Many were looking forward to Raj Kumar Hirani’s next project with bated breath after the global success of the satirical “PK.” When he announced it will be a biopic of Sanjay Dutt, interest about the film tripled in some quarters, but some people, especially those who look for commentary about plaguing social issues of India, were a little disheartened. Fortunately, these special few will equally enjoy the film like the rest of the fans of Sanjay Dutt and Ranbir Kapoor.
This time the social commentaries are on issues such as alienation from family and the world entire due to stardom, and gullibility of celebrities to things such as drugs and underworld. In “Sanju”, drugs and connection to the underworld are shown to be the primary reasons for Sanjay’s fall from the “A-list.” The usual flavours of a Hirani film, such as sacrificial friendships, high expectations from a father figure, resolution between said father and his son, and a tragic death that profoundly affects the protagonist are all found in the mercurial career of Sanjay Dutt. This is because “Sanju” inserts these flavours with conviction.
So what is unique about “Sanju” one may ask. It is about an actor who is still alive and working. Allegedly, Sanjay Dutt, while working, used to narrate anecdotes from his life to Raj Kumar Hirani, who found the stories compelling. Film mythologists will love the fact that Hirani agreed to do the film on the condition that Sanjay will not change any of the stories he told the director. Therefore, if some of those anecdotes are exaggerated and embellished or were imagined while Sanjay was under the influence of drugs, we will never know the truth.
The plot of Sanju is pretty simple. It can be divided into Sanjay’s drug phase and jail phase. In his drug phase Sanjay is being launched in the film world. However, the father Sunil Dutt, has strong principles and work ethics, which he forces upon his son. Naturally, the flashing lights of cameras and gravity of star power lure some unprincipled people around the protagonist, who struggles to mould his own self as per his father’s expectation. He severely damages his friendships and relationships due to his drug addiction. He struggles with rehabilitation and gets dumped by his girlfriend. Endearingly the father understands his son’s limitations and tries to give the help the son needs, when he asks for it after the demise of his mother, which is a sort of moment of ephiphany.
On the other hand, the underworld manages to impress the son, when it comes to providing security (more than the police mind you), because a mosque near to their house was burned down. So, he smuggles some guns to his own home, hoping to take the law into his own hand, should the need arise. Unluckily, the guns were acquired from the same source as the perpetrators of the Mumbai bomb blast in the 90s. Therefore he gets jail-time, interrogation laced with sporadic physical abuse, the harsh reality of the jail chamber pot over-flowing (one of the most memorable scenes of the film) and the ignominy of being called a ‘terrorist’. How he survives all this, is basically the point of the film.
The acting was superb and fulfills the expectations from such a big budget cast. Paresh Rawal plays a good Sunil Dutt but his delivery of lines were not much like Sunil. Anushka Sharma, Diya Mirza, and Sonam Kapoor acted like they always do, which is a pity, as there was nothing new from them. However, Manisha Koirala as Nargis and Vicky Kaushal as Kamlesh almost steal Ranbir Kapoor’s thunder in their portrayals of real-life characters.
As for Ranbir, his depiction of Sanjay seems well-researched and well-rehearsed. Some critiques may be tempted to call it over-acting, but Ranbir does a genuine job of portraying a naïve and gullible drug addict. His casting as Sanjay made sense to me after watching the film, because like the man he plays, he too is a child of a famous actor trying to outshine him.
The precedent that “Sanju” might create is the making of more biopics of living legends, but caution needs to be shown while making such a film. Not all legends will be interested to tell their raw story, which runs the risk of being an unflattering presentation on the silver screen, let alone agree to be in an end-credits song for his own biopic. Even if they agree, actors like Ranbir, who spend a lot of time researching their roles, are rare. I would definitely give it a 3.5 rating.
