Zee Studios’ Emergency (UA) is the story of Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi in 1975 when she was the Prime Minister of India. The film traces her rule prior to 1975, all through the 21-month Emergency and its aftermath.
Kangana Ranaut has written a story based on history and altered for cinematic reasons. While the story is interesting, it tries to pack in too much in the limited time span of two-and-a-half hours and does not completely satisfy the viewer as it often appears to be touch-and-go. In other words, the story often appears as an assemblage of incidents. Ritesh Shah’s screenplay is very engaging in parts and fair in other parts. Both the writers have assumed that the viewers know every aspect of history of the 1970s and till the mid-1980s and, therefore, have not attempted to explain in detail. This could irritate those who are not well-versed with those chapters of history. Also, because the drama tries to show too many happenings, it sometimes appears sporadic rather than seamless. The first part of the first half moves at a leisurely pace but the pace picks up thereafter. The entire portion of the declaration of Emergency and what transpires during Emergency is very interesting and engaging. The post-interval part is nice but the climax does not live up to the build-up in the first half. Even otherwise, the drama would appeal to the gentry more than the masses. Ritesh Shah’s dialogues, with additional dialogues by Tanvi Kesari Pasumarthy, are excellent and several of them are even clap-worthy.
Kangana Ranaut is extraordinary as Indira Gandhi. She delivers one of the best performances of her career, living every moment. Her acting, body language, facial expressions, attitude, everything adds up to make her performance an award-winning and memorable one. So phenomenal is her work that it is difficult to even imagine anyone else doing as well. Her acting deserves almost cent per cent marks. Anupam Kher delivers a mature performance in the role of Jayaprakash Narayan. Satish Kaushik is excellent as Jagjivan Ram. Vishak Nair is first-rate as Sanjay Gandhi. He deserves a lot of praise for his no-holds-barred performance. Darshan Pandya is lovely as R.K. Dhawan. Mahima Chaudhry leaves a fine mark as Pupul. Shreyas Talpade makes his presence amply felt as Atal Behari Vajpayee. Milind Soman is natural as Sam Maneckshaw. Avijit Dutt makes a fine impression as J. Krishnamurthi. Sanjay M. Gurbaxani is adequate as Nehru. Adhir Bhat has his moments as Feroze Gandhi. Deepak Anand is natural in the role of Bhindranwale. Alexander Scott Young provides nice support as Nixon. Richard Klein (as Henry Kissinger), Manwendra Kumar Tripathy (as Balwinder), Shivendra Om Saainiyol (as Kao), Bhushan Shimpi (as Kamal Nath), Akash Sinha (as George Fernandes), Anoop Puri (as Yahya Khan), Rishi Kaushik (as Mujibur Rehman), Ravi Ganesh (as Dr. Ramanna), Ayash Arif (as Gen. Niazi), Alok Gadekar (as Shanti Bhushan), Kaashvi Kalani (as young Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit), Sunny Gill (as Giani Zail Singh, Sanjay Makhija (as Jagmohan), Deep Das (as L.K. Advani), Ashok Chhabra (as Morarji Desai), Ayush Sharma (as Satwant Singh), Kulveer Sidhu (as Beant Singh), Asit Redij (as I.K. Gujral), Vijay Rajoria (as the judge), Balkrishna Mishra (as M.F. Hussain), J.P. Chopra (as Lal Bahadur Shastri), Mahnoor (as young Indira), Deepansha Dhingra (as Maneka Gandhi), Kateryna Grabovska (as Sonia Gandhi), Abhimanyu Vashishth (as Rajiv Gandhi), Ada Kashyap (as young Pupul), Parvez Malik (as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto), Zeba Hussain (as Kamala Nehru), Ramchandra Rao (as Kamraj), Rajesh Khatri (as Motilal Nehru), and the others lend wonderful support.
Kangana Ranaut’s direction is good. She has narrated the political drama in an interesting style. Music (by G.V. Prakash Kumar and Arko) may not be of the popular variety but it is good. Manoj Muntashir Sharma’s lyrics are weighty. Song picturisations (by Kirti Suresh) are functional. Sanchit Balhara and Ankit Balhara do an excellent job of the background music. The background score enhances the impact of the drama manifold. Tetsuo Nagata’s cinematography is superb. Action and stunt scenes (by Nick Powell and Sunil Rodrigues) are very thrilling. Wasiq Khan and Rakesh Yadav’s production designing, and Sahiba Shaikh’s art direction are lovely. David Malinowski’s prosthetic work (to make the actors look the characters they play) deserves special mention. Rameshwar S. Bhagat’s editing is sharp.
On the whole, Emergency is a well-made film with Kangana Ranaut’s performance being its biggest trump card. But in commercial terms, it has its limitations. It will win more critical acclaim than box-office success. Classes will like the film.
Released on 17-1-’25 at Inox (daily 5 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay by Zee Studios. Publicity: fair. Opening: quite weak in spite of low admission rates today. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull almost everywhere.