As the most awaited film of the year, MS Dhoni: The Untold Story hit theatres last Friday, the movie has already broken numerous box office records. As fans, we got to a sneak peek into the life and struggles of India’s most successful captain.
As the title suggests, we were informed about a lot of the "untold” aspects of Dhoni’s life. Right from his first love interest, Priyanka Jha to the fact that Dhoni was not the one who created the helicopter shot, there were a few facts which stumped the audience.
Just like any other person, Dhoni too had gone through a fair share of struggles in his life. There were a few moments which were truly heartbreaking and as fans, we were able to empathise with his struggles.
Here are 5 moments from the movie which made us reach for a tissue.
#5 When Priyanka Jha died
The death of a loved one is one of the worst feelings anyone could possible experience. MS Dhoni was involved in a romantic relationship with Priyanka Jha who was a working professional. They met on the flight from Kochi to Vizag during Pakistan’s tour of India in 2005.
After a year of being involved with Priyanka, tragedy struck. M.S Dhoni was returning from the Pakistan tour of 2006 when he learnt about Priyanka’s death. Priyanka had met with a fatal accident while driving her car. Dhoni was on his way back from the airport with his friends when one of them told him about her demise. The scene where we see Dhoni sitting down on the road and crying brought about a lump in our throat as his pain could be felt by all of us.
The fact which made it even worse was that Dhoni wanted to express to Priyanka that he loved her but did not do it because he thought he had a lot of time with her, which he kept pointing out to her when she inquired about her relationship with him
#4 When he asked Sakshi to marry him
A marriage proposal is something which brings about a smile on people’s face, but given the circumstances, the smile was accompanied by a few tears as well.
MS Dhoni met his wife Sakshi Singh Rawat at the Taj Bengal in Kolkata during South Africa’s tour of India in 2008.
It was in the month of February when Sakshi called Dhoni to ask him about Valentine’s day, and he immediately got reminded off an extremely similar conversation which he had with Priyanka in 2006, a few days before her death. When Sakshi asked Dhoni about what gift he wants, he told her he doesn’t believe in valentine’s day.
After putting down the phone, he got back memories of Priyanka and realised that he does not want to lose Sakshi by pushing her away and telling her that there is a lot of time. So, he took a quick decision and called her back and proposed to her over the phone.
#3 When he hit the World Cup winning six.
“And Dhoni finishes off in style. India win the world cup after 28 years,” these words by Ravi Shastri still give us goosebumps and brings a tear to our eyes.
Even though we witnessed this happen in real life in 2011, we could not help but let out a few tears when the same was recreated on the big screen.
Sushant Singh Rajput did an excellent job in portraying the role of India’s most successful captain. The role was done which some aplomb, and he has already garnered a lot of respect by a lot of cricketers, including Dhoni himself for the role in the movie.
The movie starts out with Dhoni going to Gary Kirsten and telling him that he would like to go out to bat before Yuvraj Singh in the World Cup final. The scene is cut as Dhoni walks out to bat.
At the end of the movie, we are brought back to the scene where we see how Dhoni anchored his innings, and along with Gambhir and Yuvraj took India to a historic win.
As we see him hit Kulasekara for a six, we could not help but let out a cheer along with a few tears of joy.
#2 When he got selected for India A team
After a few successful showings in the Ranji Trophy and Coach Behar Trophy, MS Dhoni did not get selected for the U-19 World Cup squad. After that heartbreaking decision, he took it upon himself to work harder and perform better.
He turned his attention to practical matters as well. He moved to Kharagpur, West Bengal where he was offered a job in the Railways as a ticket collector and a spot in the divisional Railways cricket team.
In the 2002-03 season, he was playing for the divisional team of Railways, as well as for the East Zone, Bihar. He also played for Durga Sporting, a tennis-ball cricket club where he became popular for his hard hitting and huge sixes.
He was not able to balance his job at the railways and his life on the field and was feeling quite depressed as he spoke to Animesh Kumar Ganguly, who was his boss. Ganguly told him to treat the problems in his life as bouncers and to duck them.
Dhoni could not handle the pressure anymore and took a really hard decision to quit the railways. By quitting, he was able to put all his attention to cricket and the results were evident when he finally got selected for the India A team to tour Kenya for a triangular series.
He was playing badminton when his friends came jumping in to tell him that he got selected. The humble man that Dhoni is, he did not show much emotion and continued to play badminton and told his friends that he would meet them later.
The struggle he went through, difficult decisions made by him along with the hard work was something that brought about a lump in our throat while watching the movie.
#1 When he decided to quit railways and focus on cricket
After joining the railways as a ticket collector, MS Dhoni was finding it extremely hard to balance his work life with his cricket life. Due to this, he was issued with a show-cause notice for being irregular in showing up for duty in the railways. It had come to a point where his well wisher Animesh Kumar Ganguly could not help him either.
Dhoni was sitting on Platform no. 8 of Kharagpur railway station thinking about his life and wondering if he would ever become a big cricketer. The struggle he was going through was shown through his emotions which were displayed.
While sitting on the platform, he sees an empty train approach and doors open.
It was that moment when he got a premonition of sorts as he heard thousands of people chant “Dhoni, Dhoni, Dhoni.” He imagined himself walking out on the cricket ground and becoming a successful cricketer.
We then see Dhoni jump on the train and bid goodbye to his job at the railways. It was a quick decision which turned out to be a life-changing one for Dhoni.
Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download CricRocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more! 🚀☄️
