MS Dhoni: The Untold Story – Highlights of the film

MS Dhoni’s much talked about biopic has opened to rave reviews and loaded cinema halls as people pour in to savor the cinematic adaptation of the life of arguably the best captain of the Indian cricket team who established himself while driving down the road less traveled.

He owes his career’s rise from the ranks of domestic cricket to the international arena to his valiant decisions while his unprecedented success in captaincy is courtesy his willingness to invest in the youth, his persuasiveness which allowed him to convince the BCCI of his plans for the future of Indian cricket as well as his radical and uninhibited mindset which convinced him that there was an urgent need that the Indian team drops certain senior players owing to their tardiness on the field.

The biopic attempts to capture the highlights of Dhoni’s career till the 2011 World Cup an exciting and lump sum life is hard to fit in 3 hours, let alone the editing must have been a debating ground because obviously, subjective opinions are divergent and it’s hard to decide which event in the life of a man like Dhoni is more significant than the other.

1. Breaking away from Bollywood stereotypes:

I think the sophisticated audience frequenting the multiplexes would have puked if they would have seen Dhoni meeting his first girlfriend in a bar when the actress randomly breaks into a sleazy item song, let alone summing up the romance of Dhoni with his wife Sakshi with a quintessential Bollywood love song set in the European countryside.

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Instead, Neeraj Pandey has shown that subtlety is his strong suit as he sums up the romance with good background music and a scene with Dhoni and his wife driving on a bike at some exotic foreign location. Fancy and yet believable, I hope Karan Johar is taking notes!

2. Yuvraj Singh nails it!

Another significant aspect of the movie is the brief sequence of Yuvraj Singh and how Dhoni and Yuvraj square off in the domestic circuit. The actor who plays Yuvraj’s role has critically nailed it and it’s hard to underplay the effectiveness of this amazing cameo

The actor named Harry Tangri has gone skin deep into his character, epitomizing the attitude and persona of Yuvraj, the facial expressions are so vivid, it almost felt like Yuvraj Singh was himself doing a cameo in the movie.

3. VFX delights:

The movie once again brings to us the powers of visual effects; Sushant Singh Rajput has aped Dhoni’s style and mannerism almost to perfection. The VFX team has also done a great job with scenes of former Pakistan President Musharraf praising MS’ hair and Dhoni celebrating World Cup victory with Yuvraj, Sachin and other teammates, even the moment when Dhoni is handed over the trophy by Sharad Pawar with the entire team surrounding him.

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4. The pleasantly subtle anecdote on Sehwag:

I would have actually loved to see someone play Virender Sehwag in the movie but it seems like his tardiness and minimal footwork would have been tough to ape for any actor. Ultimately it was nice to see Dhoni dropping him from the team in the movie, the names are beeped but we all know it was intended to be.

5. Dhoni’s love life not a merry tale!

Dhoni’s first girlfriend, Priyanka Jha has a brief yet powerful interlude in the film. Her death once again reminds us of the importance of road safety and on Dhoni’s part he always regretted hold himself back. He had this urge of telling her that how much he loved her, but he waited for the right time which never arrived.

6. Summing up:

All in all, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story is not a perfect film, some people might find it stretched, while some people might find it lacking the Bollywood connection i.e. not showcasing Dhoni’s affairs with Deepika Padukone and others, on the director’s part, it would have been immensely hard for him to conceive all that.

Despite these shortcomings and failure to meet impractical expectations, the biopic captures the highlights of Dhoni’s life, inspires young souls looking to make it big in the world of sports and ends on the perfect note of the winning six in 2011.