Sanju - A one-dimensional PR stunt
Newspaper articles can be written with an angle. Books can take sides. And movies can be made with a slant. Sanju clearly has one: That everyone else, but the actor is responsible for his misdeeds. What the film tells us is that his drug addiction was because of the wrong company that he kept, keeping an AK-47 rifle (given to him by terrorist Abu Salem) in his car was to protect his family which was being threatened (although his father continued to do community work in the open) and his jail term and subsequent vilification was because of a vicious media trial.
There’s nothing wrong in making a movie trying to clean up the image of one of Indian cinema’s controversial personalities. But it has to be done with adequate depth and conviction. Rajkumar Hirani – believed to be one of the finest filmmakers of our times – falls woefully short on these fronts. And by using clichéd lines like ‘kuch toh log kahenge’ to refer to the adverse public opinion about the actor, he dilutes even the redeemable portions of the film.
Sanju opens with his current wife (Dia Mirza) convincing him to tell his true story instead of attempting suicide after a court judgment. Acclaimed writer Winny (Anushka Sharma), sporting Kangana Ranaut-like hair, refuses initially, but relents after the actor, played by Ranbir Kapoor, requests her to give him an hour to narrate his tale. The entire first half is devoted to his escapades with drugs, alcohol, women, and his equation with his parents, notably his father (Paresh Rawal). Despite his closeness to them, while mother (Manisha Koirala) battles cancer and undergoes treatment in the US, Sanju flies to New York with cocaine hidden in his boots. The choice between jail and drugs was clear, he says.
We are not told why a grown-up man with privileges would behave in such a manner. Is it the fact that he was the son of respectable actors who enjoyed considerable clout? Did he have a medical condition? Or because there was always someone to bail him out? We don’t even know if he wanted to become an actor or whether he was pushed into the profession.
An hour later, Anushka is willing to write a book on Sanju. Till the actor’s drug peddler-friend puts a doubt in her mind. Why has Sanju’s best friend (Vicky Kaushal) not spoken to him for over a decade? Incidentally, Sanju and Kaushal, a stranger who walks into Koirala’s hospital room in the US to keep a Ganpati idol, become best friends after just one meeting.
Even more ridiculous is that an unsure Anushka flies to the US only to meet Kaushal, who shows her a newspaper clipping which suggests that the actor had kept a truck laden with RDX at his house and could have prevented the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai. She abandons the project because, like Kaushal, she does not want to be associated with a terrorist. It is strange that she hadn’t done her research earlier.
Mirza then comes out of nowhere and hands her a pen drive which has an audio recording of Sanju’s community radio programme in jail. This will change your mind, she tells Anushka. And it does as the actor and his father explain how a sensationalism-driven media was hell-bent on destroying a public figure. Ironically, the film’s unit went to the same media to promote the movie and industry folks use the same medium to bolster their image.
The film repeatedly harps on the media’s obsession with giving credence to speculation by putting a question mark at the end of headlines. But Sanju itself raises several questions and leaves many unanswered. There are scenes about the hardships he faced in jail, but what about the parole granted to the actor again and again, something where his celebrity status proved to be an advantage? How a well-known political figure from Mumbai came to his rescue post the blasts because of his father’s goodwill. His equation with his sisters (one of them a public figure herself), who were his pillars of support during his tough times, is non-existent. Their opposition to his current wife and the fallout find no mention. His daughter from his first marriage is nowhere in the picture. His first two wives and what happened to them are aspects conveniently ignored. Hirani does not even document his rise as an actor. He seems to be obsessed in proving that Sanjay Dutt is not a terrorist.
For people who have known Dutt to be a pampered maverick of sorts, the film does not do enough to convince that others alone were responsible for the wrongs in his life. It’s like the argument some people hold that Salman Khan should be forgiven because of the charity work that he undertakes. The film did not even touch the surface of the human side of the actor, the mentality behind his actions and why he disregarded people like his first girlfriend who cared for him. Treating women as objects is treated as a badge of honour. A score of 300-plus here is not the same as a triple century in Tests. Biopics can be one-sided, but not one dimensional. Sanju is just that.
Ranbir Kapoor is a fine actor and capable of a lot more than what this film allows him to do. At times, he appears like a caricature of the senior actor. It was terrific seeing him as Sanjay Dutt in the short trailer, but over a period of more-than-two-and-a-half hours, it gets difficult to separate the two. Nevertheless, he tries his best and comes into his own as Dutt during the later years. Kaushal is a great find and puts in an earnest performance. Thankfully, the industry and audiences have woken up to his talent. Paresh Rawal is sincere, but unconvincing in appearance as Sunil Dutt. Manisha Koirala resembles Dutt’s mother Nargis, but does not have much to do. In the case of others, it could have been anyone else playing their parts.
