An incredible filmmaker, a trendsetter like Raj Kumar Hirani shakes hand with an amazing actor like Ranbir Kapoor who is fearless and is ready for any experiment to portray the real life story of a star like Sanjay Dutt whose charisma has been in race with controversies. Son of a respected kind soul - Sunil Dutt, the actor who later turned into a politician with a heart of gold.

Bollywood films seldom manage to leave an everlasting impact on their viewers but I would be hugely scorned if I count the Ranbir Kapoor starrer 'Sanju' in the list. 'Sanju' is primarily based on Bollywood's most controversial actor Sanjay Dutt's journey but the film holds so much more than that.

Bolega to, faad diya bhidu! Rajkumar Hirani has written, directed and edited the film Sanju, based on real life actor and friend Sanjay Dutt and has pulled no punches in his treatment. Drugs, sex, AK 56, RDX -- it's all there, make no mistake. It's a reexamination of the life of one of our most controversial film stars and Rajkumar Hirani has made every episode seem as real as it could get.

'Sex-pear', as in Shakespeare, is not just a broad, funny reference running through Sanju. There's something Shakespearean about the film itself, abundantly underlined in the film with its drama, theatrics and rough humour and broad farce. The characters, situations, gags and emotions feel unusually heightened, and the performances are acutely crafted than off the cuff.

To expect objectivity in a biography that's been commissioned by its very subject is like ordering vegetable biryani and complaining that you can't find any meat in it. Sanjay Dutt's fascinating life story makes for a compelling, emotional film, but Sanju, directed by Rajkumar Hirani, doesn't shy away from the fact that it's a one-sided, practically first-person defense of the actor's many transgressions.

Vinod Chopra Films and Rajkumar Hirani Films' Sanju (UA) is a biopic on Sanjay Dutt. It deals with two major aspects of his colourful and rollercoaster ride-like life: one, dealing with his drug addiction before he became a popular film star, and the other, dealing with his brush with law for possession of an AK-56 rifle.

A regular desi movie buff's romance with Raju Hirani started with the incredibly enjoyable Munnabhai MBBS which famously resurrected the nearly dwindling career of its leading man - Sanjay Dutt. Sleepwalking through most of 90s' passable films, Dutt's affable bad-boy act resonated with his teeming millions of fans, who loved him for those exact reasons - a movie star version of Robinhood.

The best thing about director Rajkumar Hirani is that no matter how intense is his story, his storytelling is so humorous that one can easily enjoy it. Since he tried his hand on a biopic for the first time in his career, he definitely takes his creative liberty in telling the real story of controversial star Sanjay Dutt played by immensely talented Ranbir Kapoor.

Years before Bollywood superstar Salman Khan became infamous following his legal tussles, Sanjay Dutt was the unofficial 'Bad Boy' of Bollywood and naturally, it was expected that a film based on his life would be an explosive tale. Hence, when Rajkumar Hirani decided to team up with Ranbir Kapoor for Sanju, I was quite curious to see what these two bring to the table and believe me, I wasn't disappointed.

The opening credits for Rajkumar Hirani's Sanjay Dutt biopic Sanju advise viewer discretion, since some scenes are likely to be distressing. It isn't clear whether the director is also referring to the sections that whitewash the Hindi movie star and entirely shift the blame for his transgressions to external factors.

In Sanju, we get the story of one of Bollywood's eternal bad boys, Sanjay Dutt. Well, some of it, at any rate. From what we know of Dutt's story, pieced together from lurid detail after lurid detail via gossip rags, news reports and biographies, it has been infinitely more surreal and bizarre than anything anyone could imagine.

Sanju: M-A-S-T-E-R-P-I-E-C-E. Powerful... Engaging... Emotional... Compelling... Rajkumar Hirani proves, yet again, he's a master storyteller... This one will be a MONSTROUS HIT.

