Sanju : Ein Mann, viele Leben!

SPOILER: **Direction:** Formula based director** Rajkumar Hirani** has come up with new experiment Biopic on the life of Sanjay Dutt. He is one the most entertaining director of Bollywood who gave Munna Bhai MBBS, 3 Idiots and PK. As some message is always hidden in the movie of Raju, this time he did not disappoint the audience. This time he highlighted Breaking News issue and Hidden James bond from media houses. **Performance:** **Ranbir Kapoor** has stolen the show with his spell bounding performance. **Paresh Rawal** has showcased great chemistry as father. **Vicky Kausha**l again proved his mantle by bonding with Ranbir. Manisha did fantastic job as she was looking like Nargis Dutt. Sonam Kapoor must start showing expression on her face. Anushka has played good guest appearance. Jim Sarbh left good impression on the audience in the role of drug dealer. Dia Mirza was totally wasted role. Boman Irani was good in touch in small and effective role. Karishma has really very small role. **Script:** I feel that script is only thing which need some improvement. **Raju Hirani** and **Abhijat Joshi** have shown great bonding between Ranbir, Paresh and Vicky. Drug issue covered perfectly. Girls involvement in Dutt's life shown little less than mentioned one. However Gun issue totally mishandle as replaced name of Gun from AK 47 to AK56. Showing only Hindu man as Under world don but in reality, Mumbai underworld does not represent any particular religion. Script must be more balance and more accurate as they have touched all key points. Story of Manyata Dutt and Sanjay is totally missed. Even Madhuri Dixit's story is not included. **Music:** Surprisingly you will miss **Shantanu Moitra** in this movie from Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani. New Music directors duo are **Roshan-Roshan** and **Vikram Montrose**. Vidhu was not happy with performance of new Music Directors so he brought **A.R.Rahman** in the picture as guest Music director for song Ruby Ruby. In my opinion, A.R. Rahman must be given full charge of music direction for better music. **Make up Man:** Sanju is incomplete cinema with Make up artist **Vikram Gaikwad**. Vikram did finest job for Ranbir to look alike Sanjay Dutt in all phases of life shown in this movie. **Box-office:** As per opening day's booking status, first day collection will be around 30-35 crores. Words of mouth is super so Saturday and Sunday 's collection will lie between 35-40 crores. It means 100 crores in weekend itself which will be highest for Ranbir Kapoor. Lifetime collection more than 200 crores. **Last Words:** ** **Go if you are fan of Ranbir, Go if you are fan of Raju Hirani, Go if you are fan of Cinema

Movie could have been cut short by an hour. or focused on other more interesting aspects and people in Sanju's life - his wives/family, his relationships with other big stars (Madhuri Dixit, Salman khan?).. That material is completely missing from the movie. Too much screen time for the Kamli friendship angle. Boring. The drug addiction part dragged on way too long. I wouldnt consider this movie a biopic as it was only focused on portraying Sanju as an innocent victim of the unfair media coverage. The guy has repeatedly made bad choices in his life and we are supposed to feel sorry for him. Yaawn. Melodramatic background music was annoying. Ranbir's acting was good though. Would surely win him many awards. Cant rate it more than 5 stars. but its an ok movie compared to other junk that bollywood churns out.

If you are a 90's kid, probably you would have grown up to see Sanjay Dutt 's outstanding performances in films like Khalnayak, Vaastav or Munna Bhai Series in early 2000. Sanjay Dutt is definitely one of the finest actors we have in Bollywood and there is no doubt about it. However, the question popped up in my mind when I saw the trailer - Was a biopic on Sanjay Dutt even required ? Ofcourse, Sanjay Dutt is popular for his controversies which could add masala required for a movie. Bollywood have legends like Amitabh Bachchan, Dilip Kumar or Guru Dutt. Why not make a film on them ? Let us see how the film "Sanju" has fared ..

Sanju is a chronicle on journey of controversial Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt right from his film career, personal life, affairs to the present state.

Directed by master storyteller, Rajkumar Hirani, who has given some fantastic message oriented films like Munna Bhai M.B.B.S, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, 3 Idiots and P.K, Sanju is probably his weakest work till date. The movie begins in a flashback mode showing the early days of Sanjay Dutt and how he got into drug addiction. Few scenes are outstanding - Sanjay Dutt's relation with his mother Nargis Dutt, the scene where he comes in the middle of night to steal the bottle of alcohol from his girlfriend's house. Even the scene at the hospital where he cries over a dead body is hilarious. However, the screenplay starts losing focus towards the intermission. The second half picks up slightly showing Sanjay Dutt's encounter with gangster and underworld. But too much of melodrama tends to bore you. None of songs leave impact while background score is sometimes too loud. Also, I felt the story was told as if there so many excuses being made for all the mistakes done by Sanjay Dutt to gain sympathy for him and show that he is a victim for all his crimes.

The silver lining is the performances. Ranbir Kapoor gives his career best performance. When you will watch the movie, you will notice his style of talking , walking and even voice is accurate to that of Sanjay Dutt's. Manisha Koirala , Sonam Kapoor and Diya Mirza are fine. Anushka Sharma is wasted in a minuscule role. Vicky Kaushal is superb while Paresh Rawal is good though he resemblance to Sunil Dutt is very less.

