Sanju

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

Duration : 129 Minutes Genre : Biopic

CAST Ranbir Kapoor : He plays Sanjay Dutt. I must say that this is Ranbir's best performance till date. He went into the soul of the character. Pure brilliance! Paresh Rawal : He plays Sunil Dutt. His performance was genuine and his on screen presence was strong and flawless. Vicky Kaushal : He plays Kamlesh, Sanjay Dutt's best friend. His role was equally vital and he performed really well in despite of sharing screen space with senior actors. Sonam Kapoor, Dia Mirza, Manisha Koirala and Anushka Sharma : The whole female cast was well ensemble and all 4 portrayed their roles well. Jim Sarbh : He played God. Jim always outdoes himself, and he doesn't disappoint here.

PLOT As we all know Sanju is a Biopic on the different stages of Sanjay Dutt's Life. Raju Hirani not only displays Sanjay's life story but also teaches us life lessons (As he always does). There was a dialogue in the movie which said "The person with the most failures, has the best stories." Sanju is indeed those stories. Raju Hirani executes the script skillfully and one gets to see every emotion in it.

SOUNDTRACK Sanju's music doesn't really leave a mark except for the track Kar Har Maidaan Fateh which is extremely motivating as is also my favorite.

After Tamasha, I was eagerly waiting for something big from Kapoor's side, and then ADHM came, where RK's performance was stupendous (as always) however the movie being average, it didn't just add up.

I still remember, the day when Sanju was announced and Ranbir was casted, everyone including Sanjay was skeptical if kapoor will be able to pull him off. And after watching this today, I can bet you a 1000 bucks, that 10 mins in and you'll even forget RK is in there.

If there's anyone who can play Sanjay dutt better than sanjay dutt, is Ranbir Kapoor, and i'm not even exaggerating. Kapoor portrayed many aspects of Sanjay's life, in such a beautiful way, that it actually feels like watching 6 different movies in a go. The father-son bond, is the pillar this film stands on, and i'm pretty sure every son out there, is gonna connect with this at some level and shed some tears. Paresh Rawal, did more than justice to the role of a great and noble man, Mr. Sunil Dutt.

The sheer amount of dedication that went into making this excellence, is hard to neglect. Everything, from direction to camerawork reflects the zealousness and precision of what Hirani stands for.

It took more than 3 years for all this to cook up, given that, a typical Bollywood film wraps up in a mere 3 months (keeping in mind the example of Race 3, 80 days in the shooting, and we all know how it turned out), one can only admire Rajkumar Hirani's endearment towards film making.

As far as Bollywood goes, it's all commercialised nowadays, films are made just in the essence of making money, but, it gives me hope, when I know, there's a person out there like Rajkumar, whose work over the years proves that in this herd of money grabbers, he cares. Cares enough, to dedicate his life and time into making something extraordinary each and every juncture. And Sanju is no different, it's the perfect example of a Raju film, a collab of drama, emotions, laughter, stirred with philosophy and full of Life. And for all those haters out there, I know you're reading this (with a grim face), and cursing around, however - 'Kuch Toh Log Kahenge'

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.

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.