{"id":4076,"date":"2016-07-06T03:39:03","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T22:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4076"},"modified":"2016-07-06T03:39:03","modified_gmt":"2016-07-05T22:09:03","slug":"manikarnika-thackeray-biopics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=4076","title":{"rendered":"Manikarnika, Thackeray, and the Troubled History of Bollywood Biopics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\u00a0\n

T<\/span>he New Year isn\u2019t even a month old yet, and the Bollywood machine has already cranked out three <\/p>biopics<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>The Accidental Prime Minister<\/span><\/i>, where Anupam Kher plays an emperor penguin masquerading as Manmohan Singh, was the year\u2019s first, and now we can look forward to the release of <\/span>Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi<\/span><\/i>, based on Rani Laxmibai, and <\/span>Thackeray<\/span><\/i>, which will attempt to tell the story of the Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then making a biopic about someone comes a close second. Because Bollywood biopics have, at best, a testy relationship with reality. Fact might be stranger than fiction, but filmmakers can\u2019t seem to resist embellishing the truth.<\/span>\n\nBoth <\/span>Manikarnika<\/span><\/i><\/a> and <\/span>Thackeray <\/span><\/i>will release tomorrow, and both bring to the fore why Indian biopics so rarely do justice to their subjects. Either by playing fast and loose with historical accuracy, emotional manipulation, or glossing over problematic facets of their stories, biographies morph into hagiographies. Even before <\/span>Manikarnika <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Thackeray <\/span><\/i>hit theatres, their trailers and the accompanying publicity provides clues about what we can expect.<\/span>\n\nWith <\/span>Thackeray<\/span><\/i>, the trailer depicted Bal Thackeray\u2019s polarising views, including some offensive statements about <\/span>South Indians<\/span><\/a>, in a benevolent light. This isn\u2019t surprising, given that the film has been written by Sanjay Raut, a Shiv Sena member and current executive editor of the party mouthpiece Saamana \u2013 hardly the person you\u2019d expect to pen an unbiased account about their ideological object of worship.<\/span> The trailer tried to pass off words that could arguably qualify as hate speech, as the impassioned rhetoric of a firebrand leader. A biopic that refuses to engage with the human shortcomings and failings of its subject like <\/span>Thackeray <\/span><\/i>seems to be doing, will never truly rise above the status of glorified public relations. <\/span>\n

Fact might be stranger than fiction, but filmmakers can\u2019t seem to resist embellishing the truth.<\/blockquote>\nThackeray isn\u2019t even the first <\/span>Marathi manoos<\/span><\/a> to get the rose-tinted treatment \u2013 Sachin Tendulkar\u2019s non-fiction documentary <\/span>Sachin: A Billion Dreams<\/span><\/i> was similarly hobbled by a narrative that refused to touch the more sombre moments in Tendulkar\u2019s career, and <\/span>Sanju <\/span><\/i>was also panned for whitewashing Sanjay Dutt\u2019s troubled past.<\/span>\n\nAnd then there\u2019s <\/span>Manikarnika<\/span><\/i>, where Kangana Ranaut seems to have mixed up Rani Laxmibai and Xena the Warrior Princess, judging by its trailer. This \u201chistorical account\u201d falls into the same trap the other period films that preceded it do. Historical accuracy is sacrificed at the altar of blockbuster cinema, as <\/span>filmmakers<\/span><\/a> paint their canvas with broad, generalising strokes to create the most box-office friendly film, but not necessarily the most informative. <\/span>\n\nWe saw it in last year\u2019s <\/span>Padmaavat<\/span><\/i>, where the cultured Sultan of Delhi was depicted as a rabid warlord to better suit the antagonist\u2019s role. To reach further back, in the SRK-starrer <\/span>Asoka<\/span><\/i>, the great emperor displayed a weird tendency to break into choreographed song-and-dance routines in between expanding his borders and promoting the spread of <\/span>Buddhism<\/span><\/a> through the subcontinent. Unfortunately, history is not a novel that can be loosely adapted for the screen like <\/span>Sacred Games<\/span><\/i>, but an established record of proven facts. Taking <\/span>Manikarnika<\/span><\/i> as a serious chronicle of the life and times of Rani Laxmibai would be like saying that watching <\/span>300 <\/span><\/i>is equal to a Master\u2019s degree in ancient Greek history.<\/span>\n
None of these \u201chistorical epics\u201d that Bollywood produces are either epic, or historical.<\/blockquote>\nBeyond all this, the one thing that unites most Indian biopics is how the makers shamelessly attempt to emotionally manipulate the audience. <\/span>Thackeray <\/span><\/i>will two days after the 93rd birth anniversary of its titular character, practically ensuring that it will reel in money hand-over-fist, as thousands of <\/span>Shiv Sena<\/span><\/a> loyalists head to the theatre to pay tribute to their late leader. Meanwhile, Kangana Ranaut smartly positioned herself on the right (geddit?) side of the political spectrum last year, and will use the fact that she is playing a freedom fighter to extract maximum nationalistic mileage. She\u2019s not only the film\u2019s star and co-director, she\u2019s also the person who seems to be talking about it the most online, having called out her fellow actresses for not supporting her (just like she didn\u2019t support Deepika Padukone when the <\/span>Rajput Karni Sena<\/span><\/a> wanted to chop off her nose for playing Rani Padmavati), critics (for being critical of her, which is their job, I think?) and even the Karni Sena (the Maharashtra wing, not the nose-job surgeons from Rajasthan).<\/span>\n\nOut of all three of Kangana\u2019s targets, only the Karni Sena had the poor sense to offer a statement of their own, stating they wish to review the film for historical accuracy themselves, the <\/span>Central Board for Film Certification<\/span><\/a> be damned. Come on guys, we\u2019ve gone over this last year! None of these \u201chistorical epics\u201d that Bollywood produces are either epic, or historical. At this point, it\u2019s fair to say that Bollywood has yet to prove that it\u2019s an industry capable of producing a nuanced, unflinching biopic on a complicated central figure, in the vein of <\/span>Wolf of Wall Street <\/span><\/i>or <\/span>Montage of Heck<\/span><\/i>. So until we find proof otherwise, let\u2019s take these films for what they are \u2013 masala entertainers. We might find we save ourselves a lot of grief that way.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both Manikarnika and Thackeray will release tomorrow, and both bring to the fore why Indian biopics so rarely do justice to their subjects. Bollywood biopics have, at best, a testy relationship with reality. Fact might be stranger than fiction, but filmmakers can\u2019t seem to resist embellishing the truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":4077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3114],"tags":[7458,4124,1284,4131,7459],"class_list":["post-4076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bollywood","tag-bal-thackeray","tag-biopic","tag-kangana-ranaut","tag-manikarnika","tag-thackeray"],"yoast_head":"\nManikarnika, Thackeray, and the Troubled History of Bollywood Biopics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Both Manikarnika and Thackeray will release tomorrow, and both bring to the fore why Indian biopics so rarely do justice to their subjects. Bollywood biopics have, at best, a testy relationship with reality. 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