passes through his body and he doesn't get electrocuted. Roy # 1 is married to Mala ( Pooja Hegde ), who is desperate to have a child. But since she's unable to conceive, she is keen to adopt though Roy # 1 is against it. Meanwhile, Roy # 2 (Ranveer Singh) and Joy # 2 (Varun Sharma) are based in Bangalore. Roy # 2 is dating Bindu ( Jacqueline Fernandez ). Her father Rai Bahadur (Sanjay Mishra) happens to see Roy # 1 with Mala in Ooty and concludes that Roy # 2 is cheating on Bindu. Roy # 2 and Joy # 2 decide to go to Ooty for important work. Rai Bahadur sends his trusted servant, Prem (Anil Charanjeett) to follow them and find out if Roy # 2 is indeed married to Mala. From hereon begins a mad ride as Roy # 2 and Joy # 2 encounter a gang of thieves and several Ooty residents who claim to know them very well though this is their first visit to Ooty. What happens next forms the rest of the film.

The story is inspired by Shakespeare's  Comedy of Errors . The adapted story is promising and could have turned into a fine entertainer. But Yunus Sajawal's adapted screenplay is a big culprit. The writer should have peppered the film with non-stop humour. Sadly, the comedy is there but it's few and far between. Farhad Samji, Sanchit Bedre and Vidhi Ghodgaonkar's dialogues are funny but could have been funnier.

Rohit Shetty's direction is decent. The biggest strength of his execution is that he doesn't let the film turn confusing though there are far too many characters, including the ones that look similar. He has handled a few comic moments in an entertaining manner. He goes on a high with the scenes of Momo (Siddharth Jadhav) and also Rai Bahadur.

On the flipside, due to the writing of convenience, even his direction falters. In the past, he has rocked the show with comic capers like GOLMAAL series, ALL THE BEST, and BOL BACHCHAN. That kind of expert direction is missing here. At some places, humour appears dorced. Moreover, he has introduced too many tracks and he’s not able to do justice to them. For example, the whole Colonel Vikrant angle gets forgotten. Also, Dr. Roy Jamnadas breaking the fourth wall and talking to viewers should have resumed in the end.

CIRKUS begins on a superb note. But after the entry of Joy # 1, the film gets serious. The humour levels increase with the maddening scene in the train. The intermission point is lacklustre and Rohit Shetty should have made it more dramatic. Post interval, the scene of Momo in Roy # 1’s house brings the house down. The same applies to the slapping scene of Rai Bahadur, though after a point it gets repetitive. The climax is good but could have been better, considering all the actors had assembled and there was scope for some real madness.

Speaking of performances, Ranveer Singh underplays his part in several scenes and goes all out in the electricity-related scenes. Overall, he puts on a nice show. Varun Sharma provides able support. Pooja Hegde and Jacqueline Fernandez look stunning and their performances are okay. They are hardly there; in fact, Siddharth Jadhav has more screen time than both the leading ladies put together. Siddharth Jadhav is the funniest actor in the film and he’ll be loved. Sanjay Mishra comes next and is very funny. Anil Charanjeett leaves a mark. Murli Sharma is apt for his role. Johny Lever (Polson Dada) is wasted, sadly. Vijay Patkar (Shankar) is barely there. Sulbha Arya (Chachi) raises laughs in a scene or two. Uday Tikekar, Radhika Bangia (Lily), Saurabh Gokhale (Inspector Vikram), Vrajesh Hirjee (Naagmani), Mukesh Tiwari (Daku Begeera), Tiku Talsania (Velji Bhai), Brijendra Kala (Yusuf), Ashish Warang (Mango), Umakant Patil (Chikki), Nikitin Dheer (Joy # 1's father) and Ashwini Kalsekar (Shakuntala Devi) are decent. Deepika Padukone is superb in the song.

Cirkus | Official Trailer | Ranveer Singh, Jacqueline Fernandez, Pooja Hegde

The music fails to entice, except for  'Current Laga Re' .  'Sun Zara'  is shot well while  'Aashiqui'  is played in the end credits. Amar Mohile's background score adds to the cinematic feel. Ganesh Acharya's choreography is catchy.

Jomon T John's cinematography is neat. Swapnil Bhalerao and Madhur Madhavan's production design is too colourful and even gaudy. But audiences won’t complain as it suits a film of this kind. Sunil Rodrigues's action and Rohit Shetty's action design is very minimal and this is also a disappointing aspect as there was scope for action as well here. NY VFXWaala's VFX is passable. Bunty Nagi's editing could have been tighter.

