The first half of MSD starts like a typical limited overs Dhoni innings. Slow, and full of hope.

The movie takes us through his younger days where they show how his agility as a goalkeeper caught the eye of a school cricket coach who was desperately looking for a wicket-keeper.

His love for batting and a couple of chances made him the talk of the town for his cricketing ability. His Cinderella story reached a stop where he was playing for railways and working as a ticket checker.

Cut-to a few future friendly reforms in the BCCI that focused on smaller towns. Bringing Dhoni up to an India-A tournament and then eventually being called up for the country.

Innings Break.

The first half focuses entirely towards him being selected for the country. Which is A+! Now to the next milestone, becoming the young enterprising captain that the stats books will never forget. Becoming the finisher that India always needed.

(record screech)

Yeah the last two didn’t make it to the movie. His love life did, though. Which was necessary, but a little too dragged to be honest. His love story with Priyanka (played by the charming Disha Patani) was well woven with the cricketing action and was unexpected. But Sakshi’s story arc was devoid of cricketing stories.

In the movie Dhoni, went from being a raw talent to a tactician, one of the best captains the country has ever seen. The journey though was ignored from the movie, possibly due to cut the movie short. They probably should’ve made a longer movie to answer those questions (waiting for an extended cut, anybody?). The T20 World Cup victory was shown as it happened in reality with Sushant’s face morphed onto Dhoni’s (Yeah, that happened a lot.)

So did the 2011 cricket world cup.

Howzzat? (or what’s that, rather)
Why were the team staff and crowd giving a standing ovation when Virat Kohli was dismissed cheaply in the 2011 World Cup when India weren’t in a comfortable position? Pretty certain it’s not due to the anticipation of Dhoni, as he had promoted himself up the line-up to everyone’s shock.

How was Dhoni shown questioning the fitness of xyz players, later saying that he doesn’t want the captaincy if he doesn’t get his team as he doesn’t want to be a puppet? Yet we all know most of the xyz players played the world cup 3 years later and won the tournament. So was Dhoni proved wrong in his selection or was he the puppet that he refused to be?

“Deft touch.”
Why was Sakshi shown in an emotional light where Dhoni was shown responding completely devoid of emotion. That doesn’t really make their relationship look cool.

“That went like a tracer bullet.”
Yuvraj Singh’s character was beautifully projected in the movie against all guesses. and Herry Tangri looked the part astonishingly well.

Sushant Singh Rajput was splendid as Mahendra Singh Dhoni, that effort alone deserves the movie to be a must watch. However the pieces from actual situations where his face was morphed was a good touch but a tad overused and lost its charm towards the end of the movie. Sushant’s distinct voice made it difficult to believe compared to Dhoni’s voice, which we’ve all been familiarised in post match conferences and behind the stumps updates.

The unexpected transition of a coming-to-age sport story to a romantic drama made REVHUMAN sit back and wonder if it was a completely different movie. If romance was the untold story then why wasn’t it promoted as such or not built up in the first half?

To fit it into the time slot the movie wasn’t edited as comfortably as it could’ve been. Dhoni though is an interesting story himself and Sushant has embodied that persona with perfection making him the Man of the Match!

Going to the Third Umpire (you guys), tell us how you liked the movie and whether you agree or disagree with REVHUMAN’s POV!