Painfully long with uninspiring and scattered story-telling!

Rating: 4/10 (9 May 2020)

This is one of those films where you feel if you watched a different film from what the world had seen, since it unanimously got positive reviews and for me it couldn't even come close to an average watch. Writing a review almost 4 years after the film's release doesn't make much sense but since my views are quite in contrast to what the world thinks, I felt like at least penning my views for once.
This biopic has the regular trappings of a rise-of-underdog, rags-to-riches story. The conventionalism could still have been overlooked if the narrative was compelling. Alas what we get here is a repetitive series of montage sequences that makes for uninspiring storytelling of a cricket legend.
The film at one point very rightly says that life is full of struggles and you need to keep batting the bouncers being constantly thrown at you. This applies true to the film as well which keeps throwing repeated bouncers at you all through and you are supposed to struggle through it. Not quite a pleasant experience especially when you expect entertainment from a film. Just to point down some major boring aspects of the film.

the Dhoni-Yuvraj Singh face off that the film brings pretty early in the plot was a very interesting premise but is never addressed in the film eventually. This thereby ends up being a cheap gimmick of using an actor (Herry Tangari) who resembles a young Yuvraj Singh, just for the kicks without any contribution to the narrative.
the love story between Dhoni and his first girlfriend (Disha Patani) is extremely boring without any emotional gravitas
if that wasn't enough, another love story soon follows with Dhoni and another lady (Kiara Advani) and the track is, more or less, similar to the earlier love story. Even if the first love story really happened in his life, it could have been easily edited out of the biopic, like many other tracks were.
Dhoni's bonding with his friends could have been more riveting. They end up being some uninteresting characters in his life, whom we don't connect with much.
All his family members from mom, Dad (Anupam Kher), sister (Bhumika Chawla in a forgettable comeback), brother-in-law and his coach (Rajesh Sharma), selector (Kumud Mishra), railway head (Kali Prasad Mukherjee) don't have defining moments in his life other than being used as mere spectators in the montage sequences of his matches.
his life as a railway ticket examiner is a track that is overplayed beyond requirement making it protracted and monotonous.
on the contrary, his rise to fame with his entry in the Indian National team is one aspect which you wish to have experienced better and stayed with more. Alas that is just hastily treated in quick montages. Even his gradual progression to being the captain of the Indian cricket team is simply fast-forwarded. One doesn't quite expect the film to show his interactions with fellow cricketers (which would have been a logistically difficult task to achieve). But there are no tracks explored in his personal life as well, other than the insipid love stories.
the climax predictably set amidst the 2011 World Cup which India won, doesn't have the edge-of-the-seat moments either.
at a runtime of almost 3 hours, this film is painfully long with boring romance tracks, repetitive montage shots of his cricket matches and uninspiring storytelling.
at the end you wonder if the film was actually tracing Dhoni's dream? And what exactly was Dhoni's dream? If it was to make it to the National team, it is achieved by interval point. If it was to win the World Cup, that never comes across in the film! With the lack of a definitive pain-point, the film meanders aimlessly.

Sushant Singh Rajput makes a modest attempt at playing Dhoni but seems one-dimensional after a point. The film very smartly edits and merges real life cricketers and match footage with the footage of Sushant Singh Rajput playing Dhoni. In the starting reels, it also shows a young Dhoni with Sushant Singh Rajput looking much younger and also shorter in height. But beyond these technical achievements, one expected better storytelling from accomplished director Neeraj Pandey.