Overall, Sanju is one-time watch thanks to the stupendous performance by Ranbir Kapoor. Decent 2.75/5

I don't usually take it to write a review for a film even though I follow films very passionately. I have decided to do it because, although most of the critics lauded Ranbir's performance, I have seen few comments trying to belittle Ranbir's controlled, methodical performance by comparing it to Vicky's loudly written character. First of all, I never understood why to praise one actor, you need to degrade the other. Coming back to these specific performances, I believe both Ranbir and Vicky were outstanding in their respective parts, Vicky's character was written in a single note and was loud, he nailed it by giving a fine, loud, dramatic performance with a lot of spontaneity and sincerity and without going OTT. Whereas Ranbir's character had many shades and many episodes, Ranbir clinched each part with perfection. From getting Dutt's swag to his voice he almost disappeared into Sanjay Dutt but never went into mimicry or a caricature. It was a kind of a role where the biggest of actors could end up hamming, but it was the brilliance of Ranbir Kapoor that he held his foot. Now, people may find Ranbir less expressive compared to Vicky, but here he is not the usual actor Ranbir Kapoor, here he is playing Dutt. They both complimented each other very well, and Sanju-Kamli has to be one of the best male camaraderie seen in cinema in recent times

Now, coming to direction, story, dialogues and screenplay. The story was episodic, the screenplay was well written with few problems in the 1st half. The movie starts with an excellent note, the way they are building up the drama was terrific, could say the best of Hirani's work but suddenly they lose the track after the scene where Sonam's character cancels her marriage to marry Ranbir, the whole thing was very badly written and was not making any sense. After that, they go into full melodrama, every character from Vicky to Paresh Rawal to Ranbir was overdramatic. Then Har Maidan Fateh came to rescue. 2nd half was terrific, it was crisp and very well directed. Dialogues were very good, they were funny with a lot of punch lines, I was surprised to hear so many A-rated dialouges in the film, some were really creepy. Overall it was a very good entertainer with its soul in the right place most of the times. It would be 3 stars for the 1st half, 4 stars for the 2nd half and 1 extra star for Ranbir and Vicky's performance.

SANJU REVIEW :

Ever since i heard about this Project I was very negative about it I was like why Hirani is making a biopic on Sanjay Dutt I mean come on he is not a legend rather he is stamped as A Criminal then why is Raju Hirani going off track keeping his social appealing films formula aside? But then I had a faith on him as he never disappointed, he must have found something interesting in Sanjay Dutt life and that's why he is making a film. And Hirani does not disappoint and makes that faith on him much stronger with Sanju. He is a Genius and has made this not so Social film a Classic with Family Values, Friendship and Emotional bonding through his Vision.

Ranbir Kapoor in and as Sanju Delivers a memorable and best performance of his career till date. There are so many stages and ages of Sanjay's life from a young drug addict, an upcoming superstar, then a Set Superstar, a physically fit icon and then the last one as a 50+ man i mean a current Sanjay Dutt. All these are played by Ranbir Kapoor so perfectly that it looks like he is working in 4-5 different films at the same time, he looks like Sanju, he talks like Sanju, he walks like Sanju, he does everything like Sanju. Ranbir is surely going to win a bunch of awards for Sanju. Paresh Rawal has given a justice to his role and that was expected because he is one of the greatest actor in Bollywood. The surprise package here is Vicky Kaushal who Delivers a power packed performance and stands tall along with Ranbir and Paresh Rawal. Jim Sarabh plays negative character and suits it. Anushka, Dia, Sonam and others have small roles and have done the expected job.

Sanju starts slightly slow and you feel like is Hirani going to deliver something below Expectations or what? But it doesn't happen and Sanju keeps you hooked, entertains you, makes you emotional and at the end it gives you a satisfaction of watching a Worthy film. The First half is very good but that is not enough considering the high standard set by the director, then second half packs a Solid punch and recovers that burden of first half. For that, credit must go to the screenplay writing which is engaged and throughout gripped. Cinematography is excellent you will see some eye pleasing frames on screen. Dialogues are outstanding and are loaded with the Hirani trademark such as Humour, Realism and bit tabu. Although Sanju lacks those expected Big Laugh riot scenes from a Hirani film still it has some of its own Shout out scenes but slightly in a vulgar way. Music is Decent, 'Kar Har Maidan Fateh' gives Goosebumps and works perfectly as an Inspiration song, other songs fades away very soon. Rajkumar Hirani's Direction is something what we admire, we don't expect anything less than a Classic from him and he does it again. Delivers the 5th Consecutive Classic, a feat which no one would have ever thought of. Said it many times, saying it again Hirani is the Best Director of Bollywood of his Generation, nobody is even close to him, Period.

Just like others I also hated Sanjay Dutt for his mistakes and by reading about him in Newspapers but after watching Sanju I have a respect for him, such a fighter he is, that hypocrisy of media is exposed. He is drinker, He is Womaniser, He is Drug Addict but he is not a Terrorist. Thank you Rajkumar Hirani for bringing this story on screen otherwise I would have never realise what actually Sanjay Dutt is. Go and watch Sanju ASAP you will laugh, enjoy and cry just like me. Rating- 8/10*