The most-awaited biopic: Sanju

Every storyteller of celluloid needs two good things one is a good movie making team and then a good actor. Long ago Javed Akhtar while speaking to a media house told that if we were to draw a parallel with football then a good actor is like the centre-forward and the producer, director, cameraman, etc are like goalkeepers, defenders, etc. Ultimately it is usually the centre-forward who kicks the ball to the goal and an actor does that to a movie in terms of box office success.

In short, a good actor delivers what everyone else has conceived. For example, SS Rajamouli thought of an evil monster sized demon kind of king and ultimately it was Rana Daggubati’s epic underrated effort that delivered a Bhallala Deva to us.

The trailer of ‘Sanju’ has hit us recently and in a short span, it has garnered 13 million views. The fact is we all love bad boys and Sanjay Dutt was probably the most iconic of our bad boys. A story that has ups and downs that could put even a Disney ride to shame. Then you add the presentation skills of one of our greatest storyteller of drama content Rajkumar Hirani. The trailer at 184 seconds is a lengthy one but it promises one thing with the good story, dialogues, comedy and drama and that promise is that
Ranbir Kapoor has put in probably his last ounce of energy in this one.

One has to agree that Rajkumar Hirani has already delivered a masterstroke by hiring Ranbir for this role. There are a few in this industry who can carry this role to perfection. The first thing that a role like this demands is an actor of range and fact of the matter is that while some young actors in our industry today have great talent none probably has the range that Ranbir Kapoor brings to the table.

The only other one who could have been considered was Varun Dhawan but it is given that if at all he was considered his physical dissimilarity with Dutt would have ruled him out. Ranbir and Dutt share a striking similarity when it comes to the brooding tilted gaze.

Somehow the trailer promises a great story well delivered. Then if you observe it for sure any which way promises a totally cocky style of storytelling like Sanju’s character telling a probing lady the number of women he has scored with and he also wants to classify between the good and the bad ladies. Moments like Sanju delivering a spontaneous mangalsutra make you anticipate an iconic performance.

This is where ‘Sanju’ is as important for Ranbir Kapoor as Ranbir Kapoor is important for ‘Sanju’. Ranbir Kapoor has been ignored by the box office for some time now. You feel bad for the man because I am yet to see a movie where this young actor does not bring sincerity and commitment to the table. I am yet to see a movie where Ranbir Kapoor was not very good, forget average or bad. Yet movies like ‘Tamasha’ and ‘Jagga Jasoos’ failed because the directors failed to deliver a smooth screenplay. With Rajkumar Hirani, you can be assured that the screenplay is a robust one.

The movie could be that mid-career push which makes a superstar a long inning player. The trailer of the movie points out that in all probability ‘Sanju’ will not just show the repeated returns of Sanjay Dutt from being written off the movie will bring back Ranbir Kapoor into superstar reckoning which he richly deserves. The parallel that I can draw is for Sunny Deol’s ‘Ghayal’ when ‘Ghayal’ came on screen many had written off Deol as another star son who had worn out much before time.

‘Ghayal’ changed all that and the innings of Sunny post ‘Ghayal’ had all his rich iconic work. Ranbir could come on that second stage of his acting career with this one. I for one would love to have Ranbir back in box office glory. The Varun Dhawans and the Ranvir Singhs need some serious competition and if there is one young generation star who can take the battle single-handedly to them it is Ranbir Kapoor. You don’t believe me go watch ‘Sanju’s trailer again. In fact, just watch the teaser.