Cricketers to star in Movie

TheOwnerPO · Postby **TheOwnerPO** » October 7th, 2016, 10:36 pm

TheOwnerPO wrote:

Yuvraj Singh & Harbhajan Singh to star in the movie M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story.

A film on India’s most successful cricket captain is already a winner at the box office. The very talented Sushant Singh Rajput is all set to play Mahendra Singh Dhoni while Kiara Advani is all set to play his wife Sakshi Dhoni. Notable cricketers like Yuvraj Singh & Harbhajan Singh are also touted to do cameo appearances in the film while Mahendra Singh Dhoni as himself (2011 World Cup footage). Hope Sushant Rajput hits the box office for a ‘helicopter shot’!

You don’t have to understand cricket to enjoy a good cricket movie. “Lagaan” (2001), whose centerpiece was a rousing match of underdog (Indian) versus overdog (British), got the heart pounding, even if you couldn’t follow all the ins and outs of the game. It was the rare Bollywood movie to reach across the aisle, as it were, attracting moviegoers beyond the faithful.

To warm to the biopic “M. S. Dhoni: The Untold Story,” you probably do have to be a cricket fan, and an indulgent one at that. Long (180 minutes) and languid, it takes you through the life of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the unflappable captain of the Indian cricket team that won the 2011 World Cup.

Dhoni (Sushant Singh Rajput), as presented here, is a natural athlete — cricket wasn’t even his sport of choice as a boy — a nice guy and, in the end, something like a national hero. He meets setbacks with a pause (a kind of timeout) and a hard-to-read smile. Then he goes on. What makes him tick? That remains the untold story.

One may argue about the struggles of a player who gets into the national team at 23. There are many who keep waiting for a call till their bodies stop responding. But, ducking bouncers in search of a half volley is also a mammoth struggle.
When coach Banerjee (Rajesh Sharma) picks a football-loving kid for the school team’s wicketkeeper job, he only wanted a new boy to play well. The lad turns out to be a brute force, whose mother candidly declares, “Ye itne se me khush hone waalon mein se nahi hai” (Sky is the limit for him).

A teenage Dhoni might be a local cricketing hero, but that doesn’t mean much for his father, who wants the security of a government job for him. This forces the boy to play for small stipend money, but his friends are his strength. They show faith in Mahi, even more than his family does.
However, love doesn’t replace necessities, and the ticket collector’s job brings him to Kharagpur. Not getting enough chances, he looks impatient, but it’s just another perfectly-pitched out-swinger he needs to leave.
There excels Sushant, who is every ounce Dhoni in this ‘box-office oriented’ biopic. His body language, walk, helicopter shot, everything matches the India captain. And where even that can’t do the trick, real footage has been used.
The first half of this nearly 180-minute film goes into the riveting details of a middle-class boy’s life in the hilly town of Ranchi. People are concerned about each other, and there is a genuine love for talented kids. Nobody is a villain here, not even the cricket officials. Optimism and hard work are expected to take people to new destinations.
However, the dream can be smaller. 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.

We knew the man, and now we have seen the journey too. So, what’s still untold?
Who's the real star of MS Dhoni biopic?

Maybe the backroom politics of the cricket governing bodies? The pressure on the captain? The sponsors’ role?
This is where it begins to falter. Sushant keeps going though, like one true commander on the screen.

A love song here, an overtly dramatic scene there, slowly it becomes a typical Bollywood product. It still entertains though. Just don’t expect any take on controversies. The film tries to establish Dhoni above all the petty issues.
A tribute to MSD’s success, this works due to the extensive research. They have touched Dhoni’s tender sides as well and the treatment is likely to suit the protagonist. In short, he may become a cleaner and bigger hero after the film.

Our heroes are generally virtuous, but a biopic also needs objectivity. The director has silver-wrapped the facts that are mostly known. But you have to give to Pandey to keep it intriguing enough for you to get hooked throughout the three hours. Unquestionably entertaining.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/movie-rev ... f2AnN.html