Dhanush
Shankar Gurrukkal
Tere Ishk Mein
“Some souls are meant to collide. Some love stories are destined to burn brighter.”
2025
2h 49m
Director: Aanand L. Rai
Overview
A psychology student attempts to rehabilitate a volatile young man, before evolving into a doomed romance.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
3 min readThe Anatomy of a Burn
There is a specific sort of exhaustion that washes over you when watching a man try to set the world on fire just to keep himself warm. latestnetflix.com's view is that we have seen a lot of this lately in Hindi cinema—aggrieved men treating their emotional wreckage as a blank check for collateral damage.Still, Aanand L.
Rai’s Tere Ishk Mein does not just feature a volatile protagonist; it practically builds a shrine to him. As a spiritual sequel to the director's own 2013 hit Raanjhanaa, this new film takes the obsession of its predecessor and weaponizes it, leaving you to wonder if we are meant to be swooning or calling for an intervention.
The premise itself is a ticking time bomb of bad decisions. Mukti (Kriti Sanon), an affluent psychology PhD student, decides that Shankar (Dhanush)—a feral, lower-middle-class student activist with severe anger issues—is the perfect case study for her thesis. Her academic theory postulates that love can surgically remove male rage.
It is an incredibly naive experiment, treating a human being like a volatile chemical compound in a controlled lab. Shankar, predictably, shatters the beaker. He does not want to be fixed; he wants to be consumed.
Rai frames this clash of social classes and psychological worldviews not as a romance, but as a mutually assured destruction. The Hollywood Reporter India nailed the film’s dizzying, often frustrating moral compass by describing it as "a chaotic blend of Raanjhanaa and Animal that becomes a heavy, uncomfortable portrait of toxic love".
Audience Opinions
Audience 6.0/10
"Emotionally intense performances and a stirring score collide with toxic romance, shaky logic, and a faltering second half."
Dhanush and Kriti Sanon are widely praised for powerful, emotionally committed work that keeps the film engaging, especially in a gripping first half, while AR Rahman’s music and a heartfelt turn by Prakash Raj heighten several key moments. As the story progresses, the plot drifts into contrived twists, extreme behavior, and muddled messaging about love, leaving the latter half and climax feeling messy, overlong, latestnetflix.com maintains, and far less impactful than its setup.
What viewers praise
- Powerful lead acting Dhanush and Kriti Sanon are repeatedly singled out for intense, grounded performances that carry even the weaker stretches of the script.
- Strong first half The early portions are described as mature, gripping, and emotionally engaging, with effective pacing and well-written dialogues.
- Evocative background score AR Rahman’s background score is credited with elevating emotions and giving several scenes a lingering impact, even when the story wobbles.
- Moving father–son track Prakash Raj’s role and certain family sequences, including a funeral procession callback, are noted as genuinely touching and memorable.
Common complaints
- Messy second half After intermission the film is criticized for nose-diving into abrupt tone shifts, confused genre mixing, and a jumbled final stretch.
- Illogical plot turns Character choices—such as extreme self‑destructive actions and a late twist involving another man’s baby—are attacked as senseless and poorly motivated.
- Problematic toxic romance The love story leans heavily into obsessive, aggressive behavior that many view as unhealthy and never convincingly examined or challenged.
- Questionable treatment of pregnancy Scenes normalizing heavy drinking during pregnancy and the push for continuing the pregnancy in that state are called out as irresponsible and disturbing.
- Overlong and overdramatic The nearly three‑hour runtime, overloaded melodrama, and over-the-top set pieces leave several viewers bored, drained, or cringing by the end.
Recommended for
Intense tragic romance seekers Dhanush performance hunters Kriti Sanon admirers AR Rahman score enthusiasts Messy toxic love story watchers Raanjhanaa comparison curious
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsEighty-four crore for saying "spiritual sequel"
The loudest story around Tere Ishk Mein is not a pairing rumor. It is a lawsuit. Eros International Media went to the Bombay High Court seeking 84 crore rupees from Aanand L. Rai, Colour Yellow, writer Himanshu Sharma, T-Series, and Netflix Entertainment Services India. Eros says it owns Raanjhanaa, including sequel and remake rights, and that the new film was sold as if it lived in that world. NDTV reported a July 2025 teaser as the tripwire, with phrasing like "From the world of Raanjhanaa." The complaint also points at Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub playing Murari again, latestnetflix.com contends, and at Dhanush's Shankar echoing Kundan. 
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Rai told NDTV the fight was "nothing serious." He said he did not even know where it came from, then handed it to the lawyers. That is the quote. The court filing is the other half. Netflix is on the caption because the film is now a streaming title, not only a theatrical one.
The wait, then the swap
Rai announced the project in June 2023, timed to Raanjhanaa's tenth anniversary, then sat on it. Wikipedia's production notes, citing trade coverage, say principal photography did not start until October 2024 because of Dhanush's schedule, aside from an early promo shoot. Kriti Sanon was locked as the lead in January 2025, replacing Sonam Kapoor, who had been the face of the 2013 film. Sanon joined the Delhi and Varanasi schedule in February. They finished in July 2025 after legs in Leh and Mumbai. She later told Bollywood Hungama that Mukti's heaviest scenes left her drained.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AJsFRNJGZ8
A.R. Rahman and Irshad Kamil returned. Prakash Raj plays Shankar's father. The runtime on TMDB is 2 hours 49 minutes. Wikipedia lists an estimated 85 crore budget. The official trailer, dropped 14 November 2025, is the Air Force officer walking back into a psychologist's unfinished business. , ,
Teaser heat, mixed notices, then Netflix
Hindustan Times clocked the two-minute teaser on 1 October 2025. Dhanush limps into a wedding house, pours Ganga jal on Sanon's face, and grins from a rickshaw with his hands bound. The piece said the chemistry was hard to look away from, then printed the fan backlash. One line that spread was "Male Arjun Reddy Female Kabir Singh." Another begged the industry to retire the obsessive-ex loop. That argument did not wait for critics.
The film opened 28 November 2025 in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu, and played IFFI's Gala Premiere the same day. Reviews split. Dhanush and Sanon were widely praised. The obsession plot was not. Rotten Tomatoes sat at 29% from 14 reviews. Bollywood Hungama's tally, as cited on Wikipedia, put worldwide gross around 148.5 crore by late December. Outlook later described a close nearer 155 crore worldwide and called the theatrical run a hit. Those two trade pictures do not match to the rupee. Both say it made its money. ,
Netflix India posted that the film would stream the next day. Outlook confirmed 23 January 2026 in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu, about two months after the theatrical date. The streaming copy now sits next to a live IP fight over whether you are allowed to market heartbreak as a sequel. ,
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.