2011 was a magical year for M.S. Dhoni and Indian Cricket.

Rating: 7/10 (3 November 2016)

The film is about the life of cricketer Mahendra Singh as a boy, progressing into teenager and finally as an adult. It shows how he rose above all obstacles to achieve greatness. The film also looks into his personal relationships with the only two women in his life - one who he lost to a tragedy: the late Priyanka Jha and the other who he later met eventually became his wife, Sakshi Rawat.
The film starts with Dhoni's birth. Later we see him as a boy in school training as a goalkeeper. A teacher(who is also a school cricket coach) spots him and notices his goalkeeping ability and immediately realizes what a good wicket-keeper he would be, given the proper training. He calls Dhoni, who at first is reluctant, but then agrees for a trial.
At the trial, he impresses his coach and finally agrees to full-time training. Dhoni's father objects to his concentrating more on cricket rather than focusing his attention on his studies. He eventually goes against his dad's wishes to embark on a career that can only be described as "magical".
The film shows the hardships faced by Indian cricketers. We also see the choices faced by the I.C.C.(Indian Cricket Council) when choosing the right cricket player for the Indian team and the politics involved. M.S. Dhoni was among a batch of players that included another legend Yuvraj Singh. Eventually their partnership in cricket would be lethal and a key for the success of the Indian cricket team.
No doubt, a lot of other players contributed to the Cricket World Cup 2011 win: Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Harbhajan Singh and Ravichandran Ashwin among many others. (Full Lineup: http:// www.espncricinfo.com /icc_cricket_worldcup2011 /content /squad /497114.html)
Neeraj Pandey has already captured Bollywood's attention with films like A Wednesday(2008), Special 26(2013), The Royal Bengal Tiger(2014) and Baby(2015). Sushant Singh Rajput plays the role of Dhoni very well and veteran actor Anupam Kher plays the role of Dhoni's father. The photography of the film is superb along with the direction and background music. The songs in the film are also decent.
Thank you for reading my review, live long and prosper.