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Join UsSanjay Dutt Biopic having Ranbir Kapoor as Baba is undoubtedly one of the most awaited movies of this year. But it falls in a genre which really has not been fully polished by our industry – biopics. The first major ingredient of making a biopic in Bollywood is unnecessary glorification.
One of the earliest biopics that’s still fresh in my mind is a Marathi film titled as Sant Tukaram. It was based on the life of Tukaram, a prominent Varkari saint and spiritual poet of the Bhakti movement in India.
Watched it as a child and it was so genuine that for few years I thought its lead actor Vishnupant Pagnis is the real Saint Tukaram.
Then came in Richard Attenborough, an English filmmaker, who made a film on the father of India – Mahatma Gandhi which also got him two Oscars for Best Film & Best Director. Touted as one of the most exhaustively thorough biopics; though this was no Bollywood it was an alarm for those who thought movie making is just a work of fiction.
Movies like Sardar, Bandit Queen, Netaji Shubhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero, Mangal Pandey: The Rising and The Legend Of Bhagat Singh started a never-ending trend in Bollywood. Little did we know it will all boil down to lionize the subject in future. Last year Hollywood gave us two amazing movies in I, Tonya and The Disaster Artist.
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I, Tonya is a black comedy based on the life of a figure skater Tonya Harding beautifully explored the dark shades of her life. Coming to Bollywood, Neeraj Pandey’s M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story was totally opposite of what its titled suggested because nothing in it was untold. I am not saying we don’t enjoy biopics, I am just saying why can’t Bollywood explore every area of a person’s life on whom the film has been made.
Be it Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Neerja, PadMan, Mary Kom or Azhar; either the makers modify incidents to serve it on an entertaining platter or they choose to just show the sugary side of the subject’s life. With Ranbir Kapoor’s Dutt Biopic coming in, there are many questions already popping up in everyone’s mind.
Will the master-storyteller Rajkumar Hirani choose to explore the dark areas of Sanjay Dutt’s life? Will this be the biopic Bollywood needs? Ranbir Kapoor, undoubtedly will nail the title role but will he get the ‘politically-incorrect’ justified situations to showcase his sky-high talent? Time will tell and till then we can just wait and hope to get one unfiltered pure biopic from Bollywood.
