SANJU – NAYAK/KHALNAYAK ?

As we headed to the theatre, we had “Tamma Tamma Loge” playing on the radio and then this auto cut us from behind and sped ahead of us.      

  

An RJ was reviewing this film and stated that the film didn’t send across the right message as it was glorifying a person who abused drugs and alcohol, had a self-indulgent lifestyle and had faced jail time for concealing a weapon at home. I would have to disagree with the RJ. The film is a biopic and depicts incidents from Sanjay Dutt’s life, those that we have been privy to and then goes about to rationalize (and at times even validate) his life choices. We all know that Sanjay’s life has been a roller coaster ride and wrought with bad life choices and via this film he seeks to explain why he made the choices that he made and how media failed to report these events accurately. He is not made to appear as a “larger than life” hero in this film nor are his choices glorified. As a viewer, you may choose to either empathise with him or may walk out with derision for him. I chose to enjoy the film as any other regular film and not have an opinion on the veracity of the events narrated in the movie.  

PLOT: The film begins with Sanjay Dutt (Ranbir Kapoor) trying to rope in Winnie Diaz (Anushka Sharma) a biographer in attempt to get her to write a book on him that would clear his name and erase the tag of ‘terrorist’ associated with him. Sanjay narrates his story to her, starting from the filming of Rocky. The film covers his relationship with his parents, Sunil Dutt (Paresh Rawal) and Nargis (Manisha Koirala). There are many characters introduced that structure his life-  his conniving friend, Zubin Mistry (Jim Sarbh) who introduces him to drugs, his ex girlfriend Ruby (Sonam Kapoor) and her father (Boman Irani), his close friendship with Kamlesh (Vicky Kaushal), his pillar of support, his wife Manyata (Dia Mirza).

The film spans across the period of his introduction to films, Nargis’s death, Sanjay’s downward spiral with drug abuse, his involvement with the underworld and his arrest and stint in prison for possession of illegal weapons.

Disclaimer: Never been a fan of Sanjay Dutt.

Most reviewers seem to be judging Sanjay Dutt and not reviewing the film. The film doesn’t glorify Sanjay in any way but it does seek to justify all his actions-drug abuse caused by demise of mother, being dumped by girlfriend, a controlling father; concealing weapons at home due to Sanjay’ naiveté, fear of the Underworld, blind faith in friends, desire to protect father.  Have the facts been narrated truthfully? Who knows? Who cares?

Let’s review the film for what it is. A well-known actor with a celebrated lineage has had a tumultuous life that involves drugs, sex and crime. Once proclaimed a failure, he makes a comeback and what a comeback that was! There is so much material to make a high grossing film. And that is what has been done by Raj Kumar Hirani.

When I had initially read that Ranbir would be playing Sanjay Dutt, I couldn’t visualise the resemblance. Upon watching the film, I must say that Ranbir has done a brilliant job at portraying Sanjay Dutt and has perfectly reproduced nuances of Sanjay’s behaviour. Some scenes may have been over the top but then Sanjay Dutt has at times been “over the top”.  But the scene-stealer is clearly Vicky Kaushal. He portrays the role of a nondescript, Gujarati friend with such ease and his role, though not one of a protagonist clearly showcases his versatility as an actor. The other actor that deserves a mention is Jim Sarbh as the scheming friend. Paresh Rawal is good but somehow not well suited to play Sunil Dutt. Other actors have been underutilised such as Boman Irani, Piyush Mishra and Anjan Shrivastava. The female actors have minor roles.

I only wish the film hadn’t been scripted in the typical Hirani fashion. Slapstick humor is introduced to lighten the atmosphere and most scenes that ought to have remained solemn are punctuated with silly comedy. To make up for this, a tear jerking scene is thrown in. The second half feels a bit rushed, with the Director trying to cram in as many plots within the three-hour framework.

Sky believes that Ranbir did not perform to his full potential and that Barfi still remains his best work till date. He was all praises for Vicky Kaushal. He rated the movie with a 3/5.

I would give it a 4/5. The film was entertaining, the actors were good, some laugh out loud scenes and some had the audience tearing up (not me!). The film had its moments (the Munnabhai scene) that got a few hoots from the audience. I’d say watching the film in the theatre was money well spent.