Indu Sarkar Movie Review: Engaging story, but missing depth

Indu Sarkar doesn't deliver what one would expect. The emergency era under Indira Gandhi's leadership and her son Sanjay Gandhi's supervision between 1975 to 1977 makes for a hugely interesting political drama. While one expected director Madhur Bhandarkar to get into the intricacies of what really triggered this and how if affected the political scenario of the country at that time and later, he instead chooses to focus on a fictitious story of how it affected one person and her surroundings. However, Madhur does manage to narrate an interesting story.

 

His protagonist is Indu Sarkar, a timid, under confident, stuttering girl who has no desires in life but to be a good wife. While others reject her, Navin Sarkar (Tota Roy Chowdhury), a man with a political clout and big ambitions chooses to make her his life partner. Grateful at this, Indu would have continued living her wallflower like existence, if not faced with some harsh truths, thanks to the clamping of Emergency. Indu realises that she has the moral strength to stand up to her domineering husband and seemingly impossible situation that she's caught up in. 

 

Kriti Kulhari as Indu is pretty good. Her vulnerability and helplessness is palpable as she is struggling to deal with a realistic situation. Madhur, however, fails in creating the right backdrop for her story. Alll we see is a young, brash politician (obviously inspired by Sanjay Gandhi and performed competently by Neil Nitin Mukesh), who is simply referred to as chief by a bunch of sycophants around him. While we get to see glimpses of -what could have been the repercussions of Emergency, Madhur chooses to present the situation as more black and white, and doesn't really attempt to go beyond the obvious. 

The attention to detailing to create the 70's era, right from hairstyles to Kishor Kumar's songs adds to the charm of the film.

 

The director passes the opportunity to present an important political phase in our country in its true light, and makes it too simplistic. But to his credit, he does narrate an engaging story, backed by some good performances.