On the whole, CIRKUS suffers from poor writing and forced humour, and appeals only in bits and pieces, more so in the second half. One definitely expected more from a Rohit Shetty film. At the box office, the film may reap the benefit of the Christmas and New Year holidays. However, it'll appeal only to those who don't mind a vacuous comedy. The film will have to depend heavily on spot bookings and positive word of mouth to make a decent impact.

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Critic’s Pick

‘Civil War’ Review: We Have Met the Enemy and It Is Us. Again.

In Alex Garland’s tough new movie, a group of journalists led by Kirsten Dunst, as a photographer, travels a United States at war with itself.

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‘Civil War’ | Anatomy of a Scene

The writer and director alex garland narrates a sequence from his film..

“My name is Alex Garland and I’m the writer director of ‘Civil War’. So this particular clip is roughly around the halfway point of the movie and it’s these four journalists and they’re trying to get, in a very circuitous route, from New York to DC, and encountering various obstacles on the way. And this is one of those obstacles. What they find themselves stuck in is a battle between two snipers. And they are close to one of the snipers and the other sniper is somewhere unseen, but presumably in a large house that sits over a field and a hill. It’s a surrealist exchange and it’s surrounded by some very surrealist imagery, which is they’re, in broad daylight in broad sunshine, there’s no indication that we’re anywhere near winter in the filming. In fact, you can kind of tell it’s summer. But they’re surrounded by Christmas decorations. And in some ways, the Christmas decorations speak of a country, which is in disrepair, however silly it sounds. If you haven’t put away your Christmas decorations, clearly something isn’t going right.” “What’s going on?” “Someone in that house, they’re stuck. We’re stuck.” “And there’s a bit of imagery. It felt like it hit the right note. But the interesting thing about that imagery was that it was not production designed. We didn’t create it. We actually literally found it. We were driving along and we saw all of these Christmas decorations, basically exactly as they are in the film. They were about 100 yards away, just piled up by the side of the road. And it turned out, it was a guy who’d put on a winter wonderland festival. People had not dug his winter wonderland festival, and he’d gone bankrupt. And he had decided just to leave everything just strewn around on a farmer’s field, who was then absolutely furious. So in a way, there’s a loose parallel, which is the same implication that exists within the film exists within real life.” “You don’t understand a word I say. Yo. What’s over there in that house?” “Someone shooting.” “It’s to do with the fact that when things get extreme, the reasons why things got extreme no longer become relevant and the knife edge of the problem is all that really remains relevant. So it doesn’t actually matter, as it were, in this context, what side they’re fighting for or what the other person’s fighting for. It’s just reduced to a survival.”

By Manohla Dargis

A blunt, gut-twisting work of speculative fiction, “Civil War” opens with the United States at war with itself — literally, not just rhetorically. In Washington, D.C., the president is holed up in the White House; in a spookily depopulated New York, desperate people wait for water rations. It’s the near-future, and rooftop snipers, suicide bombers and wild-eyed randos are in the fight while an opposition faction with a two-star flag called the Western Forces, comprising Texas and California — as I said, this is speculative fiction — is leading the charge against what remains of the federal government. If you’re feeling triggered, you aren’t alone.

It’s mourning again in America, and it’s mesmerizingly, horribly gripping. Filled with bullets, consuming fires and terrific actors like Kirsten Dunst running for cover, the movie is a what-if nightmare stoked by memories of Jan. 6. As in what if the visions of some rioters had been realized, what if the nation was again broken by Civil War, what if the democratic experiment called America had come undone? If that sounds harrowing, you’re right. It’s one thing when a movie taps into childish fears with monsters under the bed; you’re eager to see what happens because you know how it will end (until the sequel). Adult fears are another matter.

In “Civil War,” the British filmmaker Alex Garland explores the unbearable if not the unthinkable, something he likes to do. A pop cultural savant, he made a splashy zeitgeist-ready debut with his 1996 best seller “The Beach,” a novel about a paradise that proves deadly, an evergreen metaphor for life and the basis for a silly film . That things in the world are not what they seem, and are often far worse, is a theme that Garland has continued pursuing in other dark fantasies, first as a screenwriter (“ 28 Days Later ”), and then as a writer-director (“ Ex Machina ”). His résumé is populated with zombies, clones and aliens, though reliably it is his outwardly ordinary characters you need to keep a closer watch on.

By the time “Civil War” opens, the fight has been raging for an undisclosed period yet long enough to have hollowed out cities and people’s faces alike. It’s unclear as to why the war started or who fired the first shot. Garland does scatter some hints; in one ugly scene, a militia type played by a jolting, scarily effective Jesse Plemons asks captives “what kind of American” they are. Yet whatever divisions preceded the conflict are left to your imagination, at least partly because Garland assumes you’ve been paying attention to recent events. Instead, he presents an outwardly and largely post-ideological landscape in which debates over policies, politics and American exceptionalism have been rendered moot by war.

