‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ trailer has been released on YouTube. Directed by Vijay Ratnakar Gutte, and produced by Pen Movies and Hansal Mehta along with Bohra brothers, the movie is slated to hit the theatres on 11 January, making it the first clash of 2019 with Aditya Dhar’s much-publicized ‘ Uri: The Surgical Strike’.
With an impressive view count of almost 6 million views and counting, apart from more than 2 lakh likes, the movie trailer is a rage on YouTube, though it’s yet to be counted as a trending one. The trailer itself is giving sleepless nightmares to left liberals, who’re trying to discredit this as much as possible. The Maharashtra Youth Congress went a step further, issuing a threat to the filmmakers that they will stall the release if Congress is not given a special screening.
However, undeterred by the absurd criticisms, ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ seems to have hit the ball right out of the park. It is also an indication of a major change in Bollywood, where filmmakers don’t hide behind the curtain of fiction to put forward their views. For the first time, Bollywood has shown some spine by portraying real-life people as they are, without malice.
It’s not that films haven’t been made on political issues before. Who can forget the way ‘Kissa Kursi Ka’ and ‘Aandhi’ had to face the wrath of the ruling Congress when they released during the dark days of the Emergency. While ‘Aandhi’ had the luck of surviving without a scratch, ‘Kissa Kursi Ka’ had to be remade since the original prints were burnt at the behest of Sanjay Gandhi and his cronies.
However, most of these films were fictional. If at all real people from political backgrounds were portrayed, they were eulogized to nauseating levels. Be it Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ or Shyam Benegal’s ‘Samvidhaan’, Congress leaders, especially the likes of Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru have been glorified unjustly, given their shady past which most of the Indians are rather well aware of.
This is not the case, however, with ‘The Accidental Prime Minister.’ For the first time, real names have been used for the people associated with the era as portrayed in the movie. Not a single person has been fictionalized, and a special focus has been devoted to keeping the personalities completely accurate to real life. Also, the fact that most of the actors in principal roles are coming from mainstream Bollywood, i.e. Anupam Kher, Akshaye Khanna, Vipin Sharma etc. Proves that all is not lost, and there are still some sane voices in the otherwise elite Bollywood.
From Sonia Gandhi to the titular character of Manmohan Singh, everything has been paid attention to in the strictest details. The way Sanjaya Baru’s character has been portrayed by Akshaye Khanna, it is a crystal clear reflection of the witty political commentator that the author of the book is in real life.
Interestingly, even the two iconic figures from the Gandhi Nehru dynasty, i.e Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and the ‘PM in waiting’, Rahul Gandhi have not been left behind either. From their style to their diction, actors Aahana Kumra and Arjun Mathur have given their best in ensuring that they accurately depict the real personalities, and not become mere caricatures, as some left liberals are wrongly accusing the film of.
‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ is a clear departure from the previous films that have claimed to depict real-life people without taking sides. Besides, given that movies like ‘Rocketry’ and ‘Batla House’ have also been lined up, it looks like Congress is in for real trouble. The following months will decide as to how much liberal and tolerant Congress workers and their commanders are towards any kind of criticism.