We know us Indians don’t reckon cricket just as a sport and Bollywood just as a means of entertainment. So when heard that a biopic was being made on our Captain Cool, we couldn’t have asked for anything more, could we?

 Spread over three hours, Dhoni’s life has been encapsulated brilliantly in the movie ‘M.S.Dhoni – The Untold Story’. Directed by Neeraj Pandey, who selected Sushant Singh Rajput to play  Dhoni on-screen. Must say, Sushant did not let go of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and with his impeccable efforts, he surely won millions of hearts. Broadly speaking, our perspective towards any biopic would be anticipating a lot of struggle and inspiration but this movie isn’t it. The movie embraced all the aspects of his life rather than just focusing on his struggles.

The film marks the rise of a young schoolboy M.S. Dhoni or Mahi (Sushant Singh Rajput) in Ranchi, who gets noticed by the school’s cricket coach as a goalkeeper. The first half of the film is devoted to his career-making days in Ranchi when Mahi is seen liking every game, be it badminton, tennis but loves football the most. He doesn’t have much interest in cricket, and when asked to do wicket keeping for his school’s cricket team he doesn’t seem happy. He anyways gives it a shot and shortly, he falls in love with the game, and prefers all the practice sessions to books. Gradually, he shines, both as a keeper and a striker par excellence as he gets to play many matches, much to his father Paan Singh’s (Anupam Kher) disappointment. Later after working briefly for a couple of years as a TC, he realizes that his job is drudgery and that under no circumstances would he be able to make a career in cricket if he were to remain in his job. All this while, when life knocked him down he was calm and composed which is what I think each one of us has to imbibe in our own lives. Later he quits his job and starts to build his career in cricket.

The second half of the movie is dedicated to his love life accompanied by some soulful music which is worth more watching on the screen rather than reading in a review. It ends with the remarkable 2011 ICC World Cup victory at Wankhede. That was when the audience roared “Dhoni! Dhoni!” and the theater turned into a stadium. It was overwhelming! A treat to watch all the cricket legends on the big screen. A die-hard fan of Mahi (as I am) will be bound to love the film.

Watching him on the screen was ineffable ecstasy albeit for a few seconds.

Go watch and relish a whole other ‘goose-bumping’ experience ONLY in theaters!

Share this on: