Pros:
• 2016 biographical film by Neeraj Pandey based on the life of India’s most successful cricket captain MS Dhoni. Lead role played by Sushant Singh Rajput
• The Untold part – Dhoni’s first girlfriend Priyanka who died in a tragic accident. And how Dhoni met his wife.
• Remaining part of the story is mostly known by any Indian cricket lover.
There was an attempt to glorify Dhoni like any other biopic. And it got boring at times. It was one of the longest length movies in recent times.
Cons:
• Although acting was fair in this well made film, but the substance and the story leaves few vital questions in audience’s mind.
• Firstly Dhoni has a brother Narendra Singh Dhoni who has never been mentioned in the entire story that is quite strange.
Dhoni was never a classic orthodox player. But he was immensely talented aggressive and cool. He was a hard hitter of the cricket ball. He was not into cricket in early life but he made quick impact. He got chance to play Vinoo Mankad Trophy under 16 in 1997-98 and did well. He was picked up for Railways on sports quota as TTE. The film gave that a sorry image but what the director fails to understand that in India most of the good sportsmen gets job in sports quota serves any public organization and its part of life. Sanjoy Bangar and PK Bannerjee are also from railways. There are descent number of sports and athletics from railways. Its a very prestigious job.
Dhoni came into picture in around 1999-2000 season, in Cooch Bihar trophy he scored 488 runs from 9 matches, 12 innings 5 fifties with 17 catches and 7 stumping. But the real star of the tournament was Yuvraj sing scoring 358 runs in the finals against Bihar. Yuvraj was a star in this level and everybody was sure that he would make it to the big stages very soon. The film just showed Yuvraj in few scenes and then Dhoni spoke about the final match but nothing more. Yuvraj deserved more mentioning. Dhoni then got chance in the CK Naidu trophy for East Zone but he delivered disappointed performance. From 2000/01 season, Dhoni started playing in Ranji. In 2003 he was preferred over Deep Dasgupta, in Deelep Trophy finals for East Zone.
Dhoni was then picked up for India A to play against Kenya and Zimbabwe in 2003/04. Here he played well and received attention from then Indian Skipper Sourav Ganguly. However India A Coach Sandip Patil recommend Dinesh Karthik. But Sourav chose Dhoni in the team that was shown in one scene in the movie where selectors preferred Dinesh and asked Ganguly to not support Dhoni. Ganguly said he wanted to try Dhoni. If it is Dhoni’s biopic Sourav’s role cannot be shown in just one scene.
At that period India had a void in wicket keeping. Rahul Drabid used to play as temporary wicket-keeper cum batsman in ODI’s but he made it clear that he was not enjoying the dual role anymore. So Indian team tried many wicket keepers during that time. Deep Dasgupta, Ajay Ratra Samir Dighe Parthiv Patel and Dinesh Karthik all were in and out of the team but nobody made a real mark. Sourav then saw Dhoni and wanted him in the team.
Dhoni’s start to ODI was poor. But Sourav continued to support him and in his 5th match he scored 148 against Pakistan. Then he scored 183 runs when promoted up the order to accelerate the scoring rate against a match in Srilanka. After that he did not had to look back.
In 2007 Dravid urged BCCI and senior players that in the inaugural T20 India should send its young stars. Dhoni was picked as captain. And India won the series. But there was no mention of performances by Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh who helped India win the tournament.
After that it was the world cup finals in 2011 where Dhoni promoted himself up the order and India won the tournament as well. But here too there was no mention of Gautam Gambhir, Virendra Sewhag and Yuvraj Singh who were phenomenon behind Indian success.
Also many things like betting scandal in IPL has no mention in the film. The controversies are avoided and Dhoni’s heroic side was created and portrayed.
My Ratings
3
The film was also boring at times. All in all if you are not a Dhoni fan then you can avoid watching this movie.
