The illegal possession of weapons in connection to terrorist activity was the unfortunate result of sketchy advice and self-protection, and his dubious public reputation was the solely the work of the ruthless media. As Hirani presents it, Sanjay’s rampant addiction issues were triggered by grief over his mother’s illness and a strained relationship with his father, then fueled by his duplicitous dealer (Jim Sarbh). But while the film doesn’t hide the turbulent trajectory of Sanjay’s journey, it’s eventually clear that Manyata’s words are the only fleeting sign of acknowledgment that Sanjay bears any real responsibility for it.Īs he recounts the drug-laced, alcohol-soaked, crime-tainted chapters of his past to Winnie, “Sanju” plays out like a highlight reel of his mistakes, but in a way that places the blame anywhere but on Sanjay himself.
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It’s a strategic setup, presumably intended to persuade us that despite Dutt having practically tasked Hirani and Joshi to pen this screenplay, “Sanju” isn’t meant to be a hagiography. “Bad choices make good stories,” she says, “and you are the king of bad choices.” When biographer Winnie Dias (Anushka Sharma) is skeptical to come on board, she is quickly convinced of his commitment to the “truths”-warts and all-when he unflinchingly reveals, in front of Manyata, that the number of women he has bedded hovers at 350, “not counting the prostitutes.” Soon afterwards, his wife Manyata (Dia Mirza) assures him that they will find a writer to tell his story honestly. Given Sanjay’s highly publicized missteps, writer-director Rajkumar Hirani and co-writer Abhijat Joshi seem well aware that it would be foolish to unabashedly glorify Bollywood’s “bad boy ” in fact, in the very first scene of “Sanju,” an incensed Sanjay (played with uncanny accuracy by Ranbir Kapoor) burns a book by a biographer who likens him to Gandhi. Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan may have the legendary careers and staggering worldwide fame, but there’s good reason why - of all the living actors that could have been the subject of a Bollywood biopic - it’s Sanjay Dutt who emerged as a viable choice, in the newly released “ Sanju.” The son of iconic Mother India actress Nargis and actor/activist/politician Sunil Dutt (whose 30-year career in films has been overshadowed by substance abuse problems, womanizing, accusations of terrorism, and prison stints), Sanjay’s life includes tragedy, drama, crime, and redemption in spades-in short, it’s the stuff movies are made of.