Fanboy moments

The story of MS Dhoni, India’s most successful cricket captain is as fascinating and inspiring as many of his illustrious predecessors. A reluctant cricketer to begin with, ‘Mahi’, combating average middle-class dreams of his father (whose only desire was to see him study and settle down well) rose to the pinnacle of the game, leaving behind amazing performance records. Once again, like many of his peers, his life too is worthy of a biopic, which is what renowned director Neeraj Pandey has attempted to come up with.

Betting on the undying craze for cricket which Indian youth have, taking a timeline which begins with the birth of the cricket icon to the peak of his career as he wins the 2011 World Cup for India, Pandey offers his largely young audience a film of 190 minutes, a tad too long in today’s times. The narration is linear, chronological, by and large, and sticks to facts, much of it already available in public domain.

A few nuggets during his romantic episodes, which the director may have obtained during his interactions with the cricketer, are a bonus. Beyond that, if the average viewer expects a fascinating close-up view of the man behind the willow wielding, mobike loving sportsman, there is nothing much on offer.

Neeraj Pandey is reverential in the extreme and careful at the other end to avoid controversies and also not build too much attention on the goings on in modern cricket. Thus, the film becomes sanitised, breathlessly fanboyish and resultantly, a clear one-sided version. In any case, one could not have expected the film to rake up controversies. Still, the automatic travel of sequences from one episode to another, building up the phenomenon in the process starts to get exhausting soon after the first half.

Sushant Singh Rajput is definitely top notch and lives the role, right down to the mannerisms and body language of Dhoni, including the bouncy walking style and an expression-less demeanour, for most part of the time. Full marks to him for this alone. His love interests Disha Patani and Kiara Advani – are just about adequate with the former having a longer screen time to express her love for the hero.

Anupam Kher, Bhumika Chawla and a few other regulars of the Indie film circuit like Kumud Mishra, lend their own weight to the proceedings. Curiously, the film is titled ‘MS Dhoni – The Untold Story’. Given the way it has shaped up, there is nothing that is new or unknown about him, which makes it even more disappointing. In patches, the film tries to break through the straitjacketed approach but does not make it to enable a satisfying feeling.

Film Name : MS Dhoni The Untold Story
Cast : Sushant Singh Rajput, Disha Patani, Kiara Advani, Bhumika Chawla and Anupam Kher
Direction : Neeraj Pandey
Genre : Drama
Likes : Sushant
Dislikes : Nothing unknown is shown, running time