If you are a 90's kid, probably you would have grown up to see Sanjay Dutt 's outstanding performances in films like Khalnayak, Vaastav or Munna Bhai Series in early 2000. Sanjay Dutt is
definitely one of the finest actors we have in Bollywood and there is no doubt about it. However, the question popped up in my mind when I saw the trailer -
Was a biopic on Sanjay Dutt even required ? Ofcourse, Sanjay Dutt is popular for his controversies which could add masala required for a movie.
Bollywood have legends like Amitabh Bachchan, Dilip Kumar or Guru Dutt. Why not make a film on them ? Let us see how the film "Sanju" has fared ..
Sanju is a chronicle on journey of controversial Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt right from his film career, personal life, affairs to the present state.
Directed by master storyteller, Rajkumar Hirani, who has given some fantastic message oriented films like Munna Bhai M.B.B.S, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, 3 Idiots and P.K, Sanju is probably his weakest
work till date. The movie begins in a flashback mode showing the early days of Sanjay Dutt and how he got into drug addiction. Few scenes are outstanding - Sanjay Dutt's relation with his mother
Nargis Dutt, the scene where he comes in the middle of night to steal the bottle of alcohol from his girlfriend's house. Even the scene at the hospital where he cries over a dead body is hilarious.
However, the screenplay starts losing focus towards the intermission. The second half picks up slightly showing Sanjay Dutt's encounter with gangster and underworld. But too much of melodrama
tends to bore you. None of songs leave impact while background score is sometimes too loud. Also, I felt the story was told as if there so many excuses being made for all the mistakes done by
Sanjay Dutt to gain sympathy for him and show that he is a victim for all his crimes.
The silver lining is the performances. Ranbir Kapoor gives his career best performance. When you will watch the movie, you will notice his style of talking , walking and even voice is accurate
to that of Sanjay Dutt's. Manisha Koirala , Sonam Kapoor and Diya Mirza are fine. Anushka Sharma is wasted in a minuscule role. Vicky Kaushal is superb while Paresh Rawal is good though
he resemblance to Sunil Dutt is very less.
Overall, Sanju is one-time watch thanks to the stupendous performance by Ranbir Kapoor. Decent 2.75/5
