Indeed a film you would want to watch by the trailer, why not? Rajkumar Hirani is the director (favourite director of many), Ranbir Kapoor is the hero (a really good actor), it is a biopic (trending these days), want more?? It is a biopic about one of the closest to the director-producer duo, more of the Vidhu Vinod Chopra camp's family member, Sanjay Dutt... But one big thing which every biopic or 'based on true event' movies fail is the honesty, the honesty towards the audience saying 'Yes this was just the trailer, come and watch the complete truth in detail'. Sadly Hirani failed in doing so to a great extent. It is a riskier project to make a biopic on an actor everyone has seen in so many films and having another actor mimic him and his body language, unlike a biopic where we haven't seen the person ever and Hirani fails to do justice with that. We need not compare this film to his previous films at all as he loses his best touch of giving you that smile on your face with a cuteness overloaded situation in every alternate scene. Here come the major negatives...
The film has quite a few emotional moments, Hirani edits the film himself and is experimental on the story timeline, but that doesn't really help to what is missing when you watch a biopic on a Bollywood actor. It really seems like a film made to justify Dutt's wrongdoings by showing him a naive person and blame the game on media. We agree that the media actually misuse the power to express and ruins image of the innocents for its masala breaking news but surely the justifications are difficult to gulp down here.
The main story can be simply divided into two parts, the first half shows his journey from becoming a drug addict and struggling out of it and the second one is to justify his AK56 gun case. The problem is you promised 'one man, many lives', you gave trailer saying 'Ab tak 308 ladkiyaan tak yaad hai', you show him getting late for shooting in the trailer while you deliver a story of a single man with a single life who goes in and out of jail, you did not show his affairs with his leading ladies and it's impact on his personal or professional life, you did not show how he is on his shooting sets, how he landed up those movies like Vidhaata, Naam, Saajan, Khalnayak, Vaastav, Kaante which took his career up, his director friends Sanjay Gupta and Mahesh Manjerakar have nothing in the story, his production house White Feather films isn't mentioned, forget affairs there isn't mention about his previous wives, his daughter and the list goes on...
It would have been more pleasing had there been spots showing which movie was he working on when the other things happen in his personal life rather than changing his hairstyle & body size and leaving the audiences to guess which era was that part happening in his life. The buzz of characters like Salman Khan, Kumar Gaurav and Madhuri Dixit being in the film is a lie, you will be disappointed that no Bollywood actor or director is even touched in his life story. Repetitive ideas of writing a book on the central character and using the Radio as a medium to entertain doesn't help as it did in PK & Lage Raho Munnabhai. Most songs do not add to the entertainment quotient as well.
Having said all that, the film has a few positives in its name. The major part that hits you emotionally is his love for his mother Nargis, his bond with his father which is portrayed really well and a best friend making your eyes wet in a few scenes. The performance by RK is great (not his best till date but nicely done for this challenge of playing another actor and mimicking him), Paresh Rawal & Manisha Koirala are good. For the heroines, Sonam needs to improve a lot, Anushka disappoints with just nothing great while Dia Mirza has given her best with whatever she had. A special mention... not to Jim Sarbh but to Vicky Kaushal who is just fantastic with his performance as the best friend, one of the best-supporting actors we have had this year. The song 'Kar Har Maidan Fateh' is the soul of the first half, Rahman and Irshal Kamil did it again while other songs are a disappointment.
Overall this movie is made to clear Sanju's image with whatsoever means possible and mint money from yet another Biopic before it starts failing at the BO (many smaller ones have though). You can go for it once if you are a Ranbir Fan, a Sanju fan or a Raju Hirani fan will get disappointed if he expects more seeing the trailer.
Verdict - 2.5 out of 5
