Indu Sarkar (2017)

Indu Sarkar: Directed by Madhur Bhandarkar. With Kirti Kulhari, Tota Roy Chowdhury, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Ankur Vikal. Indu Sarkar is set during the emergency period between 1975 to 1977 declared by Prime Minister Indra Gandhi.

“One of the darkest periods of the country – the 1975 emergency – is the milieu for this political flick from Madhur Bhandarkar. Though the film falls short of expectations and hype garnered pre-release, there are some very good performances (in spite of a wasted presence of Anupam Kher) and of course the political observations on the infamous human rights violations and censorship carried out by the power-hungry Gandhi dynasty. That said, Neil Nithin Mukesh stands out exceptionally compared to the titular Indu Sarkar in his brilliantly etched out persona of Former MP Sanjay Gandhi, the ruthless executioner of ridiculous emergency decrees by his mummy in the 19 months of emergency! Incidents like the forced sterilization campaign of u0026#39;76, Turkman gate demolition and rioting in Delhi, Former PM IK Gujralu0026#39;s fallout with Sanjay Gandhi over the formers bid to control All India Radio and the ban on Kishore Kumar songs in radio (over his refusal to perform on one of congress rallies in Mumbai) find their way into the major unfolding of events, but still the film loses its plot halfway ending up into an average screenplay of sorts – rather focusing on the lead Indu Sarkaru0026#39;s transformation from a meek stammering housewife to an activist during emergency period against the government, fuelled by her first hand experience during the Turkman gate incident. The relevance of such movies might be the screen time worth it imparts to the new age audience on the ugly face of dynasty politics, shrewdly criticized all over the flick with its take on Indira Gandhiu0026#39;s 20 point program or the mass arrest without trial of journalists, RSS members and communist activists in a massive crackdown on civil liberties and political opposition in the name of internal security. It is paradoxical to the say the least that the same party is trying to put up a pseudo-democratic front and playing the caste and religion trump card at the slightest pretext even today, projecting the same family member decade after decade as their leader (this in spite of the numerous other eligible personalities to take up the same role, but alas not from the same family) It is no wonder that there was a stiff opposition from Congress circles in some places ahead of the movies screening , given the kind of incidents it reminds the people of. All said and done, Indu Sarkar is definitely an interesting watch for those interested in politics , partly because of the timeline of events it traces to the ultimate fall of Gandhi dynasty in 1977 and the rise of Janata party which ultimately paved the way for non congress parties to come in power !”