After a long wait, ever since it was announced almost two years ago, 'MS DHONI: THE UNTOLD STORY' finally released on September 30. Within three days of it's release it has broken records of sorts by minting more than 66 crores at the domestic box office. This naturally means people across the country are loving it, right? The main purpose of me writing this blog post is to share my personal views regarding the film. The key word here is 'personal view'. I have already put up a Facebook status regarding the same but you can only write that much in such a platform. So let me jump right into the party!
Let's start at the beginning. The film begins with the ICC Cricket World Cup final 2011 and our man Dhoni is all set to go out for his batting. Sushant Singh Rajput who plays Dhoni, takes off his shirt and puts on the number 7 jersey and the audience goes berserk, after all we Indians are a cricket crazy lot. The opening scene sets the tone of the film and then it goes into flashback right into the day Mahi was born.
Mahi grows up and now he is in school. Average in his studies and more interested in sports (more in football and less in cricket), just like any other school kid. His father played by Anupam Kher is a pump operator and everything seems fine until one midnight he sees his father watering a field. May be it had an impact on the young mind; gave him a reason to do something significant with his life. So far so good. His sports coach one day saw him goal keeping and asked him if he would like to play cricket (as a goal keeper of course). He reluctantly agreed but his heart is in batting. Well if that's exactly how he got into cricket (mind it Dhoni himself supervised the script) then fine I have nothing to say. However I couldn't help but notice that his growing up years is shown in a pretty generic manner. There are clichéd dialogues like 'Padhoge likhoge to banoge nawab, kheloge kudoge to hoge kharab' to which our young Dhoni replies 'Padhoge likhoge to hoge kharab, kheloge kudoge to banoge nawaab'. And naturally the audience starts murmuring casually with peals of laughter as they already know that the young boy grows up to be 'Dhoni: The great cricketer'. Seems pretty basic and convenient?, well this is just the beginning.
And the saga of rise of Dhoni into a young man with great sporting skills continues throughout the first half. He hits a lot of sixes and has the ability to pull crowds when he plays and 'Mahi maar raha hain' becomes a regular catchphrase among his hordes of supporters. The feeling I got here is that Dhoni was a born prodigy who got lucky with his circumstances. He was good in football and when the situation demanded he also adapted very well into cricket although not without the customary 'machli pakad raha hain kya' scolding from his coach. And there's the inexplicable neighbour cum supporter cum the owner of the shop where Dhoni works, who goes out of his way to use his contacts to get Dhoni a sponsorship. A born prodigy and a lots of lady luck, I am not so sure if that's how one should show the formative years of a sporting icon. The entire episode in the movie can be summed up in one word: uninspiring. The screenplay is as basic as it gets. A little bit of dramatization wouldn't have hurt. It's a movie after all and it's not like the makers have not taken any creative liberties in the film. For instance the day he was born the nurse tell his father that his wife gave birth to a boy and the doctor tells him that it's a girl. It was clearly to add some comic element to the film or did it really happen? Well we'll have to ask Dhoni's parents.
Another episode is when he misses the opportunity to play in Kolkata as he misses his flight. The very next moment he is buying 'Singharas' for his friends as he wants to remember the day and work as hard as he can. Well everyone has a different way of dealing with missed opportunities but the problem is that he is shown as this super human who never breaks down barring one scene in the second half when he finds out about he death of his girlfriend. The director seemed more focused on selling the image 'Dhoni: The Romantic' more than 'Dhoni: The Person'.
The mid portion of the film where Dhoni is offered a job in the railway and takes it up reluctantly due to family pressure and also partly due to his necessity, is the most insightful part of the film. We get a glimpse of the silent suffering and 'a boy lost in the world' kind of feeling that he undergoes.
If the first half was ordinary, the second half really tests your patience. He is part of the Indian cricket team now and after performing poorly in a couple of matches he meets his first girlfriend in a flight. It is such a overdone scene which we have seen hundreds of times in Indian films. A chirpy girl who is a Sachin fan but has no idea who Dhoni is, asks for the latter's help to get an autograph from Sachin. Disha Patani, the girl, consoles Dhoni that he will definitely play well in his next match and guess what he did play well. Then romance blossoms between the two and the girl constantly keeps asking, 'hamare paas bohut time hain na?' hence giving you an idea that she is going to die soon. But before that happens she gets two romantic songs thus giving her somewhat around 10-15 mins of screen time. After the girl dies of course Dhoni's form goes haywire. His good form is because of a girl's wishes and his bad form is because a girl died, isn't that an insult to the man's talent? or may be the director, Neeraj Pandey, was trying to bring in some feminist angle to his narrative like 'behind every successful man there is a woman' kind of melodrama.
