'MS Dhoni: The Untold Story' early reviews: Praise for Sushant Singh Rajput

MS Dhoni: The Untold Story has had one of the widest ever openings for a Hindi film: 4,500 screens across India. To put that into perspective, even Sultan and Kabali only had 4,000 screens each. [caption id=“attachment_3027712” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Sushant Singh Rajput in ‘Ms Dhoni: The Untold Story’[/caption] Bringing together, as it does, India’s two greatest loves — Bollywood and cricket — it is understandable that the buzz around the film has been sky high. Sushant Singh Rajput has taken on the role of portraying India’s Captain Cool, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, in this biopic that is directed by Neeraj Pandey and comes from the Fox Star Studios’ stable. As it opened in theatres on Friday morning (30 September), positive reactions for the film have been flowing in from viewers and reviewers. Here’s a sample of first impressions: The Indian Express noted, “A conservative father (Anupam Kher) wants Dhoni to settle for what is easily achievable, he wants to soar. His friends are in awe of his talent and take pride in his reflected glory. A sister (Bhumika Chawla) who understands where her brother wants to be. And then there is Dhoni himself, played by Sushant Singh Rajput in the film. The actor has been at pains to explain the lengths to which he went to understand Dhoni and the hard work pays off. Their resemblance works in film’s favour too.” “A good knock,” the Express concludes. Hindustan Times looks beyond the story to give a sense of the film’s ‘feel’. HT reports, “The film has a tone of urgency, like it wants to reach to a conclusion as soon as possible. Here’s a guy who can be restricted, but not stopped. Words such as disappointment and frustration don’t exist in his dictionary. Or, maybe this is his exterior. Underneath he is like any of us.” News 18 is all praise for the film so far as well. Among their impressions of MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, are these observations: “How perfectly the makers have captured the life of a middle class family… Kudos to NeerajPandey for keeping everything so genuine and rooted. The bigger story is of the people who supported Dhoni to become what he is.” Sushant Singh Rajput’s performance is termed “unbeatable”. Firstpost’s contributing editor Anna MM Vetticad  will share her own comprehensive review of the film shortly. In the meantime, read our series on the little known chapters from MS Dhoni’s untold story by sports writer Austin Coutinho. Here’s what Twitterati is saying about the film: