What Sanju trailer reveals about Sanjay Dutt
The rockstar returns as the debonair Dutt and hits it out of the park! That was my first reaction after watching the trailer of the highly anticipated Sanju - and forgive my leaning on clichéd terminology - but the Dutt biopic did make all the right noises and it may just be an end to Ranbir Kapoor’s bad run-ins with the box office.
Despite difficulties around impersonating living personalities on screen, Ranbir’s effortless portrayal of Sanjay Dutt is well done. Ranbir delves into Dutt with a methodical sincerity and makes the colourful life of the reckless moviestar come alive on reel because after all, like he puts it, "Itna variety wala life aapko kidhar milega?"
The trailer begins with Dutt in his younger days, when Sanju opens up about his drug addiction, his affairs and also his oft-talked about "connection with the underworld" and the media scrutiny. And even if I sound borderline "politically correct" in the aforementioned statement, the makers of Sanju would want everyone to know (rather feel) that they aren’t hiding behind any correctitude of the political kind!
The trailer does well to prove that Sanjay Dutt did not shy away from sharing bold details about his contentious life, packing all the punches and leaving nothing behind in bringing to screen the life and times of one of the most controversial actors in India.
What it does do, however, is give Sanjay Dutt a platform to absolve himself, at least on film, if not in reality - of the one facet that’s haunted his tainted past.
And just as Ranbir Kapoor, who, wonderfully enough, is a dead ringer for Dutt, announces: "Main bewra hoon, tharki hoon, drug addict hoon, saab hoon... lekin terrorist nahin hoon."
You’re reminded of the sobbing Dutt before the media, after his conviction.
But I must tread cautiously here, lest I tip over to the “celebrating a convict and making a hero out of him” side. Although, should the film be put in the dock and accused of doing just that?
I don’t think that it would be fair to reduce a piece of art to naught with this one argument.
The responsibility lies with the filmmaker to not choreograph the thoughts of the viewers to elicit the kind of reaction he wants and not what they might actually feel. But can Rajkumar Hirani really be the fly on the wall in his cinematic ode to the legend of Sanjay Dutt - and might I remind you, Hirani and Dutt have collaborated on numerous occasions.
So the honesty in the portrayal is debatable.
What Sanju’s trailer does is reveal what a Brand Hirani film looks like with Ranbir Kapoor headlining it.
From Dutt the matinee-idol to a name that dominated headlines in Indian newspapers in the early 1990s, Ranbir plays the part with flair.
After all, it’s not just Sanjay Dutt who needs closure; Ranbir too needs all the exoneration he can get, after his appalling track record over the last four years. Let’s just hope this film fixes his terrible luck; although this time, there’s lady luck too by his side — if all else fails, that should work — Bhatt naturally!