Dhoni Review (A Captain’s Knock!)

Vinay, a 12 year old is a really good guitarist who wants to form a band of his own and make it big. 10 years later, he ends up joining a BPO after getting a BE degree. Sunil, a 16 year old athlete who wants to make a mark in the Olympics ends up joining his dad in his leather exports business. Heard such stories before? Know why these children never became what they really wanted to be? In most cases the answer would be –Parents. Parents who decide to take the child’s future plans in their hands and take it upon themselves to make all the decisions for them. Trying to force their dreams on the children only to shatter whatever aspirations the kids might have had. This is the problem one of the nation’s best actors, Prakash Raj has decided to touch upon in ‘Dhoni’, his debut venture.

Karthick (Akash), a 9th grader is the son of Subramanium (Prakash Raj), a clerk in a Government office. Subramanium supplements his meagre income by doing a few odd jobs and his wife’s death makes him the sole guardian for his children. Karthick is an aspiring cricketer and he is extremely passionate about the game but his dipping marks make his father pull him out of cricket coaching. Like most parents he believes academics should be any child’s top priority. Nirmala (Radhika Apte) is a very caring and helpful neighbour.

Karthick’s poor academic record results in the school’s ‘we-want-100%-results’ principal to warn Subramanium that if his son continued to perform this badly he would have to be detained. An angry Subramanium takes extreme measures which involve tuitions at even ungodly hours. Meanwhile he finds out a shocking secret about Nirmala. The movie focuses on many issues like Subramanium’s desire to see his son score well, Karthick’s dream to play the game he loves, Nirmala’s relationship with the family and need for change in the Indian Education system.

When a Director acts in his own movie, it’s usually too much pressure to handle. But, Prakash Raj shows us how it is done with acting so remarkable that even you would want to reach out to help this miserable man whose predicament is common to most people who belong to the middle class. As a Director, he skilfully veers us through a magnificent array of emotions. Akash, Nazar and Radhika have done a good job too. The movie focuses on how schools pay far too much attention to results forgetting the actual cause for schooling itself- knowledge. The Director’s characterisation of almost all the characters in the movie makes us smile showing us that there are a lot of people left in the world who are ready to help us without expecting anything in return.

A major plus in the movie has to be ‘Isaignani’ Ilayaraja’s soothing music which suits the movie perfectly even though the BGM is not all that impressive. The songs have been perfectly placed and seem almost tailor made for the situations. K.V.Guhan’s camera work and Kishore Te’s editing makes the movie a visual treat. But what makes the movie as appealing as it is are the dialogues penned by T.J.Jnanavel and Mahesh Raja who have managed to give almost every line a tweak that makes it funny, witty and satirical alternatively . Many movies releasing nowadays deal with similar messages but the question remains whether they are really causing some sort of change in society. Let’s just hope that not all parents conclude that-‘These things will happen only in movies’. Even though the end might border on exaggeration and is quite unnecessary, the movie is a must-watch for everyone.

Overall, Dhoni is a film everyone will enjoy but it’s also a film that’ll bring a tear or two to your eyes. Dhoni! Go for it! He’s never going to get out!