Exasperated with the constant media badgering that he is subjected to, the real-life protagonist in Sanjudecides the only way he can hope to shed the tag of a 'terrorist' is by narrating his side of the story to a fictional biographer (Anushka Sharma). The latter isn't too keen to take up the offer. The hero's wife, Maanyata (Dia Mirza), steps in and throws her a bait: bad choices make good stories.

Baba: Black Sheep? The question mark is pertinent. Perhaps, the very reason for indulging in this biopic on Sanjay Dutt's life was to convey the drastic conclusions the media jumped at - leaning on the very conjunction that allows the liberty to doubt. After all, films have the potential to shape opinion and alter perspectives. That Khalnayak's release coincided with the time Dutt was arrested for possession of illegal weapons may be mere coincidence.

Sanjay Dutt's life is an open book, which mostly comprise of dark chapters. A Bollywood actor, who lost his mother three days before the screening of his first film, was a drug addict and in legal soup for half of his life- all these elements make for a interesting Bollywood drama. Rajkummar Hirani's fifth venture, Sanju starring Ranbir Kapoor is dark yet light. Well, that's the magic of Hirani's filmmaking.

Superstar son, drug addict, TADA convict, superstar himself; the narrative explores the life and times of Sanjay Dutt. The story attempts to be an autobiographical account (for the most part) of a rich, weak boy who chastened to become a sober, strong man courtesy the tough hand that destiny dealt him with. This film shows how Sanju was supported ably on that arduous journey by his actor-politician-father, Sunil Dutt.

Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) and Baba (Sanjay Dutt) are not that different if you think about it. Both of them spent time in jail; if Bapu did Gandhigiri in real life, Baba taught Gandhigiri on screen... you get the drift. Of course, the comparisons are complete hogwash. "Pehle hi chapter mein Gandhi bana diya hai, toh end tak toh bhagwan bana dega," Sanjay Dutt (Ranbir Kapoor) mocks a biographer who attempts to capture his life by drawing parallels with Mahatma Gandhi.

As everyone by now know Sanju revolves around the roller coaster emotional ride of a Bollywood star - Sanjay Dutt. It starts with Sanjay Dutt aka Sanju (Ranbir Kapoor) being out on Parole from his custody for illegally possessing arms at his house. His wife Maanayata Dutt (Dia Mirza) contacts Winnie (Anushka Sharma), a renowned biographer to pen a book on his life. The family wanted to bring out the real & clean image of Sanju in-front of the world.

There is a lot that is common between Sanjay Dutt and Ranbir Kapoor. Like Sanju, RK too is a recluse and not the media's favourite blue eyed boy. He too, like Dutt, has had his fair share of public breakups and columns written on how his career is at the risk of going down a rabbit hole after a series of flops. So it doesn't come as a surprise that RK agreed to play Dutt in this biopic.

Biopics are quite in vogue in Bollywood and in recent times, many of them have even tasted massive commercial success. But often, these biopics are criticized as they become quite hagiographic and tend to glorify the person in question. In such a scenario, blockbuster director Rajkumar Hirani's SANJU promises to be different and shows the highs as well as lows and dark periods of actor Sanjay Dutt.

Sanju explores the two big stories of movie star Sanjay Dutt's dramatic and controversial life. Sanju (Ranbir Kapoor) recalls two crucial chapters from his own life as writer Winnie (Anushka Sharma) prepares to write his biography. He gives a lowdown on his tryst with drugs and then his experiences in the Arms Case and the 1993 Mumbai blasts.

Sanjay Dutt's life, embattled and controversial, is unlike anything we have seen in a Rajkumar Hirani film before. Sanju, therefore, was not expected to be your usual Hirani film, full of colour and life. It was a dark subject, with various shades of grey, and that is how Hirani and Sanju's Sanjay Dutt, Ranbir Kapoor, deal with it. Instead of smoothening the edges of a life lived dangerously, they bring a light touch to the treatment.