Sanju movie review: Ranbir is outstanding in this dishonest film
Rajkumar Hirani is a very skilled director and storyteller who creates powerful scenes that move us and make us weep.
A still from the movie.
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Paresh Rawal, Vicky Kaushal, Manisha Koirala, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Karishma Tanna, Jim Sarbh, Boman Irani, Sayaji Shinde, Mahesh Manjrekar
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
It’s kind of silly to expect Bollywood to make a film on one of its own that speaks the whole truth. So no one was really expecting Rajkumar Hirani, a director who only makes genial movies that feel like soul-cleansing holy baths, to direct a film that interrogates its subject.
Especially not since the subject in this case has been the star of two of his much loved films. Munna Bhai MBBS (2003) and Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2007) gave Sanjay Dutt a new lease of life, Hirani a seal of excellence, and the country a cool way to protest.
There’s nothing wrong in being in love with your subject. But to be so blinded as to ditch several exciting anecdotes that hold great dramatic, cinematic potential in the pursuit of concocting a character with shades of just bright whites is pathetic and not expected of a director of Hirani’s calibre and standing.
Sanju, the film that Hirani has co-written (with Abhijat Joshi) and directed, should have been titled Sanju Baba Muah, with a cute pink heart at the end that pulses with uncontrollable love and blows out red kisses.
The story it tells isn’t untrue. It’s just the convenient half-truth. Hirani and Joshi twist and edit the life story of Sanjay Dutt the star and member of Bollywood royalty, forgetting that most of it has played out in the glare of the public eye.
The story it tells isn’t untrue. It’s just the convenient half-truth. Hirani and Joshi twist and edit the life story of Sanjay Dutt the star and member of Bollywood royalty, forgetting that most of it has played out in the glare of the public eye.
That’s not just deeply dishonest, but also very idiotic. As Hirani and Joshi cherrypick a few episodes, ones where the blame for transgressions and misdemeanours can be pinned on Dutt’s demons or the media, the police, others’ malevolence, the state, and of course the media again, they miss the opportunity to explore the complexes and impulses that clearly controlled Dutt at one point. Instead of the interior complexity of a troubled, struggling, entitled man, we get a victim of circumstances with a mildly entertaining tapori streak and a heart of gold. It’s as if Hirani and producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra felt they had not done enough to redeem him, and owed Dutt some sort of debt.
Sanju repays that debt, in kind. Which is truly tragic because Ranbir Kapoor is absolutely outstanding and was all primed and ready to delve deeper, to go beyond the mannerisms and high jinks. He nails Dutt’s alpha bad boy swag with the strange hunch that screams I’m-uneasy-with-myself. In expressions, body language, complete with Dutt’s strange ticks and mannerism, Kapoor is flawless.
The role, which begins when Dutt was 21 years old and ends in his late 50s, demands various transformations — physical, hairstyles, clothes.
Sanju repays that debt, in kind. Which is truly tragic because Ranbir Kapoor is absolutely outstanding and was all primed and ready to delve deeper, to go beyond the mannerisms and high jinks. He nails Dutt’s alpha bad boy swag with the strange hunch that screams I’m-uneasy-with-myself. In expressions, body language, complete with Dutt’s strange ticks and mannerism, Kapoor is flawless.
The role, which begins when Dutt was 21 years old and ends in his late 50s, demands various transformations — physical, hairstyles, clothes.
Kapoor undergoes each change not just superficially, but also alters his body language and eyes to mark a new phase, a new problem, and his eyes, that began quite vacant and stupid, start to speak to us gently. It’s almost as if we are watching Sanjay Dutt in real life. Except that we are not. We are watching Hirani’s one-dimensional version of Bollywood’s big bad boy, despite Kapoor’s best efforts to add edges, frailties, fears to him.
This post is from https://www.deccanchronicle.com
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