The next thing we know that he is the captain now and has made some necessary changes in the team. By now the film has already begun it's downfall journey. The next few moments are only a collage of some good and bad performances on the field, crazy maniac fans burning his effigies right outside his house and a breaking news with funny headlines. One fine day he meets Sakshi, puts on a disguise and hangs out with her on the streets. There is also a ritualistic song in a foreign location. Finally the media finds out an the two love birds gets married. Cut to the world cup final where he scores the winning six. Sure it was a proud moment for India and to see that moment once again on the big screen people were understandably ecstatic and emotional. However it couldn't hide the fact that it is a flawed movie. I couldn't connect to it. There's no emotional depth, no display of sportsmanship spirit in any particular scene. Had it been a documentary it would have worked wonders but this was intended as a drama film which falls flat form the word go. Coming to the title 'MS DHONI: THE UNTOLD STORY', the film doesn't offer anything 'untold' to the audience. Any crazy cricket fan (which is most of the country) knows all the details shown in the film: where he was born, where he studied, what his father was, how many runs he scored in the Ranjis, when he became captain, who his first girlfriend was, how much income tax he pays (not shown in the film, but naturally), how many bikes he has, that he was a railway ticket collector. There are numerous newspaper and online articles and innumerable books available for people to read about his personal life. The film has no exclusivity. It is just a celebration of the man's achievements, but do we really need such a long movie for this?
I do understand why the film works for those who enjoyed it. They were looking at things from Dhoni's perspective. For them it was not any actor falling in love, it was Dhoni falling in love, hence the loud cheers. However if you don't look at the movie with a filter of jingoistic patriotism you will realize that it's a perfectly average movie. For me personally it was a disappointment because the expectation was sky high. This was supposed to be Sushant's Rockstar and Bajirao Mastani but sadly it isn't. It will definitely go down as one of his best performances but the film is nonredeemable. And I am not talking about the box office here. Even a 'Housefull' earns over 100 crores at the box office. That's a different topic for another day.
RATING: 1 OUT OF 5.
If you have watched MS DHONI: THE UNTOLD STORY, do let me know your views.
Thank You.
Let's start at the beginning. The film begins with the ICC Cricket World Cup final 2011 and our man Dhoni is all set to go out for his batting. Sushant Singh Rajput who plays Dhoni, takes off his shirt and puts on the number 7 jersey and the audience goes berserk, after all we Indians are a cricket crazy lot. The opening scene sets the tone of the film and then it goes into flashback right into the day Mahi was born.
Mahi grows up and now he is in school. Average in his studies and more interested in sports (more in football and less in cricket), just like any other school kid. His father played by Anupam Kher is a pump operator and everything seems fine until one midnight he sees his father watering a field. May be it had an impact on the young mind; gave him a reason to do something significant with his life. So far so good. His sports coach one day saw him goal keeping and asked him if he would like to play cricket (as a goal keeper of course). He reluctantly agreed but his heart is in batting. Well if that's exactly how he got into cricket (mind it Dhoni himself supervised the script) then fine I have nothing to say. However I couldn't help but notice that his growing up years is shown in a pretty generic manner. There are clichéd dialogues like 'Padhoge likhoge to banoge nawab, kheloge kudoge to hoge kharab' to which our young Dhoni replies 'Padhoge likhoge to hoge kharab, kheloge kudoge to banoge nawaab'. And naturally the audience starts murmuring casually with peals of laughter as they already know that the young boy grows up to be 'Dhoni: The great cricketer'. Seems pretty basic and convenient?, well this is just the beginning.
