Directed by: Madhur Bhandarkar
Produced by: Bharat Shah and Bhandarkar Entertainment
Written by: Madhur Bhandarkar
Screenplay by: Madhur Bhandarkar, Anil Pandey, Sanjay Chhel (Dialogue)
Story by: Madhur Bhandarkar
Starring: Kirti Kulhari, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Supriya Vinod, Anupam Kher, Tota Roy Chowdhury
Music by: Anu Malik
Cinematography: Keiko Nakahara
Edited by: Devendra Murdeshwar
Release date: July 28, 2017
Story line: The Film is set in the period of the emergency in India, i.e. the 21-month-long period from 1975 to 1977 when there was a state of emergency across the country. According to Madhur Bhandarkar 70% story is fictional and 30% is true.
Know more about the captain of the Ship, the director: Madhur Bhandarkar worked in a video cassette library in Khar, a suburb of Mumbai. This gave him access to a large collection of movies and he studied film-making through it. After trying his skills with small-time filmmakers as an assistant, Bhandarkar landed up as an assistant to Ram Gopal Varma. He even played his first cameo in his 1995 film “Rangeela” where he was the associate director to Ram Gopal Varma. A couple of years later he made his directorial debut with Trishakti which took more than three years to make and released in 1999. The film had a relatively low key cast and was largely ignored at the box office. After two years he directed “Chandni Bar” (2001) starring Tabu and Atul Kulkarni with a budget of Rs 15 million. The film was critically acclaimed and a box office success, which took Bhandarkar into the top league of filmmakers in Bollywood. He received his first National Award for this film and thereon won National awards for his films “Page-3” and “Traffic Signal”. His movie “Fashion” (2008) also won National Awards for Best Actress (Priyanka Chopra) and for Best Supporting Actress (Kangana Ranaut).
Madhur was conferred PL Deshpande Award a.k.a. Zenith Asia Awardfor significantly shaping the film making culture in his unique works and he has been described as ‘the Film Maker of the First Decade of the 21st Century’. On the Silver Jubilee Year of Aashay Film Club, award ceremony took place on 16 Nov at National Film Archive Theatre during the eighth Pulotsav – An Art Festival in Pune. PL Deshpande was a renowned writer, stage and film actor and his literary works are still revered in Maharashtra and others parts of the world. In his honor, Zenith Asia Award was given to Madhur Bhandarkar and his film “Chandni Bar” was also screened during the fest amongst landmark 25 films from world cinema.
In Nov, 2010 National Film Archive of India (NFAI) announced to preserve all the films of Madhur Bhandarkar. “Chandni Bar”, “Page-3″, “Corporate”, “Traffic Signal”, “Fashion” and “Jail” found space in Government’s Archival data for Indian films.
My Gut Feel (MGF) and comments:
Freedom of expression and freedom of speech isn’t really important unless they’re heard. The freedom of hearing is as important as the freedom of speaking.- Tom Smothers (American – Comedian)
Going by the trailer of “Indu Sarkar” it is clear that this film would have been in trouble if made and suppose to be released during the tenure of the UPA government.
Madhur Bhandarkar’s credentials as director are excellent and he can pull off a difficult film like this one. However, in the last few years he did struggle and brought average cinema to the table through his last few films like “Calendar Girls”, “Heroine”, “Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji” and “Jail”. With “Indu Sarkar” he seems to be back in form and offering the hard hitting cinema for which is known.
Recreating the era of mid 70’s and doing justice to the political backdrop of Emergency period would have been a tough task. I am sure all the actors done justice to their role and whole creative team worked hard to pull off a decent engaging political drama.
Going by My Gut Feel (MGF), I am giving this movie 3 out of 5 stars two days before the release.
