Dhawan (56 off 34 balls) dominated the 92-run opening stand with Tendulkar (72 off 52 balls) to lay the foundation for a successful chase and the Mumbai Indian skipper lingered nearly till the end as the home side cruised to 181 for five in 19 overs for their fourth victory in five matches.
Earlier put into bat, Chennai Super Kings rode on the unbeaten 142-run stand between Suresh Raina (83) and Subramaniam Badrinath (55) to post a competitive 180 for two which in the end proved inadequate.
With Dhawan setting alight the Brabourne Stadium with his fifth IPL fifty, Mumbai Indians' chase got off to a flier as boundaries came thick and fast.
Tendulkar was not at his fluent best early on but Dhawan's clean hitting glossed over even that as the home side cruised along.
Dhawan hit Joginder Sharma for three fours in his first over and smote L Balaji for back-to-back sixes to make his intention clear.
A massive six off Shadab Jakati brought up his fifth IPL fifty but the left-arm spinner settled score in the same over when Raina pouched Dhawan's miscued shot.
Muttiah Muralitharan did not allow Saurabh Tiwary (2) to bloom, while Joginder castled R Satish (5) but Dhoni dropped Tendulkar off Jakati when the batsman was on 23 and the batting great did not look back since then.
Desperate for a breakthrough, Dhoni pressed Thissara Perera in service but the Sri Lankan bled 19 runs in his maiden over and the match was in Mumbai Indians' pocket by then.
Earlier, the 142-run unbeaten partnership between Raina and Badrinath lifted the Super Kings from 38 for two to 180 without losing any more wickets.
Raina was clearly the aggressor while Badrinath was the accumulator as the duo combined to give the visiting team a chance to end their two-match losing streak.
Raina struck three sixes and seven fours in his superbly paced 52-ball innings while Badrinath, slow to begin with, opened out later to strike six fours in 45 balls.
For Mumbai, Harbhajan Singh and Ryan McLaren emerged as the pick of the bowlers, with 1 for 25 and 1 for 23 respectively but Zaheer Khan, Dwayne Bravo and Lasith Malinga were very expensive, each conceding over 40 runs each without success.
The match began on a good note for the home team who won the toss and decided to field first.
Matthew Hayden (20) briefly threatened to take the match away with a flurry of boundaries in the second over but was dismissed by an inspiring piece of captaincy by Sachin Tendulkar.
Kept quiet in the first over by Ryan McLaren, Hayden attacked Zaheer Khan and carted the left arm bowler for four successive boundaries in the second over.
Zaheer was taken off the firing line for the third over by Tendulkar and spin trump card Harbhajan was brought into the attack.
The move paid dividends immediately when the off-spinner trapped the powerful Aussie leg before with his second ball.
Hayden made 20 off 12 balls and had just replaced his regular bat with his Mongoose blade to face the slow bowler.
McLaren, who was bowling superbly at the other end hardly gave anything away barring a flicked four to Hayden, struck another blow by dismissing Parthiv Patel for eight.
The diminutive left-handed batsman, trying to make room and hit to the off, edged the ball into his stumps and the Super Kings slumped to 38 for two after five overs.
Raina looked comfortable in the middle and worked a short ball from Bravo to the third man fence and then swung Harbhajan to the long leg boundary for fours.
Raina hooked Zaheer and pulled Malinga for sixes in successive overs while Badrinath also swung the latter as the visitors added 44 runs in the last five overs.
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