The story
Given that it’s the biopic of a very well-known celebrity, the story should not hold too many mysteries. Yet it is always necessary to keep a few aces at hand to make it interesting without taking too many artistic liberties with the content. Here, if anyone’s been reading newspapers since the nineties then they probably know all of the story. Unfortunately, the trailer also highlights almost all of the peak moments of the film and consequently the actual movie does not feel like anything fresh or exciting.
Dutt starts as an unsure actor who’s launched into industry with the burden of living up to the family name for which he’s probably not ready yet. As a result, he grows impatient, nervous, and quite frankly, a regular spoiled brat who then dives into drugs as an escape from his responsibilities, his own emotions and his father’s expectations. Meanwhile his mother dies, his girlfriend leaves him and he turns into a top level jerk. Then starts his fight with the addiction and in the second half of the movie, his fight with the law. All the time, it’s been shown quite frequently how dependent he was on his father who never left his side no matter what his son did. He endured and fought with come what may only to make Sanju baba a respectable citizen and a worthy actor. The movie many times shifts focus to other characters as well but majorly, it’s a father-son story.
The characters
Sanju baba as a character somehow doesn’t hold much substance. Maybe I am too used to watching him play roles on screen and his own personal life doesn’t make sense to me. But needless to say, considering the whole story revolves around him, he’s shown as a well attempt of crafting a multi-layered character. The film’s surprise reveal is-Sundar Pichai!. Just kidding, its Vicky Kaushal as Kamlesh aka Kamli who isn’t just the comic relief as he’s first introduced but serves as a moral anchor for Dutt lecherous activities. He’s the quintessential good boy from a small town with little knowledge of English and other things (despite being an engineer and entrepreneur living in New York). Jim Sarbh again does a wonderful job as a deceitful drug peddler who lives off the weakness of Sanju. Paresh Rawal as Sunil Dutt is playing a sterner version of himself with a sore throat. Quality wise, he does a natural role like many of his other characters but the writing still leaves something amiss. Rest all characters are more of less just there to just act as plot devices or for some light-hearted comedy. Yes, there are people who come, play their part in a silly joke and go; nothing else at all.
The Presentation
The movie was established quite well as a playground for crisp scenes and charming cinematography but it never came to fruition. The efforts felt desultory and no amount of funny adorable scenes could redeem the creators of that. The movie is manipulative at times; forcefully pulling you inside the psyche of a troubled man by showing one tragedy after the other. He never gets any respite and nor does the audience. We have to either see sanju endure somebody dying or somebody leaving him at almost all frames. When this is not happening, we are shown his dad giving him a pep talk about how to endure them. That’s all, that’s literally all they could squeeze out of an otherwise resourceful script.
The music of the film is average at best. The simple short main harmonica theme sure will ring in your ears long after the movie has ended but the rest of the score? Quite disposable. You’ll find atmost one song from the whole playlist to even consider keeping offline.
The performances are commendable enough of almost the whole crew. I won’t say Ranbir Kapoor gave the performance of a lifetime but he genuinely tried really hard. Hell, I even liked Dia Mirza as Manyata Dutt in her short screen time. Anushka Sharma is playing an artistic independent and ethical but curious girl with a strangely unbefitting hairstyle, basically what she played in PK. Vicky Kaushal plays a small town guy (again!) who lives in New York and Jim Sarbh, a crook. Both play their roles with significant aplomb but they have very limited use considering how things actually shape up. Paresh Rawal as Sunil Dutt is the actual star of our overly melodramatic saga of a rich boy learning how to own up to his mistakes without falling deeper into their web.
The Verdict
Sanju is a biopic which is not wholly about Sanju. It’s hard to say how much of an impact our lead hero had on the simple story of triumph of a broken man but he certainly does not feel like being at the centre of it. It sometimes feel like he’s a side character, just another variable amongst all others around him, which would’ve been acceptable had this not been a biographical movie specifically made to tell his story. Yes, many things happen in Sanju’s life but how profound was Sanju’s own presence in them? I guess that depends on the viewer to find out. Raju’s flamboyant style of direction does almost no good to a movie which expends all of its charm and build only to give you myriad sentimental moments which after a while seem laborious. And as it’s been a trend for quite some time in Raju Hirani’s movies, herein we’re also given quite a vivid and rather discernible message through it all- “Don’t trust everything the media says”.
At its heart, Sanju is not a biopic about a disturbed celebrity, it’s a story about a father-son dynamic. It’s about how a strict but doting father would try his best so that his child could have a fine life. More than that, Sanju is a reveal and disapproval story against the widespread influence of media on public opinion often beguiling the masses into forming a general idea without verifying the facts. So if you’re a fan of Raju Hirani’s work for its accessible nature and eclectic appeal, or mainstream Bollywood cinema in general then you should watch it. But mind it, the movie is quite a childish and family-friendly type of affair riddled with toilet humour and kiddie jokes. So if you’re looking for some hard-hitting and truly tragic tale of a grand luminary, then sadly, you’ll have to keep looking.
The author is still mad nobody ever said in the movie- "Carrom ramvanu, juice peevanu, majjha ni life". And he’s deducting an extra half star because his cool companion disliked the movie even more.P.S- He wasn't late this time.
