By leaps and bounds, if India ever had a controversial figurehead, it was only one name. Indira Gandhi. The woman, also responsible for the biggest blot on free India’s history—the Emergency that went on from mid-1975 to late March in 1977—was an enigma who cared for her country and yet cared more for herself.
Kangana Ranaut, now a BJP MP and always a BJP supporter, decides to helm as well as act in Emergency, an eye-catching title across all generations of viewers. She actually presents a biopic of India’s third prime minister that does not end when Indira called off that draconian chapter. Basing her film on her character from the time she was a child, and her suffering psychologically from aunt Vijayalakshmi’s overbearing decisions, it ends when the prime minister was shot by her own security guards after “Operation Blue Star”, which Indira had ordered after Sikh fundamentalism had raised its head in the early 1980s.
It is pleasantly surprising, then, that Kangana looks at the lady prime minister in a very mature, balanced and compassionate way, though as a political ideology, Indira’s leanings were 180 degrees opposite. The tyrant that she became is shown only for the period that she was one, and even that power-hungry phase was shown to be interrupted by bouts of conscience.
Kangana does skim over, of course, the controversial role Indira is said to have had in Lal Bahadur Shastri’s death, which was ‘exposed’ in another authentically researched feature film, The Tashkent Files (2019). A token mention of the ban on Kishore Kumar is done, but the inglorious chapter of her trying to gag The Indian Express is left out.
The film does have an episodic structure, but it does not seem jerky, simply because the script is seamless and smarter than in movies like Main Atal Hoon, Sam Bahaduror Swatantrya Veer Savarkar and the editing (Rameshwar S. Bhagat) is expertly done.
As a director, Kangana towers over her previous (and no less contentious!) directorial venture, Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, which she co-directed with Krish Jagarlamudi. She makes excellent use of cinematic representations of situationally-apt songs (as in Singhasan khaali karo) and also the device where Indira sees her own distorted image in a mirror. There is also the lovely sequence where, as soon as she is out of jail (when she was arrested after she lost the General Elections), she goes and meets Jayaprakash Narayan, the fountainhead of the movement against her. And JP (as he was known) simply addresses her as ‘gudiya’ (doll), which is how he would call her when she was a child.
The vulnerability that was at the core of her hard exterior also comes in as a paradox when we see her supporting the misdeeds of her errant son, Sanjay Gandhi, when he went on to perpetrate all his excesses against the people. Like forced sterilization, simply because a friend casually mentioned that Indians breed like flies!
Violence was often a by-product of Indira’s later life, but Kangana eschews the gorier aspects when she does not allow unpleasant visuals to be seen at any point in the movie. Her sense of tight scripting (undoubtedly honed by S.S. Rajamouli’s father, V. Vijayendra Prasad, who is acknowledged for his guidance) and the excellent crafting of frames and images has grown by leaps and bounds since her debut. If she develops this standard of excellence and passion in content and form, she will definitely become comparable to our notable actor-directors from the past.
Like a faithful biographer, Kangana also shows that it was under Indira’s tenure that India’s first nuclear test was done in 1984, and that had she not been so tough and tactical at a very young age, we would have lost Assam, after losing the 1962 war with China, to that country! But I for one, would love to know if her sequence with Atal Bihari Vajpayee (as an opposition party member) wherein she says that she sees him as a future prime minister was for real!
As the actor playing Indira, Kangana amazes. Including her physical getup and intonations, she is note-perfect. Anupam Kher as JP is remarkable, as is Darshan Pandya as R.K. Chawla, her loyal personal secretary. Satish Kaushik is effective as Jagjivan Ram, the supporter-turned-opponent. Shreyas Talpade as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Milind Soman as Field Marshal Sam Mankeshaw impress. Vishak Nair as Sanjay Gandhi goes over-the-top. But Mahima Chaudhari is ho-hum as Pupul Jayakar, Indira’s long-standing friend and elder.
Ritesh Shah has shown his prolific versatility often, but this time he still delivers one of his finest scripts (like his Maidaan and Dahaad). Cinematographer Tetsuo Nagata’s work is magnificent, as is Sanchit Balhara-Ankit Balahar’s background score. G.V. Prakash’s songs impress, so do Manoj Muntashir Shukla’s lyrics, and among them, Singhasan khaali karo again stands out. Lyrically and musically, Arko’s solo composition, Ae meri jaan hits the right notes, lyrically, musically and audiovisually. High marks are also due for Wasiq Khan’s and Rakesh Yadav’s production design, the superb VFX and DI (Redefine, Future Works Media, White Apple Studio and Prime Focus) and the action (Sunil Burman Rodrigues and Nick Powell).
This biopic, concise at 2.28 hours, is a superb watch indeed.
Rating: ****
Manikarnika Films’ & Zee Studios’ Emergency Produced by: Kangana Ranaut, Renu Pitti & Umesh KR Bansal Directed by: Kangana Ranaut Written by: Kangana Ranaut, Ritesh Shah & Tanvi Kesari Pasumarthy Music: G.V. Prakash & Arko Starring: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Mahima Chaudhari, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Sharad Pandya, Vishak Nair, Avijit Dutt, Satish Kaushik, Sanjay M. Gurbaxani, Rishi Kaushik, Anopp Puri, Alexander Scott Young & others
(Used with permission)
