Director- Vijay Gutte
Writers- Vijay Gutte, Mayank Tewari, Karl Dunne, Aditya Sinha
Cast– Anupam Kher, Akshaye Khanna, Suzanne Bernert, Aahana Kumra
Is a much controversial biographical film based on a book by Sanjaya Baru who was the media advisor to Dr.Manmohan Singh during his tenure as the Prime Minister of India.
The film begins from the time when Congress wins the elections in 2004 and Dr. Singh was chosen as the Prime Minister and covers both his tenures till upto 2014 when BJP won the elections.
Ten minutes into the movie and you realise what the controversy is all about .The characters are all like caricatures. Everything seems more like spoof and it clearly seems that most of the characters are being ridiculed rather than being depicted honestly.
Every single person associated with that govt is shown either in negative light or foolish.
Cinematically speaking , it seems a shoddily made film. It was amateurish in terms of detailing and the production values low. The producers seemed to have little love for finesse or I might say quality was definitely not on their agenda.
The movie very fleetingly touches upon relevant issues while skirts around most and primarily concentrates on how Dr. Singh coped up with all that negativity around him including internal party politics and opposition from party high command.
But the part that doesn’t fit through is that the man in question, Dr. Singh is shown as a weak man with such a defeated body language and mannerisms. If he was able to last through two terms inspite of the negative influence and constant interference of the family , surely he couldn’t have been that spineless.
Under the garb of showing him as an innocent who wasn’t party to the scandals and scams pf UPA , the movie sadly portrays him in pathetic light .
Baru is shown to be some kind of saviour for Dr. Singh who is shown to be mostly befuddled.
I also cannot agree with the hype around Kher’s performance. He might have tried very hard, as he claims, to adopt Singh’s mannerisms , gait and voice. But the end result of his hard work seems more like spoof .
Nowhere have they conveyed the image of the humble dignified man who was revered by one and all.
Keeping aside any political tilt , I would say the film seems clearly politically motivated. As told in the film, the book was timed to release before the last elections and isn’t it a coincidence that the elections are round the corner again?
This highly avoidable movie can be watched only for the following reasons –
1. You are hard core congress baiter .
2. You are utterly curious about what the hype is all about .
3. You have high tolerance level for any kind of cinema.
4. You have no idea what a superb watch Uri is .
My reason was somewhere between 2 and 3 .
Score 4 on 10.