Film: Indu Sarkar
Cast: Kriti Kulhari, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Anupam Kher, Tota Roy Chowdhury, Sheeba Chaddha, Ankur Vikal and Zakir Hussain
Director: Madhur Bhandarkar
Madhur Bhandarkar’s latest attempt to weave raw realism with a historical reference point feels uncoordinated and confused mostly. His Indu Sarkar is about a docile, meek orphan woman (Kriti Kulhari) who overcomes her own personal demons to wage a battle against the establishment during the Infamous Emergency that plagued the country in 1977, is but a droning, dull and dreary effort at opportunistic political enticement.
This terribly over dramatized effort feels simplified and contrived, intended to put forward a political point that even given the nature of today’s politics, fails to mark-up relevance. A large part of the film is devoted to getting Indu out of her self-conscious shell, leaving little room for development of the theme that involves administrative curtailing of personal freedoms enshrined in the constitution. It’s ironical that a film like Indu Sarkar, clearly meant to pander to the current ruling party’s interests, fails to draw parallels about its own bigoted conceit.
Kriti as the protagonist Indu and Tota Roy Chowdhury as her unscrupulous husband Navin Sarkar, strive hard to valiantly soldier most of the responsibility of keeping the stuttering, artless narrative above water but even they can’t save this sinking boat from the murky and sinister depths of obligatory rabble-rousing.
