Sanju : Ein Mann, viele Leben!

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

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*

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.

Ranbir Kapoor as Sanjay Dutt was absolutely superb! All the hardwork he's done behind the role is clearly visible on screen and the output is amazing ! The movie is based on real life events of sanju and is beautifully carved into an interesting, and wonderful story of a man and his struggles throughout life. How he pulled himself out of hell with the help of his great father Sunil Dutt. He also had the services of a loyal friend and Vicky Kaushal has done great work playing that part. Can't say for sure if the facts shown in the movie are 100% true but yes the movie as it is, is really wonderful to watch. One of the bests in recent times. So don't miss it.

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.