Sanju as played by Ranbir Kapoor in Raj Kumar Hirani’s overblown, undercooked biopic, was a fusion of mimicry and inspiration.At times Ranbir was seen imitating Dutt’s walk and talk too closely for it to be considered a natural performance. But the more fundamental problem was, the film lied about its subject.
You don’t do that in bio-pic.
To begin with , many chapters of Dutt’s life were wiped out.Dutt’s daughter Trishala from his first marriage to actress Richa Sharma was obliterated from the ostensible bio-pic. Dutt’s three wives were amalgamated and assimilated into character played by Sonam Kapoor.
These were serious omissions that did not go unnoticed by Dutt’s fans . Director Raj Kumar Hirani has no reply to this selective attitude to a biopic.
However a very close director-friend of Dutt told me, “This was the way Sanju wanted it. Hirani and Sanju were close friends and the biopic was made exactly how Sanju wanted it. Even the choice of Ranbir Kapoor to play Sanjay Dutt was up to Dutt only.”
In hindsight, Sanju proves what we all know about entertainers in India: they don’t want the truth about themselves to come out.They are happy living a lie as long as the lie suits their image.
