Emergency Review: Kangana Ranaut’s Powerful Portrayal of Indira Gandhi During The 1975

Emergency

Director: Kangana Ranaut

Editor's Rating:
4

Pros

• Kangana Ranaut's standout performance as Indira Gandhi.
• Engaging political thriller with a strong historical backdrop.
• Bold and ambitious take on a controversial period in India's history.
• Well-executed tension-building music score.

Cons

• Occasionally one-dimensional characters and limited development.
• Focus on political messaging sometimes overshadows narrative depth.
• Pacing may feel uneven at times.
• The dramatic tone might not appeal to all viewers.

Emergency Review: My wish list for Emergency was pretty short: just two things. One was to see the presses stop (this is shown to us twice). The second was for Vicky Kaushal to call Indira Gandhi “sweetie” in Sam Manekshaw, just like he does in Sam Bahadur (2023). It’s strange that this wasn’t met. It’s likely that the people who made it knew about the story of the army chief telling the prime minister this, but they chose not to include it. Its absence says a lot about this strange movie that seems to be stuck between two different ideas.

Emergency Review: Kangana Ranaut’s Powerful Portrayal of Indira Gandhi in a Politically Charged Film

I wasn’t expecting an emergency. First, it’s not about the Emergency; the events of 1975–1977 only take up about 30 minutes of a 146-minute movie. Instead, it’s mostly a biopic of Indira Gandhi, going from her childhood to her death in 1984 in a straight line. I was expecting a crazy hatchet job since Kangana Ranaut, a BJP MP who has said a lot of hurtful things about protesters and minorities, directed, produced, and played Indira. This doesn’t happen either.

In the past few years, there has been so much right-leaning, opposition-baiting, and establishment-praising Hindi film that you could make a shadow version of Emergency by putting together scenes from a dozen different historical films. We all know the story: Nehru was too weak to keep India together, Congress was full of snakes, and Sam won the war in Bangladesh. In its early parts, Emergency doesn’t stray from this. Even though Indira is now prime minister, she is called a “mute doll” by both opponents and party members because of how nervous she is and how she talks.

Even with all of this, the movie still feels sorry for Indira. People don’t feel sorry for her like Anupam Kher and the people who made The Accidental Prime Minister (2019) did for Manmohan Singh. Ranaut sometimes has a voice that shakes even more, and she blinks a lot when Indira is squished, like when she met with Nixon before the Bangladesh war. But it’s clear that she likes how strong Gandhi is. She says that she was a smart politician who made tough choices and a patriotic person who happened to come from a family that wasn’t patriotic or capable.

Hindi movies lately have been so right-wing, anti-opposition, and pro-establishment that you could make a shadow version of Emergency by putting together scenes from a dozen different historical movies. We all know what happened: Nehru wasn’t strong enough to keep India together, Congress was full of snakes, and Sam won the war in Bangladesh. In its first part, Emergency doesn’t stray from this. Although Indira is made prime minister, she is called a “mute doll” by both opponents and party members because of how nervous she is and how she talks.

In spite of everything, the movie still feels sorry for Indira. Anupam Kher and the people who made The Accidental Prime Minister (2019) felt sorry for Manmohan Singh, but they don’t feel sorry for her. Sometimes, Ranaut’s voice shakes even more, and she blinks a lot when Indira is squished, like when she met with Nixon before the Bangladesh war. However, it’s clear that she likes how strong Gandhi is. She makes her out to be a smart politician who made tough choices and a patriotic person who was born into a family that wasn’t patriotic or capable.

This episode of Emergency puts Sanjay in the lead, but Indira’s self-image takes a beating because she starts seeing a zombie in the mirror. It would be great to see a movie (or, more likely, a streaming series) that looks at this time in Indian history with real interest. However, Ranaut is not only happy to play the hits—forcing people to get sterilised and evicting people from slums—she doesn’t even seem to want this to be Indira’s legacy. After Sanjay’s death, Ranaut has a long redemption arc in which she shows glimpses of the actor she used to be. However, the wail she lets out made people laugh in the theatre.

Even though it has some exploitation film violence, Emergency is a better film than Kangana Ranaut first movie as a director, the shaky historical drama Manikarnika (2019). Not as bad as her last movie, Tejas (2023), in which her fighter pilot stops a terrorist attack on the opening of the Ram temple. The brief was made public three months before the actual inauguration at Ayodhya and six months before the general elections. It was easy to understand. It’s not as clear with Emergency. Indya wants to be buried by Ranaut, the politician and idealist. Ranaut, who is always being picked on, wants to compliment her. The movie is now at odds with itself.

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