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Join UsStar Cast: Anupam Kher, Akshaye Khanna, Arjun Mathur, Suzanne Bernert, Aahana Kumra
Director: Vijay Ratnakar Gutte
NOTE: Before moving forward to the main review, please note, I’m a dumb-head when it comes to politics so please ignore the facts as I’ll talk purely about the movie
What’s Good: Akshaye Khanna just breaks the 4th wall to settle in your heart, the visible efforts by Anupam Kher to portray a person who was never made for Indian films!
What’s Bad: Second half just drifts away from being a satire to becoming a caricature, only if the mentioned facts were explained elaborately.
Loo Break: While walking towards the loo, you might find yourself imitating the walk of Mr Singh but while coming back… Just don’t – stay there, have fun!
Watch or Not?: Only if you want to hear Manmohan Singh speak! (Yes, I know that was a bad joke but I would’ve cursed myself for not cracking a breaking-the-silence joke).
User Rating:
The story starts in 2004, Lok Sabha Elections, when the voters of India choose Sonia Gandhi (here Suzanne Bernert) as the winner in the most influential race of being a Prime Minister. But, because of certain political hurdles (not very clearly explained), she has to choose someone on her behalf to take the position. Without giving any back-track, we see how Dr Manmohan Singh (here Anupam Kher) gets elected by Sonia Gandhi as the face of the party as the Prime Minister.
Within no time he starts getting the hints how he’s just a puppet and there’s a unilateral power existing in the party. With the help of his media advisor, former Editor of The Financial Express, Sanjaya Baru (here Akshaye Khanna), Dr Singh tries to learn the tips & tricks of politics. Years go by and he’s been asked to compromise his beliefs for the interest of certain members of the party. Where and how all this ends, is what the rest of the story is about.
The Accidental Prime Minister Movie Review: Script Analysis
Based on the memoir penned by Sanjaya Baru, the story of the film has a team of 4 writers – Vijay Ratnkar Gutte, Mayank Tewar, Karl Dunne and Aditya Sinha. None of them cared enough to change the direction of the film towards a more factual & entertaining way. Yes, it depicts the journey of a political figure but somewhere down the line, it loses its identity of being a biopic.
Sachin Krishn’s camera is disturbingly annoying! There’s a stop motion sequence in the start which just irritates the moviegoer in you. Even the normal camera angles get too weird to be on screen. The inside of PMO office is captured beautifully and that fascinates you. I went in with the hope to learn something from the film and I did – how to ruin a golden opportunity.
The Accidental Prime Minister Movie Review: Star Performance
Anupam Kher might’ve nailed as Manmohan Singh but I’ll refrain from passing my judgement on his mannerisms because I haven’t followed Dr Singh much in real life. But, I’ll talk purely about his performance which was entertaining at times and annoying at others. Because he was playing a certain character, I believe the writing could’ve been way better.
Akshaye Khanna is OUTSTANDING! I could just watch this movie again to fast-forward and watch just his scenes. Certain aspects of his portrayal were heavily inspired by Frank Underwood’s (Kevin Spacey) character from House Of Cards – especially the 4th wall break. Akshaye just makes us remind how badly we miss him in Bollywood.
Suzanne Bernert look wise comes closest to her character of Sonia Gandhi, and I guess she has got the dialect right too. Arjun Mathur as Rahul Gandhi is the farthest away as far as looks are concerned. But he takes the breathing spaces & pauses very accurately.
The Accidental Prime Minister Movie Review: Direction, Music
It’s Vijay Ratnakar Gutte’s debut and here he has misarranged a lot of things. Flawed from the script level, there’s not a major levelling at the director’s stage as well. This was a very interesting topic and it needed the expertise of someone way too experienced.
The background score in the first half is very good as it supports the satire very well. In the second half, everything goes haywire and so does the music. You just can’t notice because of the mess happening on screen. There’s just one song ‘Om Shabd’ which comes in the post-credit scene of the movie.
The Accidental Prime Minister Movie Review: The Last Word
All said and done, this political-drama neither has much politics nor has an authoritative drama. What it has is a couple of very good performances but they aren’t enough to make you stick your seats even for a very crisp duration. From what, as a dumb-headed politic follower, I feel this was a homage to an individual leading to demean a party. If you guys see the film, please let me know if I’ve got this right.
Two stars!
The Accidental Prime Minister Movie Trailer
The Accidental Prime Minister Movie releases on 11th January, 2019.
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