MS Dhoni Review

Rating: 7/10 (30 September 2016)

"Dhoni finishes off in style, a magnificent strike into the crowd, India lift the World Cup." These lines every Indian would like to relive over and over. The man spearheading India to two World Cups. MS Dhoni. A film on him would surely make waves. MS Dhoni: The untold story, has managed just to scrap through as a decorous, typical movie. The direction team has shown pretty much what they have wanted the audience to see, steering clear of any controversies, or aberrations whatsoever. First things first, this movie gets high points because Sushant Singh Rajput exhibits an undeniable level of perfection in portraying MS Dhoni. The walk, the body language, the look in his eyes, the smile, even emulating all the cricketing shots, all are mesmerizing to say the least, for a man who doesn't look like Dhoni. The movie being over a tedious 3 hours long, does test your patience but comes through overall. The first half is engaging and quirky. The movie shows the 'untold journey' of Dhoni's childhood till the famous six that he hit at Wankhede that gave us goosebumps. The journey of the hero, starts off with Dhoni as a school going kid in Ranchi who prefers to be a goalkeeperÂ but is eyed by the school coach as 'good replacement' for a wicketkeeper for the school team. Little does he know he has the hunger of a man craving for success and what a brute force he turns out to be. The movie shows the struggles of Dhoni starting from his hometown, where he's a local hero, to missing out on India U 19 world cup team, to haggardly oscillating between his job and cricket practice; we see it all. We see the frustrations of the one termed as "The Captain Cool". However what drives him to meteoric rise is his steadfastness, focus and persistence. The movie is well plotted upto this point. But what happens after Dhoni has attained a hero's status all over the country? The 2007 World Cup loss, after which his effigy was burnt outside his home in Ranchi, the winning of the T20 world cup where he displayed calm nerves of a steel : that is where we see the birth of leader, are depicted as normally happening events that just come and go. The death of his girlfriend, what effect it has on Dhoni? lThe film runs through the major signposts in Dhoni's career, but we never get a sense of how victory and defeat affected the man or altered his game or personality.Â That is how we see Dhoni, a legendary leader. But the film isn't saying that. Being a three hour long movie, you shouldn't have excuses to not put this on your movie. Overall the movie is a good watch, because it's manages to stay stimulating the whole team and we have the director to thank for that. Dhoni's encounter with young Yuvraj Singh is one of the most riveting scenes of the film, the casting team has done an excellent job in finding Herry Tanghiri who's looks match with Yuvraj any given day. Among the actresses, Kiara Advani scores a little higher than Disha Patni, who is likable, cute and has a good chemistry with Sushant. But you can't blame Disha, given the fact that she had such a short role. The rest of the cast does its job conviniently.