Sanju is on its way to become the biggest blockbuster of 2018. But it’s not a movie that is likely to be remembered for a long time. After all, PR stunts have a short shelf life.
- Kunal Purandare
There’s nothing wrong in making a movie trying to clean up the image of one of Indian cinema’s controversial personalities. But it has to be done with adequate depth and conviction. Rajkumar Hirani – believed to be one of the finest filmmakers of our times – falls woefully short on these fronts. And by using clichéd lines like ‘kuch toh log kahenge’ to refer to the adverse public opinion about the actor, he dilutes even the redeemable portions of the film.
Sanju opens with his current wife (Dia Mirza) convincing him to tell his true story instead of attempting suicide after a court judgment. Acclaimed writer Winny (Anushka Sharma), sporting Kangana Ranaut-like hair, refuses initially, but relents after the actor, played by Ranbir Kapoor, requests her to give him an hour to narrate his tale. The entire first half is devoted to his escapades with drugs, alcohol, women, and his equation with his parents, notably his father (Paresh Rawal). Despite his closeness to them, while mother (Manisha Koirala) battles cancer and undergoes treatment in the US, Sanju flies to New York with cocaine hidden in his boots. The choice between jail and drugs was clear, he says.
We are not told why a grown-up man with privileges would behave in such a manner. Is it the fact that he was the son of respectable actors who enjoyed considerable clout? Did he have a medical condition? Or because there was always someone to bail him out? We don’t even know if he wanted to become an actor or whether he was pushed into the profession.
An hour later, Anushka is willing to write a book on Sanju. Till the actor’s drug peddler-friend puts a doubt in her mind. Why has Sanju’s best friend (Vicky Kaushal) not spoken to him for over a decade? Incidentally, Sanju and Kaushal, a stranger who walks into Koirala’s hospital room in the US to keep a Ganpati idol, become best friends after just one meeting.
Even more ridiculous is that an unsure Anushka flies to the US only to meet Kaushal, who shows her a newspaper clipping which suggests that the actor had kept a truck laden with RDX at his house and could have prevented the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai. She abandons the project because, like Kaushal, she does not want to be associated with a terrorist. It is strange that she hadn’t done her research earlier.
Mirza then comes out of nowhere and hands her a pen drive which has an audio recording of Sanju’s community radio programme in jail. This will change your mind, she tells Anushka. And it does as the actor and his father explain how a sensationalism-driven media was hell-bent on destroying a public figure. Ironically, the film’s unit went to the same media to promote the movie and industry folks use the same medium to bolster their image.
The film repeatedly harps on the media’s obsession with giving credence to speculation by putting a question mark at the end of headlines. But Sanju itself raises several questions and leaves many unanswered. There are scenes about the hardships he faced in jail, but what about the parole granted to the actor again and again, something where his celebrity status proved to be an advantage? How a well-known political figure from Mumbai came to his rescue post the blasts because of his father’s goodwill. His equation with his sisters (one of them a public figure herself), who were his pillars of support during his tough times, is non-existent. Their opposition to his current wife and the fallout find no mention. His daughter from his first marriage is nowhere in the picture. His first two wives and what happened to them are aspects conveniently ignored. Hirani does not even document his rise as an actor. He seems to be obsessed in proving that Sanjay Dutt is not a terrorist.
For people who have known Dutt to be a pampered maverick of sorts, the film does not do enough to convince that others alone were responsible for the wrongs in his life. It’s like the argument some people hold that Salman Khan should be forgiven because of the charity work that he undertakes. The film did not even touch the surface of the human side of the actor, the mentality behind his actions and why he disregarded people like his first girlfriend who cared for him. Treating women as objects is treated as a badge of honour. A score of 300-plus here is not the same as a triple century in Tests. Biopics can be one-sided, but not one dimensional. Sanju is just that.
Ranbir Kapoor is a fine actor and capable of a lot more than what this film allows him to do. At times, he appears like a caricature of the senior actor. It was terrific seeing him as Sanjay Dutt in the short trailer, but over a period of more-than-two-and-a-half hours, it gets difficult to separate the two. Nevertheless, he tries his best and comes into his own as Dutt during the later years. Kaushal is a great find and puts in an earnest performance. Thankfully, the industry and audiences have woken up to his talent. Paresh Rawal is sincere, but unconvincing in appearance as Sunil Dutt. Manisha Koirala resembles Dutt’s mother Nargis, but does not have much to do. In the case of others, it could have been anyone else playing their parts.
Sanju is on its way to become the biggest blockbuster of 2018. But it’s not a movie that is likely to be remembered for a long time. After all, PR stunts have a short shelf life.
- Kunal Purandare
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