My scattered thoughts on 'Sanju'

Although not immediately apparent, Rajkumar Hirani has been one of the consitent champion of dudebros in Hindi cinema. Male bonding/ bromance have always been the focal point in his stories and Sanju is not different in this aspect. There are ample female presence in the film but while the film & Sanju in it respects the Mother & the wife it goes out of its way to humiliate the girlfriends. A brief extremely ill-conceived scene introduces and discards Karishma Tanna's character to establish the "bros before hoes" relationship between Sanju & Kamlesh(Vicky). Ruby on the other hand, gets to to exit with a shred of dignity because she displays traits of an "ideal woman" despite being repeatedly humiliated for the majority of her screentime. Winnie played by Anushka Sharma is a mere narrative device that does not count as a full fledged character.

Sanju starts as a film where Sanju and his wife Manyata are looking for an able biographer to tell their version of the story that is on its way to send him to another 6 years of jail sentence. They want to convince the public of his innocence through this book and also make lives a little easier for their little kids in the process. So this propaganda film starts off basically by the lead players looking for someone to write a propaganda book for them. Clever!

Three-fourth of the story is narrated by Sanju and the remaining fourth by Sanju's best buddy, the NRI simpleton Kamlesh. Kamlesh is a manifestation of the fans of Sanjay Dutt. They have been with him through thick and thin. But even so, they are simple minded people who are prone to be misguided by the evil media and fake news. Now I do not claim to much of the original story and different sides of it beyond the superficial myself and the film knows this. All of us are supposed to see us in Kamlesh. We have seen the headlines and we have made our assumptions. The 1/4th of the story that is narrated by Kamlesh is basically used to prop up one allegation and later have it dispelled by Sanju resulting in a reunion of friends Sanju & Kamlesh and also us half-informed, misguided fans and the star Sanju. The fallacy of media is portrayed by two parallel storylines. One where Kamlesh holds on to a story run by a newspaper with the headline "RDX truck at Dutt house?" and "Sajay Dutt, finished?". While Kamlesh leaves Sanju for 20 years not noticing the "?" in the headline of the former, Sunil Dutt confronts the publication to demand explanation about the "?" in the latter. you'd think the comparison of the two "?"s in question are inappropriate but the film will have you believe that it's quite justified.

The film and the reel Sanju accepts all other charges against him other than his association with the bomb blast. It helps us sympathize with the character. Look at this guy. So openly owning all his vices! So he must be telling the truth about that other thing also. Hmm..

Sanju opens with the dark chapter of drug addiction and his dealing with the tragedy of passing away of Nargis Dutt. These portions are very well written, performed and executed overall, building the sympathy before the darker stuff hits.Raju Hirani's trademark simpleton humor is stamped all over the film. So when the film makes light of Sanju's association with the underworld, you do not think twice before laughing it off.