The movie begins when Manita Dutt, the third wife of Sanjay Dutt asked an established writer Wiinnie, to pen Dutt’s biography just after the judgement was expected to be unveiled against him in Arms Acts Case. ‘Sanju’ story solely revolves around the junior Dutt aka Sanju Baba, whose 30 year career was characterized by the tragedy, drama, crime, misconduct, adultery and improvement in spades. Story-director-characters’ unpredicted deceit net Smartly avoiding the greyest shades of his past continues throughout to the present, Hirani unconvincingly ends the movie on a note of one man and many lives.
Sanju in a gaudy, vivid and in typical Raj Kumar Hirani’s beaming dramatic way covers selected happenings of Sanjay Dutt’s life from being addicted to drugs and women, to trials and tribulations in Arms and Mumbai blasts cases. ‘Sanju’ in the end projected Sanjay Dutt nothing but a colossal saint who conquered virtue over vice. It should rather be called a hagiography of B-Town’s superstar and patronised blue-eyed bad boy who was once a drug addict, a womanizer, an irresponsible son and brother, an infidel companion and a ruthless person for most of his life who only after cascading crucial happenings and turbulent tormenting and traumatizing events in life tarnishes all his evil and offensiveness. The skilled director of magnum opus MunnaBhai and PK, and a close friend of Sanjay Dutt, Raj Kumar Hirani vaguely presented ‘Sanju’ as a biopic, but the movie cannot be said a biopic at all. Photo: A screen shot from the trailer Sanju. Sanju, not literally but somewhat explores the variant shades of the bollywood’s iconic star actor and magnificent Mother-India famed Nargis and actor turned activist and politician Sunil Dutt’s son, Sanjay Dutt’s roller coaster life. Sanju is a cent percent entertainment, and shockingly is also a disappointment as another cliché and barefaced truth of stereotype South Asian cinema and glam culture. After all, this is what films are made for and this is how show business works. Sanju, the much anticipated Bollywood movie hits the screen, takes the theatres by storm, makes public crazy and continues to mint record-breaking money worldwide as per expectations.