Sanju review: Brilliant performance, remarkable story telling, Sanju rocks! 

The much awaited Rajkumar Hirani flick Sanju is out. Based on film star Sanjay Duty’s tumultuous life, Sanju movie is impressive not as a biopic but for portraying a well-protected young boy, who, when confronted with the normal challenges of life gives in to drugs and a rash life style full of intoxication, girls and irreverence towards human relationships.

It's more of a story about a rich, pampered and protected boy’s coming of age who feels burdened with the expectations from him especially when he has as prestigious and well-reputed parents as Nargis and Sunil Dutt.

And it's not only Ranbir Kapoor who has really worked hard in portraying Sanjay Dutt, every character in the film has been carefully drawn and every actor has done an admirable job.

It is a typical characteristic of Rajkumar Hirani’s cinema that it moves you beyond the obvious plot of his films. It's brilliantly done in Sanju which reflects Hirani’s maturity as a filmmaker.

There are some characters who seem to be fictional and created to make the story tighter and more impactful.

It is also appreciable that presenting the highs and lows of a real-life character, the director has nowhere turned loud or melodramatic. In fact, it seems our Hindi film directors are increasingly realising that most of the times, reality is far more dramatic than fiction and presenting it with certain creative and aesthetic prowess is what it takes to make the film click with the audience. Raazi proved it recently, Sanju is another remarkable example.

The film is made in a way that it can well be appreciated by an audience which is not interested in knowing about Sanjay Dutt. Sanju’s thank-you speech on Sunil Dutt’s death is a tear-jerker and actually reflects almost every loving son’s sentiments for his father.

Vicky Kaushal as a non-filmi friend of Sanjay Dutt is amazing. The director has succeeded in portraying the remarkable relationship between Sunil Dutt and Nargis. In fact, both of them come across as ordinary doting parents who try very hard to protect and save their son from the savage impact of drugs.

Anjan Shrivastava in a cameo as a senior politician is brilliant. Though the film becomes a little stretch by the end, but it's bearable considering it grips you till then.

If we see it as a biopic, then the film has some loopholes. Sanjay Dutt’s initial life, first marriage, first daughter, friends etc have been completely left out. In fact, there's not much about his personal life, and his rumoured affairs with various film actresses.

But the director had mentioned before the release of the film that he has focused more on the father-son relationship. And he has done a good job of it.

Then there's a major part of the film that revolves around negative reporting/wrong reporting by media, that affects the protagonist’s personal relationships. Well, we can't deny that to an extent, media stands guilty. We can't deny it too, that reports on film personalities (I won't call that paparazzi) tend to be exaggerated. And media too nowadays is victim of the fast and rash tendency to keep only daily readership in mind. Yet, to deplore it so much in a film is kind of unjust too.

All said and done, the screen lights up when Sanjay Dutt actually appears during the credit score in the end. And we can't help muttering to ourselves---Sanju Baba still rocks!