There are two ways of watching M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story. 

You believe in the disclaimer, because you know no better: This film is inspired by true events but it is not a documentary/biography of any character depicted in the film. No scenes should be construed to represent a true or accurate recreation of the actual events that transpired. The story and the relationships between the characters depicted in the film have been fictionalised. Any resemblance or similarity to any actual events, entities or persons, whether living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

You will then leave the theatres savouring the sweet taste of watching an underdog live his dreams. And how! It’s so goosebumpy that you’ll feel you are watching a Bolly script unfold, complete with drama, romance and dialogues.
Wow, MSD was actually making chai to pep up his friends when India was being crushed by the Aussies in the World Cup 2003 final! The same man would lead India to an ICC World Twenty20 win only in a few years time.
The son of a pump operator who got the nation’s adrenaline pumping. The football fanatic who had dismissed cricket as the game played with a “chhota ball”, only to rule the game one day. The Sachin Tendulkar fan, who would soon captain the Master Blaster. The player who nobody was willing to sponsor, for whom the biggest brands would queue up one day. Mahi for whom his first day at the Kharagpur station as a ticket checker was similar to a ‘yorker’. The same yorker which he helicoptered out of the park on so many occasions, a shot he picked up from  friend, barter for samosa! The bike-lover Dhoni. The boyfriend Dhoni. The steel behind the calm. Mahendra Singh Dhoni who travelled back to his Durga Sporting days just before smashing India to the epic 2011 World Cup win. Fairy tale. Picture perfect, which every kid can take inspiration from.  

Or, you don’t believe in the disclaimer, because you know better.

Never a Dhoni fan, I really liked MSD when I met him for the first time during IPL 2016. His nonchalance was so cool! I wish I could be like him. #lifegoal So, I sat to watch his story with a lot of expectations. He would surely not mind giving us the glimpse of the real Dhoni. What exactly happened when he went gunning for young blood in the team? Why has he stopped talking to the media? What was the idea behind landing up with the whole team at a press conference? What exactly does he think of Virat Kohli? What was his exact equation with N. Srinivasan? His thoughts on the big IPL spot-fixing scandal? The man behind that cucumber-cool demeanour. The man who smiles in victory and defeat. The icing on the cake? The word ‘untold’. Hmmmm….if you are a Sourav Ganguly fan, you’ll know exactly what I mean!

Instead, director Neeraj Pandey decided to set an all-is-well field with Mahi hiking towering sixes. Mr Pandey, what do you mean by ‘No scenes should be construed to represent a true or accurate recreation of the actual events that transpired’? India never won the World Cup in 2011? We don’t know our cricket? Sachin Tendulkar didn’t exist? You are in fact denying Dhoni his big success story by calling it ‘inspired by true events’. Do you realise you are dealing with the likes of Tendulkar, Sehwag, Sourav, Yuvraj…? Do you realise that most of your audience might not be able to understand your disclaimer! For them, this is Dhoni’s story. So, when you are showing Yuvraj as gum-chewing arrogant lad, you want your audience to believe that this is fiction, right? When you reduce Sourav Ganguly to just a voice or at max cutting a dejected figure after India’s 2007 World Cup disaster, you want your audience to believe that this is fiction, right? 

Why does the film feel like Dhoni’s mouthpiece? Why does it feel you are watching just the parts of his life that Dhoni wants you to see? The fact that Mahi can do no wrong, the fact that Mahi is perfect, the fact that Mahi is the same as he was when he was not MSD…. Fact or fiction? Come on, there is no denying the man his contribution to Indian cricket, but this is just a fanboy film! And anyone is entitled to make one, but why call it M.S. Dhoni... ?
A lot is really left ‘untold’. For Dhoni’s autobiography may be? If MSD ever decides to write one that is. Until then, nothing succeeds like success, of course. 

Do you like Dhoni more or less after watching the film? Tell t2@abp.in