Dhoni comes close on the heels of Neeraj Pandey’s successful reincarnations of real life scenarios on the big screen. Neeraj Pandey is a name to reckon with amongst the top bracket directors of Indian Cinema and it would be interesting to see his interpretation of one of the greatest cricketers of not just Indian cricket but also world cricket.
The Dhoni story is an untold one. Not many in the public domain know the man off the cricket field and the scenes behind his rise to perhaps being the most successful captains of the Indian cricket team. There was always the curiosity factor not just to see the rise of this “nobody” from the smallest of towns to being the captain of two world cup winning teams. The story begins wonderfully well and who would not want to root the cause of an amazingly talented, but economically weak young boy. Terrific settings and amazing performances takes the viewers on an emotional ride and few would have looked at their watches in disbelief, for the intermission arrives after almost 100 minutes. With the stage set for a thrilling second half, the young boy Mahendra Singh Dhoni becomes MS and after this is where the movie hits a plateau with no exciting moments. Cricket in India is not just a game but politics and this is very evident in the movie as well as the makers keep out the politics of cricket even in the movie with just shadow references to controversies. The backstage scenes behind Dhoni’s appointment as the captain are sadly left out and even his appointment is shown as a foregone conclusion.
The most interesting and crucial aspect of bickering between the players in the team and the standoffs with the selectors as well as the hullabaloo in the Indian team that the cricket fans were aware of are left out and instead the focus shifts to Mahi’s romance. Post interval the script takes the route of a regular Bollywood movie and sadly disappoints, though it has enough moments that are moving, they do not befit this biopic. This “Test Match” screenplay still manages to hold the interest of the viewer but desists from being bold and the viewers just get a sniff of the real deal.
Sushant Rajput excels in the role as Dhoni and wonder if there could have been anyone better. He performs with élan. The others in the movie also present themselves convincingly and outstandingly well.
The cinematography scores a boundary and the movie boasts of an intelligent back ground score with a “couple” of decent songs. The dialogues deal a “four” and the editing for a lengthy movie as this deserves another 4. The director Neeraj Pandey saves this ordinary script from being a drab with his dexterous direction and manages a 3, yet the expectations were very high. Dhoni as of now stands his weakest movie glaring from his rack of “four”.
The script writers of Dhoni dejectedly have written a less courageous script on bent knees and run themselves out. The Dhoni we all expected is “hit wicket” and yet it will for sure find favour with the Dhoni fans..
M.S.DHONI – EMPATHY!!
2.75/5
B.U.Shreesha
