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Sanju: A Damage or Salvage of a Movie?
When I first saw the teaser, I could not wait for the film to release and hear Sanjay Dutt’s approved side of the story and Rajkumar Hirani’s storytelling charm all weaved into Ranbir Kapoor’s awesome sauce performance in the trailer. Notwithstanding my bias for the actor, I could not wait to watch him portray the role of Sanju Baba esp the era when he looked cute as a foxy candy. Alas, I just had nightmares whole through the night.
While I am not debating on the authenticity of the story, even though it failed my mark of credibility. Here are my reasons that why Sanju failed for me.
1) Missing links: A lot of you have pointed that the movie misses many important characters from this film incl his first marriage with Richa Sharma, followed by Rhea Pillai who stood tall with him through his first jail stint. And that is true. There is no inkling of some of the important characters including how he found his current wife. [ A very passable performance by Dia Mirza donning the fake mole]
1) Missing links: A lot of you have pointed that the movie misses many important characters from this film incl his first marriage with Richa Sharma, followed by Rhea Pillai who stood tall with him through his first jail stint. And that is true. There is no inkling of some of the important characters including how he found his current wife. [ A very passable performance by Dia Mirza donning the fake mole]
2) Too Many actors but too less memorable performances: From Boman’s passable Bawa to Zubin Mistry’s “trying hard”, there is quite some cast in the movie but performances do not leave any impact but rather looked juxtaposed. Manisha Koirala as late Nargis Dutt looked beautiful and did justice to the role but for me, Paresh Rawal who in spite of being a great actor somewhere lacked that tenacity, that charm of the very classy Late Sunil Dutt. Of the actress, Dia Mirza’ was passable and Anushka Sharma was way too theatrics. Surprisingly, it was Sonam Kapoor and her “blink and you miss” role that stood out among the all leading ladies excluding Manisha Koirala.
Another character that stood out and out was the but of course was the “topless Kamli serving snacks in the hole” played by Vicky Kaushal. He had every moment to deliver a cliché of performance but he "roared" it well.
3) Lazy Screenplay: A over the top confident Dutt who was committing suicide in a scene hitherto, giggling away to flashback mode did not go that well with me. I was looking for more angst, pain and the authentic emotions that the actor may have undergone in the real life. Overall the story opening and closing at convenient points is not a case of simplifying the content but quite a lazy scripting. Even his bringing “out of box” context did not work this time. Rather say there weren’t any this time. Unlike a signature totem that Hirani has in all his films, from Gandhigiri to the Wrong number to chemical locha, there was none in this film except a very lackadaisical “question mark” that can act as a good debatable point but does not have an endorsement factor with the masses.
4) Culprit than the Victim: To me, it appeared as if the director is enforced to make a sympathetic pitch rather than an empathetic portrayal. Whether it is Dutt’s addiction to the drugs, trauma of losing his beloved mother and love of his life, it all portrayed him as an irresponsible and spoiled son rather than a victim of the situation. for eg: If you have seen Kangana Ranaut’s minuscule portion in Fashion where she deals with heartbreak, career loss, and drug issues, it was a stark portrayal that I am talking about. Here it was all about Ranbir Kapoor trying to portray Sanjay Dutt.
5
5) Passable Music: Ranbir Kapoor played a Drug consuming rockstar in rockstar. If I ask you to recall a top memory from the film, what would it be? For me, it was- “Sadda Haq” and “Nadaan parinde”. That kind of Metamorphosis, the strong linkage with the music is so missing in this movie. The only song that stays and could be aspirational will be- Kar har Maidan fateh!
6) Glorification of LSD: Baring the Mangalasutra scene
Numerounity Review: Overall, Sanju the film is really a big disappointment. The humor in between was stale and did not help as well. Rather than a whitewash portrayal or empathetic storytelling, this film looks more like the PR gone wrong. Wrong Number Mr. Hirani. Maybe now you need to make a film to whitewash your image back.
Rating: 2/5
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I watched Sanju movie on the first day of release, I like the story very much. Its a type of motivational story that every one should watch.
ReplyDeleteThough every movie has some negative and positive points, but in this movie forget about negative and watch positive points.
Promote your company by reading the blog- Promotion of a company
well, that is your view point and this one was mine. I am a SD fan too but this movie disappointed me.
DeleteVery honest review. I also feel on the same line. One more thing that I missed was the role of his sisters in his life. That was totally non-existent in the movie . I mean when a brother is in mess in life, it is his sisters who feel the most of pain for him. But that was not felt worthy enough to be shown in the movie.
ReplyDeleteThey conveniently made his sisters appear as props and his wives non-existent!
DeleteI agree with this .I too felt the story lacked authenticity and was a white wash job!
ReplyDeleteYup and they failed in that too.
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