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MS Dhoni
I love love love Dhoni...he's one of my favorite...but this movie left me craving for a LOT more. There were some really nice scenes here in the first half. The whole bit with Dhoni doing the TC job and practicing cricket...that was super touching..how he feels like he's not going anywhere nothing is working..everyone goes through that. The movie did capture Dhoni's mysterious spirit. But that's it...there's no new genuine behind-the-scenes insight into who Dhoni is. A completely missed opportunity.
The movie is basically an album with snippets of Dhoni's life. There isn't a proper behind the build-up of how things happen...we just jump a few years into some other big match. There's no FLOW.. Like I would have loved to see a proper scene of how Dhoni felt making it to the Indian National Team, walking into the dressing room, coming from where he did...and then becoming a captain...meeting Sachin from being that young boy who begged his mom to buy Sachin's poster..or being in the same team as Yuvraj whose confidence and swag defeated his team in the basketball court (mad fun scene seeing a young Yuvi/Dhoni playing against each other)...the movie just hints at the helplessness Mahi felt seeing Yuvi and Kaif,who were his age, making great strides in the team whereas he was still struggling to make it. But these scenes are just dropped...we just jump to oh he's in the team..oh he's captain (HOW DID HE GET THERE??)...oh he wants changes... Oh he wins 2007WC. Ok. It becomes hard to properly root or feel for anything when it becomes like that. The movie does a lot of telling but very little showing. The girls add nothing. They really should have been kept out because all they did was drag the movie on. Bad screenplay, badly edited, and badly directed. Neerja Pandey was totally the wrong person to make this. I'm really upset with him.
That being said, in the first half there really are multiple super touching scenes. ...hard work begets success and the movie does a good job of that...Mahi was always destined for greatness and the movie does show that but from an outside point of view more.. The scene in which his friends drive him to Kolkata all night and he misses the flight for the match by 30 mins and he just goes off to the side to cry was lovely. The movie is essentially a thank you to everyone who went out of their way to help Mahi succeed and reach where he is...the coaches, the friends, the employers...family, etc. I'd call this movie more of a documentary of his life rather than a true biography/biopic, which is fine -- but it skipped over a lot of important scenes in giving importance to the 2 romances.
Sushant really did a super commendable job as Mahi. It's difficult because Mahi is such an enigma...but he got Mahi right from the walk and talk..and everything! Definitely one of the best performances of the year and I don't think anyone else could have done it -- that's the biggest compliment I can give him. But alas, he was let down by the director putting in such a shoddy effort.
2/5
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