Neeraj Pandey skipped controversies in MS Dhoni: The Untold Story

Film: MS Dhoni: The Untold Story

Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Disha Patani, Anupam Kher, Bhumika Chawla, Kiara Advani, Harry Tangri

Director: Neeraj Pandey

Rating: 2/5

Mumbai: MS Dhoni: The Untold Story has been attributed as the biopic of India’s captain cool but somewhere down the line, the makers missed out the portrayal of influence of politics in Cricket and the controversies surrounding Dhoni throughout his Cricketing stint. Film has in access Mahi’s trials of fate before entering the sport, limited finances, heartbreak and of course a lot of cricket.

Before moving further, I should not delay to hail Sushant Singh Rajput who has brilliantly transformed himself as MSD without copying him too much (in terms of acting) and especially for nailing Dhoni’s infamous Helicopter shot. After watching MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, I am not at all surprised to why the Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar was impressed to see Sushant mastering his skills during the practice session at the Bandra Kurla Sports Complex in Mumbai.

Film begins with the historic 2011 World Cup match where Sushant Singh Rajput in and as MS Dhoni cements himself to the crease inching India close to the victory and giving goosebumps to every Indian with his style of aggressive batting. From here director Neeraj Pandey takes us 15 years back where a small kid watches his father Pan Singh Dhoni (Anupam Kher) pumping the local stadium on a winter night.

Mahi, Dhoni’s nickname, loves to play football, badminton and tennis but it was only his first coach (Rajesh Sharma) who saw a cricketer in him. His father had a shredded interest in sports and he finds it really hard in conceptualizing his son’s career in sports and especially when the family was short of hands in finances. But to Dhoni’s support was his mother and sister (Bhumika Chawla) who had full faith in him.

Dhoni dreams big and he is willing to work for it but then again his father wanted him to get settled in a ‘sarkaari naukri’. The film portrays Dhoni’s efforts of trying and failing and trying again to find his road eventually. The film here has a beautiful message of aspirations and achieving them despite having short of resources. A small town Ranchi boy clears all the hurdles of messy selection bodies in India to become the most successful captain of the Indian Cricket Team.

Being a film, that too a biopic on one of the biggest stars of India’s cricketing history, it was utmost important to portray Dhoni’s life in the dressing room, on the ground with other teammates and his chemistry with other senior players including Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar. The Indian Cricket greats are only seen in flashes apart from Yuvraj Singh (Harry Tangri) who has a small role to play.

It was really heartbreaking to see Neeraj Pandey leaving Dhoni’s cricket controversies at bay and giving enough importance to his love life with girlfriend Priyanka alias Disha Patani and wife Sakshi (Kiara Advani).

Ravi Shastri’s aggressive commentary style boosts the excitement with fans cheering for Dhoni from the ground adds the much wanted emotions in the film.

All-in-all, it would be no wrong in considering Neeraj Pandey’s MS Dhoni: The Untold Story as hagiography rather than tagging it as Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s ‘biography’.