‘Civil War’ Is Designed to Disturb You

One thing that remains familiar amid these ruins is the movie’s old-fashioned faith in journalism. Dunst, who’s sensational, plays Lee, a war photographer who works for Reuters alongside her friend, a reporter, Joel (the charismatic Wagner Moura). They’re in New York when you meet them, milling through a crowd anxiously waiting for water rations next to a protected tanker. It’s a fraught scene; the restless crowd is edging into mob panic, and Lee, camera in hand, is on high alert. As Garland’s own camera and Joel skitter about, Lee carves a path through the chaos, as if she knows exactly where she needs to be — and then a bomb goes off. By the time it does, an aspiring photojournalist, Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), is also in the mix.

The streamlined, insistently intimate story takes shape once Lee, Joel, Jessie and a veteran reporter, Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), pile into a van and head to Washington. Joel and Lee are hoping to interview the president (Nick Offerman), and Sammy and Jessie are riding along largely so that Garland can make the trip more interesting. Sammy serves as a stabilizing force (Henderson fills the van with humanizing warmth), while Jessie plays the eager upstart Lee takes under her resentful wing. It’s a tidily balanced sampling that the actors, with Garland’s banter and via some cozy downtime, turn into flesh-and-blood personalities, people whose vulnerability feeds the escalating tension with each mile.

As the miles and hours pass, Garland adds diversions and hurdles, including a pair of playful colleagues, Tony and Bohai (Nelson Lee and Evan Lai), and some spooky dudes guarding a gas station. Garland shrewdly exploits the tense emptiness of the land, turning strangers into potential threats and pretty country roads into ominously ambiguous byways. Smartly, he also recurrently focuses on Lee’s face, a heartbreakingly hard mask that Dunst lets slip brilliantly. As the journey continues, Garland further sketches in the bigger picture — the dollar is near-worthless, the F.B.I. is gone — but for the most part, he focuses on his travelers and the engulfing violence, the smoke and the tracer fire that they often don’t notice until they do.

Despite some much-needed lulls (for you, for the narrative rhythm), “Civil War” is unremittingly brutal or at least it feels that way. Many contemporary thrillers are far more overtly gruesome than this one, partly because violence is one way unimaginative directors can put a distinctive spin on otherwise interchangeable material: Cue the artful fountains of arterial spray. Part of what makes the carnage here feel incessant and palpably realistic is that Garland, whose visual approach is generally unfussy, doesn’t embellish the violence, turning it into an ornament of his virtuosity. Instead, the violence is direct, at times shockingly casual and unsettling, so much so that its unpleasantness almost comes as a surprise.

If the violence feels more intense than in a typical genre shoot ’em up, it’s also because, I think, with “Civil War,” Garland has made the movie that’s long been workshopped in American political discourse and in mass culture, and which entered wider circulation on Jan. 6. The raw power of Garland’s vision unquestionably owes much to the vivid scenes that beamed across the world that day when rioters, some wearing T-shirts emblazoned with “ MAGA civil war ,” swarmed the Capitol. Even so, watching this movie, I also flashed on other times in which Americans have relitigated the Civil War directly and not, on the screen and in the streets.

Movies have played a role in that relitigation for more than a century, at times grotesquely. Two of the most famous films in history — D.W. Griffith’s 1915 racist epic “The Birth of a Nation” (which became a Ku Klux Klan recruitment tool) and the romantic 1939 melodrama “Gone With the Wind” — are monuments to white supremacy and the myth of the Southern Lost Cause. Both were critical and popular hits. In the decades since, filmmakers have returned to the Civil War era to tell other stories in films like “Glory,” “Lincoln” and “Django Unchained” that in addressing the American past inevitably engage with its present.

There are no lofty or reassuring speeches in “Civil War,” and the movie doesn’t speak to the better angels of our nature the way so many films try to. Hollywood’s longstanding, deeply American imperative for happy endings maintains an iron grip on movies, even in ostensibly independent productions. There’s no such possibility for that in “Civil War.” The very premise of Garland’s movie means that — no matter what happens when or if Lee and the rest reach Washington — a happy ending is impossible, which makes this very tough going. Rarely have I seen a movie that made me so acutely uncomfortable or watched an actor’s face that, like Dunst’s, expressed a nation’s soul-sickness so vividly that it felt like an X-ray.

Civil War Rated R for war violence and mass death. Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes. In theaters.

An earlier version of this review misidentified an organization in the Civil War in the movie. It is the Western Forces, not the Western Front.

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Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic for The Times. More about Manohla Dargis

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