'Sanju' Review: An Excellent Entertainer but A Biased Biopic

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'Sanju' Review: An Excellent Entertainer but A Biased Biopic

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By Mehreen Fatima

Sanju, the much anticipated Bollywood movie hits the screen, takes the theatres by storm, makes public crazy and continues to mint record-breaking money worldwide as per expectations. After all, this is what films are made for and this is how show business works.

Sanju is a cent percent entertainment, and shockingly is also a disappointment as another cliché and barefaced truth of stereotype South Asian cinema and glam culture.

Sanju, not literally but somewhat explores the variant shades of the bollywood’s iconic star actor and magnificent Mother-India famed Nargis and actor turned activist and politician Sunil Dutt’s son, Sanjay Dutt’s roller coaster life.

Photo: A screen shot from the trailer  Sanju. Photo: Youtube

The skilled director of magnum opus MunnaBhai and PK, and a close friend of Sanjay Dutt, Raj Kumar Hirani vaguely presented ‘Sanju’ as a biopic, but the movie cannot be said a biopic at all. It should rather be called a hagiography of B-Town’s superstar and patronised blue-eyed bad boy who was once a drug addict, a womanizer, an irresponsible son and brother, an infidel companion and a ruthless person for most of his life who only after cascading crucial happenings and turbulent tormenting and traumatizing events in life tarnishes all his evil and offensiveness. ‘Sanju’ in the end projected Sanjay Dutt nothing but a colossal saint who conquered virtue over vice.

Sanju in a gaudy, vivid and in typical Raj Kumar Hirani’s beaming dramatic way covers selected happenings of Sanjay Dutt’s life from being addicted to drugs and women, to trials and tribulations in Arms and Mumbai blasts cases. Smartly avoiding the greyest shades of his past continues throughout to the present, Hirani unconvincingly ends the movie on a note of one man and many lives.

Photo: Sanju Poster

Story-director-characters’ unpredicted deceit net

‘Sanju’ story solely revolves around the junior Dutt aka Sanju Baba, whose 30 year career was characterized by the tragedy, drama, crime, misconduct, adultery and improvement in spades.

The movie begins when Manita Dutt, the third wife of Sanjay Dutt asked an established writer Wiinnie, to pen Dutt’s biography just after the judgement was expected to be unveiled against him in Arms Acts Case. Sanju opened his drug-laced, alcohol-soaked, crime-tainted chapters of his past to the writer. Movie mainly focuses Sanju’s relationship with his parents, Sunil Dutt and Nargis Dutt, (the roles played by Paresh rawal and Manisha Koirala), his friend Kamlesh, the Hirani’s signature ‘Jigri’, Mannita Dutt, his wife ( the character played by Dia Mirza) and few of his close friends’ characters in cameos, roles played by some bigwigs of B-town like Sonam Kapoor, Tabu, and others.

Few of the scenes between careless and often rash Sanju and his disciplined father and particularly some interactions between Sanju and mother Nargis move you in tears.

First half of the movie mainly depicts Sanju a reckless, irresponsible and wild individual plunges into drugs, women and evil amid his breaking relationships and losing acquaintances. The drugs infused phase of Sanju’s life is the most impressive and it has been portrayed with the right amount of sensitivity but unfortunately movie in the same phase feels misogynist and sexist when Sanju has been glorified as stud even after his confession of having been slept with hundreds of girls.

Photo: A screen shot from the trailer  Sanju  from youtube

Second half is all about Sanju’s transformation from uncontrolled and heedless to generous and kind man who learnt and mastered the lessons of life from his own experiences.

Ranbir Kapoor in another avatar of Sanjay Dutt.

Movie unexpectedly did not tell you anything about his other two wives his daughter and some of very significant characters of his life. Writer/Director in many places give a feel of twisting and editing the facts of the Bollywood’s Baba’s life.

Film moves you to ultimately believe that it was always the other people who misguided, betrayed or took advantage of poor Sanju and thrashed him to dark and gloom. It is kind of dishonest as well as idiotic as many of his life’s events are not buried in late past. Prevailing and past both generations have witnessed the twists and turns of his life.

