Emergency movie review: Kangana Ranaut is excellent in her sympathetic and admirable take on Smt. Indira Gandhi

Emergency review

 “India is Indira and Indira is India” and “Main hi cabinet hun.” Kangana Ranaut as the actor, director, producer and also the co-writer while gives an admirably sympathetic and human touch to India’s ex PM – Smt. Indira Gandhi does paints her son Sanjay Gandhi (Vishak Nair) as the villain and her father Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as the one who failed to visualise India in its totality. Emphasising on ‘Satta’ (power) in politics as said by Indira’s grandfather Pandit Motilal Nehru, ‘Emergency’ by Kangana Ranaut - actor, director, producer, co-writer and of course MP (BJP) begins on expected lines.

So, Is ‘Emergency’ a propaganda film? Strangely the answer is Yes and No. we have seen movies where the ruling government has been praised and movies having issues that brought them to power churning up from time to time. ‘The Kashmir Files’, ‘Uri’, ‘The Tashkent Files’ and ‘Article 370’ turned out to be good cinema in spite of all the allegations of   being an ‘agenda’ film. And we have also seen biopics like ‘PM Narendra Modi’ starring Vivek Oberoi which was nothing but an embarrassing apology in the name of movie/hagiography.

Now movies where ‘history’ ‘politics’ is involved, you cannot have an opinion where everyone agrees, the protagonist in such movie are shown as per the believe and understanding of the maker.

But, I found something rare in Kangana Ranaut’s ‘Emergency’, it treated Indira Gandhi – the most powerful Indian woman in the history of Indian politics as human. Kangana succeeds in giving Smt. Indira Gandhi a sympathetic and admirable picture, I guess Kangana must have somewhere admired the guts of ‘The Iron Lady of India’ as she says to the American President “you have the weapon but we have the guts’. Interestingly, the effect is mixed, its compelling and at the same time highlights the short-sightedness of the makers in politics and lack of dept in character study.

The screenplay by Ritesh Shah on the story by Kangana Ranaut begins from Indira’s teenage days that highlights the good bad and the ugly phases of her life from the formation of Bangladesh to emergency to Pokhran to Rakesh Sharma to launch of television ( strangely, India’s historic 83 world cup triumph is missing) and ends at her assassination with lines from her last speech in Bhubaneshwar “ mere khoon ka har ek katra dekh ko majboot karega’ (every drop of my blood will strengthen the nation).

Kangana Ranaut after initial hiccups, nails Indira Gandhi’s distinctive speaking style and gets under the skin of her character with ease. Prosthetic design by David Malinowski is immaculate. Production designing by Wasiq Khan and Rakesh Yadav is in sync with the era, we are transported to the seventies immediately.

‘Emergency’ is unashamed of portraying India’s ex Pm Smt. India Gandhi as a strong-willed woman who transformed from the ‘gungi gidiya’ (silent doll) to sherni (tigress – the title she won after thrashing Pakistan and formation of Bangladesh).

As ‘Emergency’ shows the dark chapter of Indian politics/history when Indira Gandhi in her autocracy imposed Emergency and arrested lakhs of her protesters, the movie also celebrates the power and resolve of one of India’s greatest political leaders and the most powerful woman in Indian politics till date. Indira Gandhi made inroads into the man’s world, had the guts to any length to save her throne.

Honestly, the short-sightedness of the makers due to their political ideologies results in lip service of imp political issues, the debate is missing and its mere lip service as far as the politics of the seventies and eighties is concerned. Punjab insurgency is shown but the emergence of Bala Saheb Thackrey and formation of Shiv Sena is surprisingly missing. It is said that Balasaheb and Indira both had soft corners for each other.

So, ‘Emergency’ is guilty of having a scattershot, and convoluted approach to Indira’s story and her glory. Illogical cinematic dramatization and surreal influence of Shakespeare to depict Indira’s guilt creates further damage.

Still, ‘Emergency’ is not that bad as a film that could have possibly been. The movie comes out as a portrayal of a woman who defied extraordinary odds to achieve a measure of greatness, impacting the world while carving her way into an out-of-touch, sexist institution.

Apart from Kangana Ranaut’s excellence. There are other noteworthy performances as well.

Anupam Kher as Jayaprakash Narayan is perfect.

Shreyas Talpade as Atal Bihari Vajpayee is fabulous.

Mahima Chaudhry as Pupul Jayakar has her moments.

Milind Soman as Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw shines.

Vishak Nair as Sanjay Gandhi is quite good.

Satish Kaushik as Jagjivan Ram is competent.

Good support chips in from Larry Newyorker as Lieutenant General, Richard Klein as Henry Kissinger, Scott Alexander Young as Richard Nixon, Christophe Guybet as Georges Pompidou, Adhir Bhat as Feroze Gandhi, Kateryna Grabovska as Sonia Gandhi, Manveer Choudhary as Doordarshan Reporter, Zeba Hussain as Kamala Nehru, Cyrille Mansuy as Chef Napoleon.

Emergency movie review – final words

No matter what your political believe is. Kangana Ranaut has given a sympathetic and admirable picture to India’s most powerful woman leader. Considering Kangana’s political believe and the party she represents, there was a danger of painting one of the pillars of Indian politics and great leader from the opposition party as villain. But as a filmmaker MP Kangana Ranaut has chosen to paint her as a human and that is not an easy thing to do. it needs both guts and foresightedness.

Going with 3 stars out of five an extra for the touch of humanity

Produced by Manikarnika Films and Zee Studios ( also the distributor), ‘Emergency’ is running in theatres from Jan 17, 2025.

Pls note: ‘Emergency’ is a certified UA, the semi- biographical political drama has a couple of scenes of violence and blood. Viewers of tender age should be accompanied by parents.