Mahendra Singh Dhoni aka Mahi is an agile kid good at goal keeping who is motivated to play cricket by his coach Banerjee (Rajesh Sharma). Born into a below middle class family, Dhoni faces all possible challenges to pursue cricket as a career. Though his father Pan Singh (Anupam Kher) insists on a proper education, Dhoni evolves into a promising cricketer with his exceptional talent and support of his sister Jayanti (Bhumika Chawla) & friends. But just when Dhoni is slowly realizing his dreams, he is offered a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) job in Kharagpur railway station which he accepts to see his father happy. But the monotonous job frustrates the cricketer in Dhoni. How did he break loose from the cocoon and metamorphose into a super successful iconic cricketer despite the setbacks and challenges in life forms the rest of the story.
Sushant Singh Rajput: Not just the resemblance in the looks, Sushanth is brilliantly convincing as MSD with his body language and performances as well. His sheer hard work is pretty evident in each frame. The way he got Dhoni’s antics, his composite nature especially the ‘helicopter shot’ right is absolutely commendable. He carries the entire film on his shoulders offering a good reason to keep watching.
Analysis:
Neeraj Pandey has earned a niche fan base with his popular and unique filmography (A Wednesday, Special 26, Baby etc). The director who is otherwise known for his laggard yet edgy narration has no big surprise in MS Dhoni: The Untold Story.
The eminent director has earlier declared that he is not seeing this as a “biopic” but indeed as a story – well we wonder if the audiences second him! Biopics like Dirty Picture, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag etc have set the bar high for the fans to except anything below it.
MS Dhoni is a “biopic” of the selective good pages of his life. Dhoni is believed to be a shareef guy-next-door who is not quite expressive which has been beautifully brought onto the screen. Revolving around his studies, cricket, family and friends, the first half depicts the life, challenges and hardships of aspirant Dhoni. This part of Dhoni’s life teaches us (Especially the youth) the kind of resilience, perseverance, rising-to-the-occasion they ought to display. People who motivated Dhoni, encouraged him, created opportunities for him, elements of life that curtailed him – this is all about the first half. The origin of the helicopter shot and his encounter with Yuvraaj Singh at first class cricket (that too a touch-and-go) are the untold aspects in this segment.
While the first half has already made you watching a biopic, the second half proves no less sluggish. Moreover, it slips off into the romance mood with back to back episodes with his ex-girlfriend Priyanka (Disha Patani) and later Sakshi (Kiara Advani). Except for the glorification of his rare talent, the director did not attempt to discuss Dhoni’s strengths or weaknesses (forget about the controversies in his professional/personal life). Aspects like the unique traits/decisions that made him the champ he is and what it took out of him (to be what he is) surprisingly don’t find significance in this biopic – which makes it a mediocre biopic.
Being promoted as the ‘Untold Story’, MS Dhoni: The Untold Story is yet another commercial film with just a sheer onscreen recreation of few events in Dhoni’s life with absolutely no thrills and frills!
Merits:
- Casting and performances of the lead cast.
- Cinematography
- Dialogues
- Production design
De-merits:
- Screenplay & Narration
- Songs & their placements
Except for the Jab Tak song, music by Amaal Malik goes largely unnoticed. Even the song is a key distraction in the film. And back ground score by Sanjoy Chowdhury also falls in the same category.
By the way there is no cameo of Ram Charan in the film. And all controversies over Dhoni were subdued (of course, only then Dhoni would promote the film!)
MS Dhoni: The Untold Story is just a commercialized onscreen translation of all the good pages of Dhoni’s life in the name of biopic. Director Neeraj Pandey gets stumped while trying a helicopter shot but Sushanth’s performance saves the film from being a debacle. On a whole, it turns out to be just a one-time watch film and that too for diehard Dhoni fans.