The balanced and poised Music

AR Rahman, Rohan-Rohan and Vikram Montrose’s music sets mood right. Songs like ‘Kar Har Maidan Fateh’ and ‘Ruby Ruby’ add to the experience of the film. The background score is top notch too. Surprisingly, apart from the 3 songs that are out, there’s just one closing-credits song in the film.

When actors live characters

Ranbir Kapoor

With accumulated enough mass muscles, the bags under the eyes, the bad boy’s swag and the low-pitched heavy base tone, Ranbir Kapoor captivates your mind and makes you believe that Ranbir is Sanju. He did not act; he lived Sanju on screen. He never felt outgrowing or dismantling the character ‘Sanju’ anywhere in movie. He carries each and every part of Sanju very well. His variant transformations are actually the treat and he masqueraded Sanju extremely well in all the possible and perfect ways.

The different avatars of Ranbir Kapoor impostering Sanjay Dutt. Photo: Poster Sanju

Vicky Kaushal

The next character mostly captures eyes is a character of Sanju’s friend, played by young and talented Vicky Kaushal. He though goes over stereotypical in his humour and aggrandizing the situational comedy into some planted unnecessary and unrequired wit, still succeeds in bringing chuckles.

Manisha Koirala, Paresha Rawal

The other two important characters are Sanju’s parents; played by veterans Paresh Rawal and Manisha Koirala, were not given much margin but in a very little space, they proved their mantle.

Another poster of Sanju featuring Paresh rawal as Sunil Dutt and Ranbir as Sanjay Dutt.

Manisha Koirala as Nargis Dutt shines bright! She adapts the charm of the veteran actress on-point. 

Manisha Koirala resembles Nargis Dutt. Photo: India.com

Dia Mirza

Dia Mirza played the role of Maniata Dutt, Sanjay Dutt’s wife role. Dia was not striking but pleasantly made her presence felt as a supportive sometimes over-understanding and more than a friend life-partner.

Dia Mirza and Ranbir Kapoor from Sanju. Photo Instagram

Sonam Kapoor

Neither Sonam Kapoor is potraying in Sanju as Madhuri, the austere love interest of Sanju nor Rocky starer Tina Munim. Kapoor’s character is called Ruby and, much like a few other characters in the film, she isn’t based on one real person. Instead, it is being said that Rajkumar Hirani produced this character as an amalgamation of several women in Sanjay Dutt’s life.

Sonam Kapoor as Sanju s Girlfriend  Ruby . Photo: A screenshot from the Sanju song released on youtube

Anushka Sharma

Anushka Sharma in curly bob wig and blue bright eye appears as Winnie, the writer in the movie. She was given the task to pen Sanju’s life. All one can say about her is Sharma never disappoints you even in the narrow margin to act or to deliver something.

Another Sanju Poster.

Sanju  in Last words

Sanju has all right ingredients, the skilled director, the never-compromising producer, the enthralling story teller, the sparkling star cast, the hefty budget, the soulful music and the robust acting still something is missing. Last but not the least, the missing is called a little honesty and uprightness, the squad smartly skips the portions they don’t want to peep into.

It is kind of silly to expect Bollywood to explicit the dark and deep bitter truths of the patriarchy, the maligned culture, the corrupt media industry and the filth of the dirty minds running the business and Hirani could not be blamed to present the overt truth to the people who already knew the facts but themselves chose to remain in the dark to console themselves with the fraudulent entertainment available to them.

Keeping morality to veracity and injustice to the reality a side, Sanju can be said another master-stroke of Raj Kumar Hirani. He in his own way convincingly presented another master piece to break his own grossing records. Other than Hirani, it’s Hirani’s Ranbir Kapoor who dazzled the screen in a breathtaking avatar impersonating Dutt as if he is the actual Sanju. Kapoor should be given the credit who has taken Sanju’s frenzy to zenith. His transformations into Sanjay Dutt were astonishing, astounding and simply amazing.

Criticise, cheers or celebrate, but go and watch Sanju. It is in no way less than Hirani’s oeuvres PK, 3 Idiots, Munna Bhai and Lagy raho Munna Bhai.