Indu Sarkar

I was very excited after watching the promos of Indu Sarkar. Subsequently watching the movie, I felt frustrated. This movie does not explore the fanaticism and the profundity of Emergency, the darkest period in India post-Independence. Madhur Bhandarkar falls in a cliché, showing the protagonist Kirti Kulhari as Indu Sarkar who is a casualty of the Emergency. The movie straight away goes in the mode of a female victim against the government as shown in lots of women oriented potboilers in the past.

Indu Sarkar do start by pouring the annoyances that were the highlights during the emergency like "Nasbandi" . Thereafter, goes to show the democratic suppression by the formerly govt.(No points for guessing that right). But do not explore anything substantial during that period.

OK, we do have Turkman Gate instance, a funny guy who resembles Jagdish Tytler. Chief is exactly a replica of Sanjay Gandhi played by Neil Nitin Mukesh. Nothing more to add to it. Such movies should serve as an information for the generation born after the most darkest era post-Independence. Flick is merely reduced to a below average Hindi movie that has an army of bad guys and people opposing him.

Indu Sarkar created much hype prior release. The then in power Congress opposed the movie mentioning this a propaganda movie and shows Gandhi family in bad light. Even with Hysteria surrounding this flick it still tumbles flat. The resemblance of a few characters in the film is reduced just to narrative which is also a disclaimer towards the start.

Direction, Editing and Cinematography are below average. The biggest let down is the screenplay which do not help Indu Sarkar and the most important the punch and the characters of Emergency are not developed.

I will urge the audience to watch " Hazar Khwaeshein Aisi" which displays the poignancy and the destruction during the competently that Indu Sarkar bombs at.

Madhur Bandharkar is one of the most under rated directors. He does not make great films like Anurag Kashyap or Vishal Bhardwaj however most of his movies have good story, the story will keep you engaged till the end. The best part about his movies is the way he uses the music helps in taking the story forward. Coming to Indu sarkar, it is a good movie about emergency. There are some decent acting performance Altough the ending was need really good but overall it was a good movie. I'll recommend you to watch the movie atleast once.

It's is the best film in my life .which showed me the dirt in the emergency period & the absence of a good philanthropist in govt .

Indu Sarkar review :

Most of us have not witnessed the emergency rule imposed in the mid 70s by then prime minister Indira Gandhi. As a kid born in that infamous era, I had once asked my dad if he faced any hardships during that 21 month period when freedom of speech and basic human rights were curbed. His answer was in the negative...Instead he said the Government machinery was actually efficient during that time and sarkari babus would report to office on time plus trains ran as per schedule. I was amused to hear this fact reiterated as a dialogue in Madhur Bhandarkar's latest film 'Indu Sarkar'.

The title, by the way, doesn't refer to Indira Gandhi and her autocratic Sarkar. It is actually the screen name of Bhandarkar's main lead Kirti Kulhari, a diffident orphan with a stammer, who settles for a cosy marital life with a Government stooge (Tota Roy Chowdhury). Witnessing the horrors of the Turkman gate demolition, Indu takes custody of two kids orphaned in that destruction and it changes her perspective towards life making her rebel against the tyrannical system.

Madhur Bhandarkar has recreated most of the atrocities committed in name of the fascist five point programme spearheaded by Sanjay Gandhi (Neil Nitin Mukesh) referred in the movie only as the 'Chief' by his cronies - obvious caricatures of Jagdish Tytler, Kamal Nath and Rukhsana Sultana (named Farzana here). Right from the forced sterlization of men from 13 to 70 years of age to the banning of Kishore Kumar songs on Doordarshan and All India Radio (the only medium of entertainment in those times) - it's all neatly chronicled here.

What's not - and I was tad disappointed with that - is depiction of the opposition role during those turbulent times. Our protagonist Indu goes and joins a five member fictitious organisation called Himmat India Sanghatan headed by a leader (Anupam Kher in a cameo) with an ideology of non violence ignoring the real life contribution of the RSS and Jayaprakash Narayan's Janata Party which is merely accorded a passing reference.

On the acting front, Madhur has extracted a superlative performance from Kirti Kulhari. No surprises there as the director could make even Bipasha Basu ''act'' in his 'Corporate' (2006). Kirti also gets a court room confrontation scene a la 'Pink' (2016) and nails it to perfection. Tota Roy Chowdhury is impressive as her hubby who owes allegiance to the Gandhi Sarkar only to further his career. He pays the price for it. Neil Nitin Mukesh registers himself strongly with a striking resemblance to Sanjay Gandhi. Satyajeet Sharma and Sheeba Chaddha leave an impression even in their small roles.

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.

A lot could have been shown of the Emergency Period.