Musings over M.S. Dhoni - The Untold Story

M. S. Dhoni – The Untold Story is a kind of movie that will make you a Dhoni fan after watching it if, in a rare chance, you are not one already. It will make you feel to look at the Man from a different perspective. This post is not a review as such rather just my thoughts on what worked for me and what didn’t. If you haven’t watched this movie yet, then there may be spoilers ahead.

Now it’s widely known that he has an ice factory running within his body, perhaps what is less known is that he has such a soft heart. There are few instances in the narrative that reveal the Man’s unknown side.

• He doesn’t want to take up a job of TC despite the ‘security’ in this job. He eventually becomes  TC just to make his father feel happy. 
• In his love life, he’s shown to make the first move in both the relationships.
• After making it big, one of his ex-colleagues comes to meet him in the hotel. While leaving, he’s bit hesitant to hug Dhoni so offers to do a handshake. Dhoni then surprises him (and us too) by giving him a goodbye hug.    

Dhoni is so indifferent to worldly emotions of joy and sadness. He’s too good to let the emotions surface. There are scenes that show this Man has ice in his veins.

• He doesn’t break down upon knowing that he’s not selected in the national Cricket team, though his friends are very disappointed.
• Seconds after India’s exit in the 1999 World Cup during which he was still a spectator, he’s shown going to the kitchen to make tea, which to me was a sign that he’s well over the loss and has moved ahead, while his friends are mourning over the loss.
• When he’s finally selected in the national side for Kenya tour, his friends rush to the badminton court to give him the news where he’s playing a practice match. He doesn’t pause even for a moment after hearing the news and continues with the game. Interestingly he’s shown to play this practice match against a girl.  I thought it was glimpse of inner workings of his mind that he doesn’t let affect the outside circumstances and/or events with what’s going on in the moment even though it’s trivial

Dhoni’s stint with IPL and controversies around his firm Rhiti Sports Management aren’t explored which is understandable given that, Arun Pandey, the managing director of the firm, happens to be co-producer of the film.

In other plots, had they cut down a love song out of 3, I wouldn’t have complained. The subplot with Priyanka - his first love interest – probably got more time than required. The scenes with Sakshi are endearing.

Though 3 hours and 10 minutes is a bit longer for a non-Ashutosh-Govarikar-film, it was very gripping.

Sushant Singh Rajpoot shines in the role of Dhoni and is a perfect-cast. He even manages to swing the bat in the correct arc in the helicopter shots! By the way, Dhoni was not the one who invented the shot; he learns it from his friend in the exchange of Samosa.

Though it’s hard to emotionally engage the audience with a subject that’s so cliched and where literally everyone is an ‘expert’, it manages to entertain the audience. It’s very rare to get eyes moist in a movie that’s not melodrama however it made my eyes moist quite a few times.

Being Mahendra Singh Dhoni is difficult. If it were easy for anyone, wouldn’t Asia become new Antarctica?