A Captivating Biopic on Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Rating: 8/10 (15 June 2017)

A biopic is incredibly burdensome as a great degree of research is involved in the creative process. Such real stories can completely falter if the actual realities are poorly replicated on the silver screen. In addition, if a biopic does not display key details it doesn't really explore the realities accurately. Biopics can also largely misfire if the actualities are severely distorted. Neeraj Pandey's MS Dhoni: The Untold Story is not a backfire because it does not fall prey to these aforementioned issues. Essentially, it accurately shows MS Dhoni's legacy without spending an overdose of time on needless content; this is no hogwash.
This film beautifully shows MS Dhoni's childhood, his passions, and his struggle. This film is several notches above Azhar(2016) because it has an eye for details. Dhoni's family's values are explored well through the initial scenes. In the initial stages, his slow and steady movement towards cricket via wicket-keeping is a delight to watch. His relationship with the Bengali coach is well portrayed with good use of light moments. In this phase, the best moments are when Dhoni gets to bat the first time. Instead of just focusing on his successful hits, the film focuses on the encouragement young Dhoni gets with each hit. The film brilliantly shows how one kid's passion for batting becomes a big hit in that local area in India. It was quite intriguing to see how Dhoni uses numerous cricket tournaments as a window of opportunity to take his game to the next level. However, Dhoni's journey to incredible success was quite arduous. There were no dearth of setbacks in this rocky road to becoming a legendary Indian cricketer. This untold story examines these lows and details Dhoni's reactions through these moments. It was increasingly fascinating to view Dhoni's emotions and how he emerges stronger after each major low in his life. In fact, it was quite interesting to see how calm MS Dhoni was during certain mishaps. For example, Dhoni's calmness during tense moments like missing the flight to the Dilip Trophy was brilliantly presented. In addition, the film splendidly recreates all of Dhoni's major successes including the 2011 World Cup. Ideally, it was increasingly special to view his family witness all his major matches via television. However, the moment that takes the cake is the grand finale which many Indians will love viewing. Basically, the 2011 world cup victory was a big moment and that finale by Dhoni is one that will touch many.
Neeraj Pandey (the director of exceptional thrillers like Special 26 and Baby) has proved that he can make great films outside the thriller genre. His direction, screenplay, and dialogue is quite good. He exits his comfort zone and helms a biopic which hooks the audience till the climax. The film has a proper flow despite some unnecessary comedy (which is definitely fun to watch). Essentially, the film works due to a lack of snags. This picture does score in several other creative elements but the director successfully collaborates every element together. Basically, this biopic is a ship which did not sink like other ships because it had a highly skilled captain. If Tony D'Souza directed this film, it would've been far less effective like his Azhar(2016).
Sushant Singh Rajput delivers an exceptional performance as Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He gets into the skin of the character and his enormous effort is clearly visible. This character has quite a few layers and Sushant demonstrates them with a high degree of success. In my honest opinion, his best scene was an incredibly difficult emotional breakdown. In this one moment, Dhoni is informed of his special someone's demise and it hits him really hard. Instead of hamming it up badly, Sushant keeps it real and portrays this heartbreaking moment brilliantly. The scenes where he has to juggle between exams and cricket are brilliantly enacted. In fact, you can actually observe the struggle period and his acting makes it more natural. Such moments make his triumphant victories even more beautiful. Disha Patani is sweet as Priyanka Jha and her importance in Dhoni's life is well explored. The beautiful lass underplays her role well. It is such a delight to see her genuine love for Dhoni and her demise is quite agonizing. Kiara Advani doesn't have a big part but she plays a pivotal role in Dhoni's life. Her romantic moments with Dhoni do distract a bit but they are beautiful to view. She has acted well despite the limited screen time; it would be wrong to deem this as a blink and miss appearance. Anupam Kher is excellent as Dhoni's father. His concerns for his son's future are realistic and he enacts these moments effectively. His best moments appear when he watches his sons highs and lows in the big cricket matches. However, his best scene is the finale in which we see his tears of joy for the grand victory. The rest of the cast are all effectively utilized as they all have important moments in the story.
Amaal Mallik's music is great with some beautiful songs like Jab Tak and Besabriyaan. Arijit's Phir Kabhi strikes a chord for its lyrics as well as the excellent singing. Chiefly, the music has been beautifully crooned by the numerous musicians involved.
On the whole, this is a great biopic which completely deserves all the love it got from the audience. It accurately presents the story of our Indian skipper and it does not shy away from the lows of his career. It is backed up by research and there is no major distortion of facts. Only a director of Neeraj Pandey's caliber could've pulled this off with such a great degree of triumph.