So here’s the thing - Ranbir’s Dutt says No One Carried the headline of him being redeemed from TADA but everyone wrote about his jail sentence of 6 years. Somehow, the favourable approach towards Dutt bothers you but the film is so high on entertainment value, energy and brilliant storytelling that the buff in me is satiated and the journalist in me is enraged. You wish Hirani had exhibited more maturity in the script. His bond with Ranbir is crackling and he anchors the film even in its sparsely dull moments. There is a fabulous supporting cast in the one man army, Vicky Kaushal. Because apparently the Rockstar Dutt is created by the media.

But there are not enough grey shades that made Sanju the Rockstar he is. Ranbir is sensational as Sanjay, matching every move of his muse and getting the beat of the character. They are breathing life into each scene that they are in. Together, Rawal and Ranbir create magic on screen. His problems never end till he breathes his last, just a year before his son is redeemed of His Tada charges. He is fighting to save the love of his life while his rebel without a cause son is neck deep in drugs. Not many of our generation know Sunil Dutt, but Rawal makes him palpable. Through most of the film, you feel bad for the honest man who is stuck with a son who doesn’t deserve him.

The veteran is impeccable in every scene and every frame. Oh, Ranbir stands tall but have you ever acknowledged how brilliant is Paresh Rawal. It is in fact an impeccably performed, finely made, heartwarming movie. They ran the fear of many legal notices and defamation suits which is why none of Dutt’s 350 dalliances, including those with reigning Bollywood queens of 90s ever make it to the frame. But makers - Rajkumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi have focused only on selected parts of his life. He has paid a price for his mistakes - unlike many of his peers - and there he is purged of all misdoings. So we know that baba, as he is fondly called is a kind and affable person surely but the focus here is entirely on redeeming him of his many and too many flaws. Technically speaking there is a big difference between a biopic and a film like Sanju, but here the attempt to tilt the scales completely on his side. It’s unabashedly media bashing in its tone that you want to believe that the news reportage of the 90s was indeed so frivolous in their approach? They apparently wrote everything unsubstantiated and made Sanjay Dutt to be a villain, a Voldemort and the most dastardly word - Terrorist. Because Sanju is not a biopic it’s an image correction exercise. It’s hard to not be a journalist and write a piece about the film, Sanju.

Sanju movie times