Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Anupam Kher, Rajesh Sharma, Bhumika Chawla, Kumud Mishra, Disha Patani, Kiara Advani, Harry Tangri

Director: Neeraj Pandey

The movie opens when India was  stumbling at 114 for 3 against Sri Lanka in the cricket world cup final of 2011, a man decided to take charge of the situation. It helped that he was also the captain of the team. He silently walked past the crowd, entered the ground, bailed his team out of trouble and hit the winning runs and created history. That shot of Dhoni, his eyes flaring, determination writ large as he hauls the ball over the boundary has been replayed countless times, and remains one of the nailed-it-down moments of his shining career.

And then the director takes us to the life of young Mahi(Sushant Singh Rajput). When Pan Singh Dhoni (Anupam Kher) is a pump operator in Ranchi. The local stadium needs water and that requires him to wake up at eleven in the night. He waters the stadium in a hazy winter night. Pan’s little son watches him from the balcony of his government quarter, and probably this is the moment when the kid decides to make it big in life. This kid is none other than Mahendra Singh Dhoni.  Back then  he is more interested in football, badminton and tennis, and tries to blow off his first coach (Rajesh Sharma) who spots his potential. The early life highlights the father (Anupam Kher) who thinks a job will take his son much further than sports, the mother who believes in her son, the sister (Bhumika Chawla) who is a solid support to him, his bunch of loyal friends who just know he can do it. Truly this has been crafted with heart and feels so honest.

Here we see how Mahi tries, fails  and tries again. Despite all the obstacles, he keeps his eye on his goal: to be part of the Indian team and play for his country.

The director Neeraj Pandey doesnt give a miss on any moment of his Dhoni’s life, starting from the maternity ward where Dhoni was born, and takes us through his early childhood and teens. In the process he introduces us to a miscellaneous cast (Kusum Chaudhary, Brijendra Kala, Rajesh Sharma) who form part of the rich backdrop to this story.

There is enough screen space given to friends who went out of their way to make sure Dhoni reaches the top and the coach (delightfully played by Rajesh Sharma) who recognised his calibre.

Pandey and production designer Sunil Babu get the small details on point be it the matchbox-sized government quarter where Dhoni grew up or the chaotic railway station where he worked as a ticket collector or the dry cricket grounds where he initially practiced.

In the first half Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s story, the mostly untold part for most of us, locks us up. It tells us that it is right for us to aspire, and that anyone can do it. Sushant Singh Rajput gives us a real feel of what it must have been like growing up in an industrial township in a backward state that doesn’t figure much in the cricket stakes. Sushant, who is every ounce Dhoni in this ‘box-office oriented’ biopic. His body language, walk, helicopter shot, everything matches the India captain.

But then in the second half it loses the plot and as with many other stories, the curse of second half hits.A romance angle is introduced, there are songs in foreign locations and cricket goes out the window, it becomes a typical Bollywood product. Still entertaining though.

Despite a run time of three hours, Pandey doesn’t tell us about Dhoni’s rise to captaincy and his temperament on the field. We never get a sense of his weaknesses or flaws, and the intimacy that was the hallmark of the narrative in the first half of the film is sorely missing in the second half. The entire focus is on Dhoni who is shown as the sole match-winner from the Indian side. His teammates, which include Indian cricketing greats (Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and others), are seen in flashes, either from the back or in profile. There is no dressing room banter with his team-mates. No controversies. No scenes, in fact, with other players, except for a couple of stray ones with Yuvraj Singh (Harry Tangri). The director has silver-wrapped the facts that are mostly known. So this is only what i found disappointing.

The scenes in between are packed with three hours of cricket, some song and dance and a lot of Sushant Singh Rajput.

The messagethrough this untold story, is loud and clear, is you can be a small town boy, and if you have talent and a little bit of luck, you can be unstoppable.

Like, Dhoni’s sister Jayanti (Bhumika Chawla) says, “Mehnat karega toh ek din railway me RM bhi ban sakta hai” (If you’ll keep doing hard work then you can also become the RM in railways). Dhoni smiles, we too.

So this is the film that starts off so well, “M S Dhoni: The Untold Story”but sadly finishes off poorly

Given the real man’s modesty over his personal life, a lot of this is a revelation and a delight to watch if you are his fan.

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