Emergency movie review: Kangana Ranaut's film is a pretty solid biopic of Indira Gandhi

Emergency

Film: Emergency
U/A: Drama
Dir: Kangana Ranaut
Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher
Rating: 3 stars

Emergency exit - that's the door, I thought, I'd be eyeing in the theatre, sooner or later, in this film. Pardon that I prejudge. But then, you mostly get to hear/read about propaganda pictures; I've to watch them (for a living).

No knock on the genre. To each their own. Given the purpose is usually separate from entertainment - political propaganda pix can poke a hole in your head.

They're often shoddily shot, with near spoofs for scripts. Consider the likes of Indu Sarkar (2017) or The Accidental Prime Minister (2019).

There are some elements of that, over a few minutes here and there, in this movie too.

For instance, Atal Bihari Vajpayee talking himself up as the future Prime Minister of India, while thumping the desk a little later, that turns into a song he sings in parliament, which then spreads to General Manekshaw lip-syncing, similarly, in another room!

This is only matched by the fully bombast, marching entry of Gen Manekshaw (Milind Soman) himself.

More of such was my honest-to-god expectation from Emergency, directed by Kangana Ranaut, starring Ranaut, a BJP politician, playing Indira Gandhi, the late queen of Congress (I), the rival political party, itself once named after her!

In that sense, Emergency didn't meet my expectations at all. Of course, I mean that as much as a compliment as a pleasant surprise! It's a pretty solid biopic of Indira Gandhi - packed with historical events, and human empathy.

Right from the opening scenes of li'l Ms Gandhi, lost in the Nehru household, Allahabad's Anand Bhawan, while her weak mother, Kamala, is sidelined; suffering from tuberculosis.

Down to Gandhi as India's first woman PM, assassinated by her own gunmen, inside 1, Safdarjung Road, New Delhi. Pupul Jayakar is Gandhi's friend/confidante through it all. It's great to see actor Mahima Chaudhary back on screen with that role!

You could piercingly fact-check a lot of what's there in this pic, and there's plenty - to figure if they fall squarely into the bracket of creative liberty.

I will leave that vetting to more qualified historians. It's another matter, if this movie merits a response.

An obvious glitch is the protagonist claiming more than once, "Indira is India; India is Indira!" As if she coined it herself. That's actually a line from DK Barooah, the Congress president then.

That said, the filmmakers may be looking for a commercial hit. By no means is Emergency a hit-job.

Ranaut, in fact, plays the lead role with sufficient care/compassion. Once you get used to her squeaky voice and constant twitching of the lower-lip, that is. It borders on mimicry, initially. But, certainly, grows on you, eventually.

A better template to follow might be Shreyas Talpade as Vajpayee - he plays it straight, without burdening himself with needless mannerisms. As do Satish Kaushik for Jagjivan Ram, or Anupam Kher as Jayaprakash Narayan.

Ranaut already has the advantage of super-fine prosthetic make-up (by Dennis Malinowski). The look suits her, totally - to play a quiet, dignified lady, known for her prime-ministerial poise. Ranaut's taken a leap of faith, and seen it through. That's no mean achievement, already.

The fact that your attention doesn't waver from the screen is hugely to the credit of Ritesh Shah (Pink, Raid, Sardar Udham), who's scripted this piece of contemporary history for a mass audience.

We switch from one important event to another - 1962 Indo-China war, 1971 Indo-Pak war, local unrest and the creation of Bangladesh, Shimla Agreement, Operation Blue Star… Over all of the above, it's almost baffling to me that the film's titled Emergency.

Which, as an event in India's history, indeed Gandhi's career, in 1975, lasted 21 months. It felt to me that it occurs in the film for no longer than 20-odd minutes.

Emergency being euphemism for dictatorship, what else? That dictator was, by all accounts, the PM's son, Sanjay Gandhi (Vishak Nair).

You could almost liken this character to Saddam's son Uday Hussein, in Iraq, from the movie, Devil's Double (2011)! Except, Gandhi Jr is not excessively lampooned either.

PM Gandhi was also cornered then by the Allahabad High Court judge, one Jaganmohan Sinha, who barred her from parliament for six frickin' years!

This was over electoral malpractices. If I recall right, it had to do with an official from the PM secretariat (Yashpal Kapoor) found to have been employed as an election agent in Gandhi's constituency, Rae Bareilly.

The film's made it about Gandhi using the Air Force plane during campaign. That the HC judge could look the PM in the eye says much about India's democracy.

What followed with the Emergency, as you watch in this film, and I quote, is "news management", i.e. manipulation, subservience and muzzling of the press.

There was "fear created among people from speaking out; their tongues locked, hence." A ‘bulldozer government' went about destroying ordinary people's homes. Even Article 21, that is right to life, was abrogated.

This happened under the watch of Indian public. This picture is a warning sign for India then, and chiefly the reason I liked this film.

I wasn't born during Emergency. I think the film argues that we must guard against similarly losing our rights/privileges as citizens to a despot. This can become the norm under any leader. The one in this picture, as we witness, is a true patriot as well.