Film

Raazi

Name: Raazi
Genre: Thriller, Drama, History
Released: 2018
Cast: Alia Bhatt, Vicky Kaushal, Rajit Kapoor, Shishir Sharma, Ashwath Bhatt

A young Indian woman is married off to a Pakistani military officer on the eve of the 1971 war, then tasked with spying for her country. It's a taut, intimate thriller that treats espionage as a deeply personal moral crisis rather than a matter of ideology. Alia Bhatt gives a career-best performance as someone caught between duty, love, and survival.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like espionage stories where the tension is quiet and moral rather than car chases, and you want a spy film that lingers on the cost of loyalty to a country and to the people you deceive.

Skip it if you want a fast, gadget-driven thriller; this one spends long stretches on domestic routine and slow-burn unease, and its emotional register is heavier than its genre suggests.

What it asks of you: Around two and a half hours of patience, with a measured pace that rewards close attention to faces and small choices rather than constant action or big set pieces.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil2016

Alia Bhatt's luminous screen presence in a romance that understands how attraction can coexist with doubt. The emotional clarity she brings translates powerfully to her work in Raazi.

But It's a long, swooning Bollywood romance with more melodrama than plot. If you want straight narrative momentum, this will test your patience.

The Lives of Others2006

A masterclass in the moral weight of surveillance. This German film about state spying in Cold War Berlin shares Raazi's interest in how watching someone corrodes the watcher's soul.

But It's slower and greyly lit, with the mood of a coffin. Not a film for lightness or release.

Bridge of Spies2015

Spielberg's measured Cold War thriller about a lawyer negotiating a prisoner swap. It has Raazi's sense that espionage work is fundamentally about character and choice, not just plot.

But Tom Hanks plays a deliberately flat, procedural hero. If you need charisma and momentum, the pacing may feel glacial.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Raazi

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Yuva2004

Both examine the 1971 war and its aftermath (Yuva is set in its shadow). Both ask: what do you owe your country when it asks you to betray your heart?

Mani Ratnam's sprawling political thriller about three men caught in Mumbai's underworld and elections. It has Raazi's interest in how ordinary people become entangled in violent history they didn't choose.

But It's long, digressive, and shot in Ratnam's fractured style. The plot requires you to work harder than most narratives ask. The dubbed English prints are poor quality.

Mardaani2014

Another Alia Bhatt vehicle, this one a police thriller about a cop hunting human traffickers. She's fierce and clever here—a different register but the same intelligence in her eyes.

But The villain is cartoonishly evil. Some plot points creak with Bollywood convenience rather than earned tension.

A Wednesday!2008

A compact Mumbai thriller about a mysterious man and a police commissioner locked in a high-stakes game. It moves like Raazi does—propulsive, intimate, morally unsettling.

But The twist hinges on information the audience couldn't have known. Some will feel cheated; others will love being outwitted.

Pink2016

An Indian thriller about three women accused of assault who fight back in court. It shares Raazi's willingness to examine power, gender, and how the powerful exploit the vulnerable.

But It's a courtroom drama dressed up as a thriller. Long stretches are procedural; the emotional climax takes time to build.

Ek Thi Daayan2013

A psychological thriller with Emraan Hashmi that uses supernatural unease to explore trauma and desire. It has similar mood: domestic spaces where nothing is quite safe.

But The supernatural framing is half-baked. It wavers between thriller and horror without committing fully to either.

Talvar2015

A film about a real murder case in India, told from three perspectives. It captures the same claustrophobia and moral ambiguity that makes Raazi so unsettling.

But It's bleak and repetitive by design. The same events playing out differently may feel like wheel-spinning rather than revelation.

Gulaab Gang2014

Madhuri Dixit as a woman leading a vigilante gang against domestic violence. It's raw and politically engaged, sharing Raazi's interest in how women survive patriarchy through unusual means.

But It's structurally messy and the action scenes feel low-budget. The passion sometimes overwhelms the craft.

The Conversation1974

Both films understand that surveillance is not about gathering intelligence—it's about the watcher's soul. The tape, the report, the secret: they poison the person who holds them.

Coppola's paranoid masterpiece about a surveillance expert who becomes convinced his work will lead to murder. It's the philosophical ancestor of Raazi—a film about how watching someone changes you.

But It's 1970s cinema at its slowest and most internal. Gene Hackman mostly sits in rooms. There's no plot in the conventional sense, only mounting dread.