And the saga of rise of Dhoni into a young man with great sporting skills continues throughout the first half. He hits a lot of sixes and has the ability to pull crowds when he plays and 'Mahi maar raha hain' becomes a regular catchphrase among his hordes of supporters. The feeling I got here is that Dhoni was a born prodigy who got lucky with his circumstances. He was good in football and when the situation demanded he also adapted very well into cricket although not without the customary 'machli pakad raha hain kya' scolding from his coach. And there's the inexplicable neighbour cum supporter cum the owner of the shop where Dhoni works, who goes out of his way to use his contacts to get Dhoni a sponsorship. A born prodigy and a lots of lady luck, I am not so sure if that's how one should show the formative years of a sporting icon. The entire episode in the movie can be summed up in one word: uninspiring. The screenplay is as basic as it gets. A little bit of dramatization wouldn't have hurt. It's a movie after all and it's not like the makers have not taken any creative liberties in the film. For instance the day he was born the nurse tell his father that his wife gave birth to a boy and the doctor tells him that it's a girl. It was clearly to add some comic element to the film or did it really happen? Well we'll have to ask Dhoni's parents.
Another episode is when he misses the opportunity to play in Kolkata as he misses his flight. The very next moment he is buying 'Singharas' for his friends as he wants to remember the day and work as hard as he can. Well everyone has a different way of dealing with missed opportunities but the problem is that he is shown as this super human who never breaks down barring one scene in the second half when he finds out about he death of his girlfriend. The director seemed more focused on selling the image 'Dhoni: The Romantic' more than 'Dhoni: The Person'.
The mid portion of the film where Dhoni is offered a job in the railway and takes it up reluctantly due to family pressure and also partly due to his necessity, is the most insightful part of the film. We get a glimpse of the silent suffering and 'a boy lost in the world' kind of feeling that he undergoes.
If the first half was ordinary, the second half really tests your patience. He is part of the Indian cricket team now and after performing poorly in a couple of matches he meets his first girlfriend in a flight. It is such a overdone scene which we have seen hundreds of times in Indian films. A chirpy girl who is a Sachin fan but has no idea who Dhoni is, asks for the latter's help to get an autograph from Sachin. Disha Patani, the girl, consoles Dhoni that he will definitely play well in his next match and guess what he did play well. Then romance blossoms between the two and the girl constantly keeps asking, 'hamare paas bohut time hain na?' hence giving you an idea that she is going to die soon. But before that happens she gets two romantic songs thus giving her somewhat around 10-15 mins of screen time. After the girl dies of course Dhoni's form goes haywire. His good form is because of a girl's wishes and his bad form is because a girl died, isn't that an insult to the man's talent? or may be the director, Neeraj Pandey, was trying to bring in some feminist angle to his narrative like 'behind every successful man there is a woman' kind of melodrama.
The next thing we know that he is the captain now and has made some necessary changes in the team. By now the film has already begun it's downfall journey. The next few moments are only a collage of some good and bad performances on the field, crazy maniac fans burning his effigies right outside his house and a breaking news with funny headlines. One fine day he meets Sakshi, puts on a disguise and hangs out with her on the streets. There is also a ritualistic song in a foreign location. Finally the media finds out an the two love birds gets married. Cut to the world cup final where he scores the winning six. Sure it was a proud moment for India and to see that moment once again on the big screen people were understandably ecstatic and emotional. However it couldn't hide the fact that it is a flawed movie. I couldn't connect to it. There's no emotional depth, no display of sportsmanship spirit in any particular scene. Had it been a documentary it would have worked wonders but this was intended as a drama film which falls flat form the word go. Coming to the title 'MS DHONI: THE UNTOLD STORY', the film doesn't offer anything 'untold' to the audience. Any crazy cricket fan (which is most of the country) knows all the details shown in the film: where he was born, where he studied, what his father was, how many runs he scored in the Ranjis, when he became captain, who his first girlfriend was, how much income tax he pays (not shown in the film, but naturally), how many bikes he has, that he was a railway ticket collector. There are numerous newspaper and online articles and innumerable books available for people to read about his personal life. The film has no exclusivity. It is just a celebration of the man's achievements, but do we really need such a long movie for this?
I do understand why the film works for those who enjoyed it. They were looking at things from Dhoni's perspective. For them it was not any actor falling in love, it was Dhoni falling in love, hence the loud cheers. However if you don't look at the movie with a filter of jingoistic patriotism you will realize that it's a perfectly average movie. For me personally it was a disappointment because the expectation was sky high. This was supposed to be Sushant's Rockstar and Bajirao Mastani but sadly it isn't. It will definitely go down as one of his best performances but the film is nonredeemable. And I am not talking about the box office here. Even a 'Housefull' earns over 100 crores at the box office. That's a different topic for another day.
RATING: 1 OUT OF 5.
If you have watched MS DHONI: THE UNTOLD STORY, do let me know your views.
Thank You.
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