MS Dhoni is engaging is best in 1st half and ordinary in 2nd half.

Rating: 7/10 (3 October 2016)

MS Dhoni movie had a great premise. The story of one of the most popular cricketer in India. MS Dhoni has struggled early in his career to achieve success. Dhoni had his mercurial success in a short span of time. And the records speaks of it. In his road to success, Dhoni had his fair shared of controversies. After all Indian Cricket is always front page news all the time.
As far as the movie goes, the first half captures aptly his struggles and frustrations in life. Unlike Yuvraj Singh,Dhoni had to work his way to the top. The first half is the best part of the movie and Neeraj Pandey nailed it perfectly.
The trouble started in the 2nd half where Dhoni enters Indian Team. The movie clearly stays safe away from controversies and conflicts with teammates. It does not give any any inroads to what Dhoni thinks in those controversial times. My guess is that Neeraj Pandey started with the right intent but end up making a superficial content to keep Dhoni happy and content. Also there might be objections from BCCI and players like Yuvraj Singh, Viraat Kohli, Virendra Shehwag etc. It is very difficult to make a biopic of a living legend. Hence it left the movie high and dry.
Also to make the matter, the unnecessary introduction of love interest ( 2 of them). The subplot of love life of Dhoni brought the pace of the movie to a complete halt. Neeraj Pandey is not good with romantic scenes ( its a Karan Johar zone), we saw the example in his previous movies like Baby and Special26.
Great performances from Sushant Singh Rajput( the best of his career till date!).
Finally the length of the movie was 3hr 5mins. That was awfully long.
The movie is a mass movie capturing the best cricketing moments of Dhoni in his career. They are memorable and people will definitely love it. It will surely be a blockbuster.
But definitely it is not Neeraj Pandey's best!