On 30th September 2016, an inspiring biopic movie of India’s celebrated Cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni‘s was released by Fox Star Studios and received the widest release ever for a Bollywood film across 61 countries. Brilliant actor Sushant Singh Rajput portrayed an impeccable role of MS Dhoni.

The movie greatly showed an untold story of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s  journey from being a ticket collector to a renowned attacking batsman/wicket-keeper/captain to the world-cup-winning captain of the Indian Cricket Team. The movie also showcases his love life with his first love Priyanka and his wife Sakshi.

STORY BEHIND THE IDEA OF MAKING THE MOVIE

The idea of the movie was put forward by Dhoni’s manager, Arun Pandey, after encountering an incident at an airport after the 2011 World Cup Final. Dhoni was at an airport when a child approached him and asked him a question on motivation. Dhoni sat down with the young boy and spent 5 min answering the question. His manager asked him why he spent that much time and Dhoni replied ‘Because my answer will benefit him and motivate him”. This incident then prompted Pandey to make a film about him that will have the power to motivate millions of children.

Dhoni was little worried and questioned the need for it. But after being convinced by his peers, all he said was, “Don’t misrepresent me. Show me as I am”. It took two years to convince MS Dhoni for the movie.

Neeraj Pandey was in the midst of shooting Baby (2015) when he was offered an opportunity of making a biopic based on Mahendra Singh Dhoni. However, Pandey was skeptical but after it was only after meeting Dhoni personally he was convinced to helm the film. Pandey recruited a number of people for researching into Dhoni’s background and his life events while the director was busy directing Baby (2015).

Dhoni eventually became a consultant on the film.

SURPRISING AND INTERESTING FACTS COVERED IN THE MOVIE ABOUT MS DHONI’S LIFE

In childhood Dhoni was hardly interested in cricket and had a fondness for football instead.  Dhoni was spotted by a cricket coach Banerjee, while goalkeeping in a football game and he selects him in the cricket team as a wicketkeeper. Dhoni improved his batting and becomes a regular member of the team.

MS Dhoni’s signature “helicopter shot” was taught to him by his fellow player and childhood friend  Santosh Lal, who called it the “Thappad Shot”, in exchange for some samosas (Santosh Lal sadly passed away of pancreatitis at age of 29).

Dhoni’s first love was Priyanka Jha who he met on a flight where she failed to recognise him.  Later they fell in love and two were to get married but tragedy struck Dhoni in his personal life. She passed away in a tragic accident.

Years later Dhoni found love again and married  Sakshi whom he had met the first time when he was the captain of the Indian Cricket team at Taj Bengal Hotel, Kolkata where Sakshi didn’t recognise him initially.

MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh had close ties well even before they started playing together for the Indian cricket team. It was during India national under-19 cricket team selections where Dhoni’s Bihar U-19 team loses to Punjab, where Yuvraj Singh become the player who gets selected in the national team and Dhoni does not get selected for national team, though he is selected for the Duleep Trophy.

THE BOX OFFICE NUMBERS

The film was released on Friday, 30 September 2016, across approximately 3,500 screens and delivered an opening of ₹213 million on its first day, occupying 45–50% of the total marketplace which is the one of the biggest opener of Sushant Singh Rajput’s career.

Internationally, the film made an estimated ₹219 million in its opening weekend from 60 countries  becoming the third Bollywood film of 2016 to debut above $1 million, following Sultan and Fan.

DID YOU KNOW?

The school shown in the movie is the actual school of MS Dhoni. Also MS Dhoni’s real school teacher was cast in the film.

There was no mention about Dhoni’s real life elder brother, Narendra Singh Dhoni in the movie.

Dhoni’s real home in Ranchi, Jharkhand where his parents and brother Narendra currently live were shown in the film.

The first official poster was released on Dhoni’s 35th birthday, on July 7, 2016.

Dhoni and his family watched the film and gave their approval without any objections before Sushant could get busy with the shoot of his movie ‘Raabta’ in Budapest.

The film was declared tax-free in UP a day after its release, and in Dhoni’s home state, Jharkhand, a few days later.

SSR learned Dhoni’s signature ‘helicopter’ shot by the end of the first day, but suffered a hairline fracture and had to leave for two weeks. Later he was trained by Dhoni himself.

