‘Indira is Kangana, and Kangana is Indira,’ is something that would be a more apt line for this well-made biography of the late prime minister of India, which often mentions ‘Indira is India and India is Indira.’ Directed and Co-Produced by Actor Kangana Ranaut, Emergency is a film depicting the life and times of Indira Gandhi from a political perspective but narrated in almost an apolitical manner barely highlights the times of emergency deployed by the ex-prime minister in 1975. The film’s name could have been ‘Indira’ instead of ‘Emergency,’ which seems to be a pretty misnomer since the content around emergency only appears before intermission and carries forward post intermission just a little bit.
Emergency is a film with an impressive cast with Kangana Ranaut (as Indira Gandhi), Anupam Kher (as Jayaprakash Narayan), Shreyas Talpade (as Atal Bihari Vajpayee), Milind Soman (as Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw), Late Satish Kaushik (as Jagjivan Ram), Ashok Chhabra (as Morarji Desai), Vishak Nair (as Sanjay Gandhi), and Mahima Chaudhry (as Pupul Jayakar) among others. Kangana gave a stellar performance and imbibed the character of India Gandhi beyond excellence. Her look and feel certainly complement her acting nuances, emotions, presentation, dialogue delivery, style, courage, and boldness, which make her come across strongly similar to the protagonist of the film. Though sometimes deliberate facial twitches and voice delivery of Kangana may sound a bit artificial, overall, she has played the character very well.
As a Director, Kangana shines too by making the co-actors perform and adapt to their roles perfectly. Milind Soman delivers a strong performance and plays his character with absolute perfection. Shreyas Talpade and Anupam Kher are as natural as they can be seeping fully into their characters, while Vishak Nair attempts more to portray eccentricities rather than the normal sides of the character. While the film is based on two novels, most of the script seems to rely upon publicly available information, knowledge, and gossip too sometimes. While it was expected to be a completely one-sided narrative focusing only on the emergency times, it is not. It tries to balance out the ideologies of right, left, and centre and creates a narrative of patriotism and nationalism of the Iron Lady, Mrs. Gandhi.
However, in the name of creative freedom, showing the cursed lady in the mirror as a reflection of Mrs. Gandhi’s remorse for the emergency might have been uncalled for as it doesn’t reflect anything. Kangana makes an impact in many scenes like her meeting with the philosopher J. Krishnamurthi (played by Avijit Ghosh), her interaction with US President Nixon and telling him “You have weaponry, we have courage,” her visit to Belchi village in Bihar riding an Elephant, and reacting to the merciless murder of Bangladesh founder, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, known as Bangabandhu on India’s Independence Day.
Starting at a rapid pace the film moves very fast packing several events, incidents, and characters in the political history of India. The lyrics by Manoj Muntashir Sharma are inspiring especially Ae Meri Jaan Tu Jaan Se Praya He Tu, Ae Mere Desh Meri Aankh Ka Pyara He Tu, while another track Singhasan Khali Karo, is apt with the central theme of the film and makes more impact.
Watch it from an artistic perspective and not the political lens.
