MS Dhoni: The Untold Story is a biopic that promises to give you never-heard-before details about an Indian sporting hero. The untold story of an Indian cricketing legend, under whom the Indian cricket team ascended from being good to great. The film reserves to contrasting halves for its storytelling effort. The first half establishes Dhoni as a character, a person and a boy who dreams big and hits bigger. The second half portrays him as an achiever and a lover. What the movie doesn't do is get intimate. At least not with the cricketing great. Mahendra Singh Dhoni's personal life has been depicted with detail, even his reported shy and aloof nature has been drawn out on the big screen to good effect.

Before I begin batting for this film or praise it to the sky, it's only fair that I share with you my initial apprehension first, which should still hold true for you, regardless of what you read after this. Because a review (whether rave or not) is, inevitably, an outcome of expectations. This is as true for people as for pictures. To begin with, length wise, this movie is 3 hours, 10 minutes-plus. Which is a huge minus, on paper, already. And it is a biopic produced by the very person on whom the film is based on. This means, it is by all means, a hagiography - maybe even bordering on mythology.

MS Dhoni - it's a name every cricket fan in India will cherish now and in the days to come. After all, this man gave India its best wicket-keeper-batsman, and also the most successful captain, who won us the inaugural T20 World Cup as well as the 2011 World Cup. These two moments are something Indian cricket fans will continue to celebrate even after decades, and also revere the man who was the architect of these wins. A possibility of knowing more about this lad from Ranchi who was rumoured to drink buckets of milk on a daily basis is enough to bring crowds in the theatres, as I witnessed today.

Stumped by the fact that it's the A WEDNESDAY, SPECIAL CHABBIS fame Neeraj Pandey behind this divine amalgamation of cinema and cricket with a living legend like Dhoni in the center stage. The expectations are bound to go as high as 'Mahi''s helicopter shots, but BABY the bold and meaningful Neeraj Pandey makes us flabbergasted by playing safe to the gallery where we rarely catch the magic that made Dhoni the MS Dhoni we know.

In skirting the most questionable aspects of cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni's life, in sidestepping all controversies involving him and the BCCI through his reign, and in avoiding any mention of corruption in India's sporting establishment, the film ends up attributing its protagonist's trials almost entirely to fate, personal finances and heartbreak. The result: MS Dhoni is so lacking in energy and verve for the most part, that you have to wonder whether there is no mid-path between over-dramatisation and flatness.

The biopic on India's celebrated skipper, MS Dhoni (played by Sushant Singh Rajput) is the cricketer's ode to his well-wishers, friends and family, who stood by him at all times - in success and failure. Their immense contribution in fulfilling his dream, his faith in himself and ability to battle professional and personal setbacks, forms the story.

April 2, 2011. The Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. It is a day this country of 1.2 billion will remember for years to come, till India lifts another World Cup. Along with the historic win by the Indian cricket team at the ICC World Cup 2011, what India will never forget is the last shot from the limited overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Hitting a six when India is 4-runs away from the target, making it something Dhoni will forever be remembered by.

When India is reeling at 114 for 3 against Sri Lanka in the cricket world cup final of 2011, a man decides to take charge of the situation. It helps that he is also the captain of the team. He silently walks past the crowd, enters the ground and creates history. The cricketer's image of rotating the bat as if he is wielding the sword is etched in our memory. On April 2, 2011, India reaffirms its faith in the hero who was selected into the team through BCCI's tier-two city programme.

Neeraj Pandey is one filmmaker who is known for making pacy thrillers- be it A Wednesday, Special 26 or Baby, the man sure knows how to keep the audience glued to their seats. This is why, when we heard that Pandey is taking a break from thrillers to make a biopic on Mahendra Singh Dhoni, we were quite intrigued. After all, in a country where cricket is a religion, a biopic on the cricket captain is sure to work wonders. But does M.S. Dhoni - The Untold Story hit it out of the park or gets stumped?

In the recent times, Bollywood has witnessed many biopics, which have been made on sports personalities. Testimonies to this are in the form of the BHAAG MILKHA BHAAG (based on the athlete Milkha Singh), PAAN SINGH TOMAR (based on the athlete-turned-dacoit Paan Singh Tomar), MARY KOM (based on boxer Mary Kom) and many more. This week's release M.S. DHONI: THE UNTOLD STORY is a biopic on M.S. Dhoni, one of India's most sucessful and celebrated cricketers.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Today he is a big name that will go down in history for he is the second Indian captain to have achieved the feat of winning the World Cup for Indian Cricket team. The film which is a biopic on his life, traces back his journey from being a Ranchi boy who is strong willed on getting a chance to hold a bat instead of wicket-keeping to becoming one of India's most successful captains ever.

Neeraj Pandey's M S Dhoni - The Untold Story is a highly unusual enterprise. Never before in the history of cinema has a biopic of an active sportsman been mounted with quite this level of patronage from the subject himself. This unabashed puff-job has been bankrolled by Dhoni's long-time confidant and business partner Arun Pandey and personally greenlighted by the cricketer. Objectivity isn't, therefore, the film's strong suit. So what remains untold inevitably puts what is told in the shade.

To create a true, full-blooded biopic, filmmakers need a free-hand: MS Dhoni The Untold Story, which claims to give us Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Uncut, is much more generous with details from his childhood and his days of struggle than from his blazing tenure as star wicketkeeper-batsman-captain of the Indian cricket team. The result, with the exception of a few interesting bits and pieces, is bland and predictable.