Sanju Movie Review

An extremely awaited biopic of Bollywood releases today. Sanjay Dutt has many tags attached and always the bad boy in the newspapers. Raj Kumar Hirani who has been a close associate of him and who gave him a second life in the career takes up this project. On one hand Raj Kumar Hirani is unanimously loved by everyone for his simple yet incredible films. On the other hand, there is so much truth the public already is aware of about Sanjay Dutt. The question arises whether Hirani will call spade-a-spade or will cover up Sanju’s life with his humour touch. Mr. Hirani does the latter.

Entry of Ranbir Kapoor in the film happens in a very real manner. Sanju is given a month before he enters the jail sentence. His wife Manyata played by Dia Mirza asks him to get a good biopgraphy done where people can know the ‘actual’ him. He then approaches a famous author Winnie who is a pro in writing biographies. The movie is his narration to Winnie and a part of the narration also comes from his radio show in Yerawada jail, that he used to do for the jail inmates.

The first of the film thoroughly deals with his drug addiction and drinking habits in his early 20s. The second half deals with the RDX chapter of his life. The distinction of the two halves is very clear. The first deals with his personal problem, hence showed in detail. However, when it came to the RDX, the screenplay hypes it up but fails to go even layer down the story. This somewhat kills the essence to an extent. The screenplay is so choppy and trying to gimmick the viewer where they seemed to go in detail, but did not at all. It smartly tries to get away with some dialogues.

However, there is lots in the movie to get glued to. The first item in the list is Ranbir Kapoor. He has transformed into Sanjay Dutt in an unbelievable fashion. It was just not about the look. He adopted the body language and the mannerisms immaculately. Cannot recall anyone in Indian cinema history who could transform into a real person. There is not scene where you can say he was the best. He excelled in every frame. Kamlesh, Sanjay Dutt’s best buddy is played by Vicky Kaushal, and their chemistry is just top-class. It reminds of the prowess Hirani has in establishing friendships, be it the Munna-Circuit or the 3 idiots. The movie also excels in portraying of the unconditional love of Senior Dutt. Paresh Rawal does it with lot of elegance. A bunch of scenes between Sanju and his dad are heart-wrenching. Manisha Koirala makes a beautiful appearance, however the role was too short and sometimes abrupt. Jim Sarbh was effective too. Everyone else in the film makes very brief appearances with not a great impact.

The film has only 3 songs and they appear in the first half, and none in the second which also indicates, they wanted to handle the second half’s sensitive topics superficially. Also, totally avoiding his married lives was not good. He is thrice-married. Neither did they even hint about Trishala.

All in all, Sanju the film is an entertainer but with carefully chosen and depicted topics.