Emergency

Women in politics is a subject hardly explored in cinema, and this was a golden chance to tell that story. However, what we get is a woman, constantly twitching, chewing her lips with darting eyes and reluctance written all over her face. It almost looks like Kangana Ranaut was parodying the prime minister in the biopic. We also never get to know how she developed this passionate love for politics, or even why ‘India is Indira, Indira is India’ became a loud slogan. However, as a director she managed to keep the other actors from mimicking the leaders they were playing. While Anupam Kher and Satish Kaushik shine as Jayaprakash Narayan and LK Advani, respectively, Shreyas Talpade’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee was quite a disappointment.

Emergency shatters the fondly held public image of Indira Gandhi as a strong, beneficial leader. In this regard, the movie is far more assertive than previous explorations. But Ranaut’s pantomime portrayal of Indira Gandhi, the soap operatics over Sanjay and the uneven pacing turn much of the 148-minute movie into a slog. It is only when Indira is down in the dumps that she finally grows up. The latter portions, in which Indira reconnects with the citizenry, restores some balance to the plot. Indira might have been fancifully equated with India, but this movie’s Indira is always Kangana. The remarkable prosthetics by David Malinowski create a strong physical resemblance between actor and subject. But Ranaut’s eyes, voice and accent give her away. She cannot summon up Indira Gandhi’s sheer authority, her sophistication, the fierce canniness she displayed in interviews.

The performances are so superficial that they don't warrant a discussion of nuance, or the lack thereof. Kangana Ranaut's decline as an actor feels complete. In the age of social media, most of us have watched archival footage of Mrs Gandhi's interviews and speeches. The resolute, decisive eyes and confident demeanor are glaringly absent in Ranaut's portrayal. Instead, her character is almost always teary-eyed and lacking in confidence. It is not always necessary to burst into tears to convey that a character is grappling with deep internal struggle. Ranaut's attempt at voice modulation to sound like Mrs Gandhi falls completely flat, much like Anupam Kher's portrayal of Dr Manmohan Singh in The Accidental Prime Minister. Her gestures often appear impulsive or abrupt, further detracting from the authenticity of the role.