Former wicketkeeper Kiran More personally coached SSR for 13 months, including wicket-keeping and batting before he started learning Dhoni’s body language.

SSR had to go through an exhaustive prolonged training for a period of 18 months before shooting began and watched his videos for hours. SSR used to practice for 4 hours, starting at 6:00 every morning.

Veteran actor Anupam Kher who had essayed the role of cricketer MS Dhoni’s father in the movie had cut his mustache to blend perfectly into the role which he had done after many years.

Fox studio paid BCCI to use the real scenes of matches shown in the movie.

Dhoni’s wife Sakhshi gave her actual Wedding dress for the movie’s wedding scene.

MUSIC OF THE FILM

Music Director Amaal Mallik composed the music for the movie. Also Rochak Kohli composed one song as a guest composer in the movie. T-Series music company acquired the music rights for the film.

The 10 song are sang by singers Armaan Malik, Arijit Singh, Siddharth Basrur, Rochak Kohli and Palak Muchhal. It was also released in Tamil, Telugu and Marathi. Tamil lyrics were penned by P. Vijay, Telugu by Chaitanya Prasad and Marathi by Guru Thakur. The background music was composed by Sanjoy Chowdhury.

Real vs Reel (MS Dhoni : The Untold Story)

Thank you for reading.

It is entertaining, romantic comedy based drama with little bit of family element in it. The drama is about hard working Deok-mi (Park Min Young) who works as curator in a art museum and secretly fangirl a K-pop boy band called White Ocean member Cha Shi (One). Her life changes when she starts falling in love with her new boss Ryan Gold (Jae-wookAhn) who knows about her secret fangirl identity.  The drama nicely highlights the fan culture in South Korea. The drama also depicts work culture of art gallery employees.

So here are some thoughts i had while watching the drama –

1. I found Ryan gold much hotter than Cha shin-ahn that I started fangirling him from his very first devil smile introduction in first episode.

2. The way Deok-mi and Eun-gi have sibling fight these proves how brothers are so annoying. Even tv series agrees with all sisters.

3. The obsession of Deok-mi’s mom for knitting started from Healer series and it continues here. I wished that they had shown the connection between the both dramas of her being hacker in her younger days. It would have been interesting.

4. Why god I don’t have hot boss like Ryan gold. Why in real life we never have young, handsome boss. We always end up having a some mean, old, selfish, arrogant boss. If I had such a hot boss like Ryan I would have been 100% dedicated to my work and never would I have taken off from office. Also Might be I would have a secret fangirl site of him like Deok-mi had for Cha shin-ahn.

5. I thought there would be love triangle between Deok-mi, Ryan gold and Cha shin-ahn when I saw the first episode but it ended up with Eun-gi instead of Cha shin-ahn.

6. I was patiently waiting for Deok-mi and Ryan gold’s real relationship to start but i think I was much more eager for their first kiss. The ending of episode 6 shows him kissing her and I was so happy but then in next episode they broke my heart when they showed us it was fake kiss. I actually felt that they really kissed in the last part of episode 6.

7. My patience for their first kiss was actually worth it. That kiss was so hot and passionate in that carpentry shop. I actually repeated that scene and saw it again.

8. I felt new hairstyle of Eun-gi after one year made him look more handsome than the previous one. Might be they didn’t wanted our heart to ache badly with second- lead syndrome.

9. I didn’t expected Eun-gi ends up falling in love with Cindy I thought he might end up with Ryan’s friend Da-in. It was surprise element at the end of the drama.

10. Deok-mi’s fashion style was so great be it her casual wear or office wear. I especially liked her office look. Especially pants suits with minimal accessories it really looked great on her. Also I loved fashion style of Ryan gold especially one when he dressed up as undercover latte. That scarf and sunglasses made him look beautiful.

11. The beautiful marriage proposal made me wish to have such a romantic proposal. It was simple but so beautiful proposal that brought tears in my eyes and also the reply for the proposal “I’ll become your greatest lover” was awesome.

Her Private Life was quiet engaging with wonderful story plot and soundtrack. My favourite ost from the drama was “Maybe” sung by Lee Hae-ri.

Thank you.