Before Kangana Ranaut as Mrs Indira Gandhi, the role was to be done by many other actresses
Before Kangana Ranaut as Mrs Indira Gandhi, the role was to be done by many other actresses
When Kangana Ranaut’s first look as Mrs Indira Gandhi in her proposed project on the Emergency entitled, you guessed it, Emergency came out, I sent her a message saying she looks more like Mrs Gandhi than Mrs Gandhi herself.
Kangana cracked up with laughter. That’s what I would like to see in a film on the mighty Mrs Gandhi. I am sick and tired of seeing our politicians on screen as humourless automatons. I know, politicians have to be politically correct. At least on the screen. They have no choice! But why the ceaseless solemnity? Ben Kingsley played Mahatma Gandhi with such twinkle-eyed warmth. Ditto Naseeruddin Shah who according to me made a better Mahatma than Kingsley in Kamal Haasan’s Hey Ram.
Recently, there was a spate of Mrs Gandhi's on screen played by varied actresses who did their best impersonations of the lady. The most talked about was Lara Dutta in a Bell Bottom. Everyone went gaga over her ‘performance’ when the prosthetics did all the performing. In this country, we often mistake good makeup for a competent performance.
I remember many years ago Manisha Koirala was to play Indira Gandhi The project was launched on the occasion of the 85th birth anniversary of Indira Gandhi. Titled Indira Gandhi: A Tryst With Destiny, the film was to be produced by Nitin Keni and directed by N Chandra. Scriptwriter Kamleshwar, who wrote the script for Aandhi (also based on Mrs Gandhi, hence the rhyming title) conceptualised the project for which Hridaynath Mangeshkar was to score the music.
The film was meant to be a biographical sketch of Indira Gandhi. With a strong emphasis on objectivity. Unlike Bhagat Singh, Subhash Chandra Bose and other pre-independence leaders, Indira Gandhi is a contemporary figure and evokes very strong feelings. The film was going to concentrate not only on the political career of Indira but also on her personal life. Manisha Koirala was so excited about playing the iconic Mrs G that she even decided to get the shape of her nose altered. However, the project, like many proposed biopics on Mrs Gandhi before and after, was aborted.
The late filmmaker Krishna Shah (of Shalimar “fame”) also approached Madhuri Dixit to play Mrs Gandhi. He met Madhuri in her home in Colorado in 2009 and showed her the vast research that he had done. Nothing happened thereafter.
Now there is Vidya Balan who is supposedly playing Mrs Gandhi in a web series to be produced by Vidya’s husband Siddharth Roy Kapur; it is to be based on well-known television journalist Sagarika Ghosh’s critically acclaimed book on Mrs Gandhi.
Three years after the announcement, not a leaf has stirred from the Kapur orchard. And I am glad. I would rather see Kangana Ranaut as Mrs Gandhi than Vidya Balan. Balan’s performing skills have now become predictably smooth and self-congratulatory. Every move is meant to impress. I would rather have Kangana’s wild unpredictable personality for Mrs Gandhi. No one knew how Mrs Gandhi thought. No one knows how Kangana thinks.
As for Anupam Kher as Jayaprakash Narayan, my heart reaches out to Shatrughan Sinha who had his heart set on the role. The world has moved on. Alliances and allegiances have changed. Yesterday’s Manmohan Singh is today’s Jayaprakash Narayan on screen.
Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.
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