Emergency - India is Indira

 

Emergency

Hindi, 2025

Genre: Biography

Where to Watch: Netflix

Director: Kangana Ranaut

Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Vishak Nair, Mahima Chaudry

Mohan's Measure: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Emergency's sole fulcrum is, without doubt, the incredibly talented Ms. Ranaut. Her mannerisms, facial expressions, mood swings, and self doubts are offered to us in moments that are forced and mechanical, in a way that verges on schizophrenic.  It is not a true portrayal of the late Prime Minister, but is what history saw of her, at times confused, at times manic depressive, very much impulsive and conniving, but all the while maintaining the poise of a Brahmin woman refined by the British Raj.

Contrary to opponents to this movie, Mrs. Gandhi is not projected as evil or tyrannical.  She is complex, a spoiled little girl who was rejected by her daddy, her tactics are more to prove herself to him in her amassing of power, on a scale where the overarching guilt only leads to more conniving.

And supporting her with layers of self-interest is her first son, Sanjay.  Her husband, her other son Rajiv, and the daughters-in-law pale to insignificance in what is portrayed as a bizarre partnering of a woman who thought she was a goddess and the son who served as chief priest to her ways.

But, Sanjay had his own agendas, perhaps due to his own male insecurities that would result in the forced vasectomies and deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of men in the villages of India. The fact that after her jail time, Indira would seek to aid these very villagers would suggest that her favorite child would have to meet his untimely end.

What adds to macabre nature of this film is that its characters often break out in song, offering a parody, reminding me of anti-Nazi American propaganda films.  It is melodrama, but such melodrama is presented to us in a way that we understand the feelings of a people who were decidedly manipulated by a woman who went from being worshiped as goddess to becoming an icon of repression.

If there is sanity, it is found in the cadre of political opponents who call themselves the Janata Party.  They too are conniving and calculating, but their interests are clearly sustained by rational ideas. Their leader, JP Narayan, played with understated poise by Mr. Kher, would always hold a soft spot for Mrs. Gandhi, a sentiment conveyed in addressing her as perhaps what could explain her motivations, even in her 60s, "gudiya."