10 Reasons Why Dhoni The Untold Story Is All Set To Become The Most Successful Biopic Of All Times

Because it’s Dhoni. He is an undisputed  superstar with only SachinTendulkar overtaking his popularity in the cricketing world. He is also a very charismatic figure, as much so as any major Bollywood star. For 2016 the collections of Dhoni: The untold Story are already being seen to equal that of the Salman Khan starrer Sultan.And still counting. This year the only other film which could hope to equal the Dhoni, Sultan collections of Aamir Khan’a Dangal. That too is a sports bio-pic.

Dhoni: The Untold Story is an absolutely authentic view of Dhoni’s life.Director Neeraj Pandey shot the  film in all the spaces of the heart and topography and  on all the locations where Dhoni actually grew up and grew successful.The film therefore looks and feels real .Unlike Mary Kom which wasSanjay Leela Bhansali and Omung Kumar’s bombastic definition of Mary Kom’s life this one keeps it restrained and real right to the end.

Sushant Singh Rajput doesn’t only play Dhoni. He actually plays exactly like Dhoni. Sushant studied videos of Dhoni’s performance on the field  until he got the  exact ‘Dhoni moves’ without ‘batting’ an eyelid. The result is for everybody to see.  Sushant is all set for a career as a national-level cricketer, if he so wants.Why would he after this phenomenal performance?

Most important of all, this is the classic underdog-becomes-everyone’s-God rags-to-riches story. The story of  Dhoni the son of a humble junior engineer’s rise to superstar status is  an inspirational tale every Indian youth , male or female would identify with . When in the film the young Dhoni initially refuses to play cricket as he finds the  ball too small(ha ha) what audiences actually see is a morality tale where dreams aspirations and yearnings are buried under heaps of  family obligations and societal expectations.

Cleverest , To The Everest….The smartest thing the makers of Dhoni The Untold Story did was to get Dhoni on  board. Without his active participation the film would have fallen flat, the way the Azhar bio-pic did. Actually Azhrahuddin too came on board for his bio-pic. But too late. They should have got him into the picture before the film strated at the scripting level itself. Also, Azhar was shown as morally  flawed  and tainted anti-national with match-fixing charges. Dhoni comes clean. He across as a spotless hero of our times. The young desperately need role models. Dhoni just gave them one.

Theatres screening Dhoni The Untold Story have turned into stadiums.The on-screen test matches are not faked. That’s really Sushant Singh Rajput hitting the ball out of the field.And he gets Dhoni’s on-field moves so right, we feel we are watching Dhoni on screen.Finally it is the magic of Dhoni that takes the film to a completely different level of success from other sports bio-pics. Says an unnamed  trade analyst, “People are cheering Dhoni, not Sushant,and Sushantknows this.”

If the cricket matches are the soul of the film, the romantic portions are the heart. Sushant took tips from Dhoni  on how he wooed the two women in his life Priyanka Jha and Sakshi Singh Rawat, down to the exact words they spoke. However ,and here is the catch that takes the ball right out of the field, Dhoni’s relationship with Sakshi in the film has been given a twist. According to the film,Dhoni and Sakshi meet for the first time when he is a guest at the hotel where she’s a trainee , and he’s impressed because—like Dr Nene when he met Madhuri Dixit— Sakshi fails to recognize THE Dhoni. In reality Dhoni knew Sakshi from his school days. Coy fabrication.

Creative liberties: While remaining true to the real Dhoni’s story , right down to the towns homes and playing fields, the script takes some creative liberties. It does away with Dhoni’s brother’s character but retains his sister. And Dhoni is a huge fan of Lata Mangeshkar in real life. Here in the film he only hero worships Sachin Tendulkar.

Dhoni in person doesn’t use the phone. He doesn’t carry a mobile. In the film Sushant is seen talking into the cellphone constantly,so much so that he even talks into disengaged  phones twice in the film.Phone-toosh!

Other sports bio-pics have failed because they were played by the wrong actors. Sushant Singh Rajput is every bit a replica of Dhoni. But the actor doesn’t imitate Dhoni. He assumes his personality the way Ben Kingsley became Mahatma Gandhi.And besides, Bhala Dhoni ko kaun taal sakta hai???!!