Kangana Ranaut makes an honest and sincere attempt to recreate one of the most significant and dreadful political events in India’s history, Emergency imposed way back in 1975, with a profound impact on the nation. Director and lead actor Kangana Ranaut attempts to recreate this painful and tumultuous chapter of history on the big screen with a lot of clarity and wisdom.
It is not easy to trace the genesis of a poignant era like Emergency in the country with fluidity but Kangana aces in her job not only as a writer but also as the producer and actor with effortless ease. The movie draws inspiration from Coomi Kapoor’s book The Emergency and also Jayanth Sinha’s Priyadarshini.
The narrative starts in 1929 and spans four decades, covering India’s Independence, the Indo-China War and Assam crisis in 1962, Indira Gandhi’s rise to power, and the Indo-Pak war of 1971. While the film sets out to aim to capture pivotal moments from Indira Gandhi’s regime, it sometimes also sadly fails to provide sufficient background or context for key events and characters, such as Pupul Jayakar (Mahima Chaudhary), a close confidante of Gandhi.
The best thing about the film Emergency is that it sets out to effectively highlight the good, bad and ugly side of our first woman Prime Minister with proper balance. The best thing about this film is that it shows the often ignored human side of Indira, giving a peek to her personal life by showing her relation with her friends, staff and family members.
As far as the performances in the film are concerned, all that I can say is that as Indira Gandhi, Kangana Ranaut excels in the second half, with her nasal twang and facial expressions. particularly in scenes after the Emergency is lifted, her meeting with philosopher J Krishnamurthi (Avijit Dutt), and also her visit to Bihar’s Belchi village on an elephant at the age of 60. Kangana effortlessly fits into the role with her facial expressions and nasal twang.
While Shreyas Talpade has been wasted as Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Anupam Kher . Milind Soman has been wasted as Sam Manekshaw while Mahima Chaudhary fits the bill as Pupul Jayakjareaves an impact as Jay Prakash Narayan. Satish Kaushik is effectively as Jagjivan Ram while it is Vishak Nair who steals the scene as the aggressive Sanjay Gandhi.
To sum up in a nutshell, I would say that Emergency is a gripping as well as authentic film. Running time 146 minutes
– Review by Jyothi Venkatesh