This movie is without question made for self promotion , and the election commission had to bar the release of the movie until the elections were over to prevent the movie from influencing the voters . It twists history in such a way that many events in India's history happen with Narendra Modi as their pivot , and he inevitably triumphs in them . Now that it has been released after the elections , the movie has turned out to be a celebration of his resounding success in the elections rather than an attempt to win over the voters .
The movie begins with Modi selling tea in childhood to help his father make ends meet , while his mother washes utensils in people's households to help his father financially . Watching the scenes made me realize why Modi cried when he met Mark Zuckerberg ; reaching such a powerful position where he got to meet powerful people from being a simple tea seller whose mother literally was a servant in people's homes was something worth getting emotional about .
He is shown to be patriotic from childhood and salutes the national flag whenever he sees it . Offers free tea to soldiers of the army and eavesdrops on every conversation made by elders about the situation on the frontiers when the country is at war with China . He comes under the influence of a RSS ( right wing organisation ) functionary called Inamdar who offers him a path of joining RSS . But at this point Modi dreams of being an ascetic and his parents are worried about him going astray . So they fix his marriage . He is shown refusing to get married though actually he got married but abandoned the woman who still remains his official wife . Point to be noted is that he remains amazingly popular among women even after doing this .
So Modi really becomes an ascetic living in the himalayas wearing saffron ( colour of hinduism ) clothes in snowbound conditions . His guru however asks him to do something for his countrymen by joining politics and he goes back to his home state Gujarat to Inamdar , the RSS functionary who warmly welcomes him into the fold of the RSS . When RSS men are imprisoned by the government and few are to be found to lead a march against the government , Modi shows his resourcefulness by inviting people to claim money looted by the government from them and rousing them with a fiery speech . From here there is no looking back .
As then PM Indira Gandhi declares an emergency which is a threat to democracy , Modi is shown to throw leaflets into the press conference she has organised to explain her reasons to the foreign press . Those leaflets tell the truth about bamboozling of democracy in India , severely embarrassing the PM . The whole episode seems to be fictitious . As democracy is re established , the formation of the BJP party from which Modi is PM now brings a new political chapter in Modi's life ; from a worker of the RSS he has now become a politician of the BJP . But he continues his work by building canals of water for parched regions of Gujarat after seeing it's women struggle to bring water to their homes in metal pots carried on their heads . The women vote for BJP praising Modi's work and his vote winning ability is seen .
However the chief minister of Gujarat is not happy with the increasing popularity of Modi who he sees as a rival and he forces the head of the BJP to send him away from Gujarat to national capital Delhi . But Modi comes back to help during an earthquake in Gujarat and party high command makes him chief minister . After this happens the most controversial event in his political career---what I call the post Godhra riots , after muslim goons burn alive nearly sixty hindus in a train at the railway station of Godhra . Hindus in Gujarat take terrible revenge by killing muslims in retaliation , and Modi has been held to be the leading the retaliation . As expected , the movie whitewashes Modi's role in the retaliation by showing him trying to control the riots he probably didn't attempt to control in real life .
The United States was influenced to cancel his visa as punishment for Modi's role in the riots , and the influencer is shown to a fictitious businessman named Aditya Reddy ( Prashant Narayanan ) who had tried to bribe Modi earlier . Modi is shown rebuffing him by telling him that nor will he get bribed himself nor will he allow him to bribe others . Modi wows to one day come to USA in triumph later , and it is now part of history that the US was forced eat humble pie and invite him to the country after he became PM of India .
Modi invites industrialist Ratan Tata ( Boman Irani ) to build cars in Gujarat , cutting the red tape for which India is notorious and makes his image as a business friendly politician . Aditya Reddy then corrupts a media personality played by Darshan Kumar to malign Modi's image , but Modi is shown to turn tables and beat him in a televised interview . The stage is set for him becoming PM .
Among the politicians , I found the actresses playing former PM Indira Gandhi and the actress playing leader of Congress party Sonia Gandhi to be looking exactly like the real life persons . Atal Bihari Vajpayee acts exactly like the real person , while LK Advani and Mulrli Manohar Joshi are good too . Vivek Oberoi does not try to copy Modi , though he tries to speak hindi language with a gujarati accent .
Pakistan is Modi's rival in the later part of the film , and it is shown sending it's soldiers ( not terrorists but actual armymen ) to kill Modi . Needless to say , Modi faces the situation with the courage of a lion with a 56 inch chest that he has been lionized to have . More time is spent on his handling of the terror attack by Pakistan backed terrorists in the hindu temple of Akhardham than his handling of post Godhra riots , thus attempting to enhance his image as master in tackling terror .
Modi calls India as Hindustan throughout the film , thus making no bones as to his commitment to hindu nationalism . Photography of the film is good and so is background music . Indeed the movie is sweet music to his millions of admirers across the globe , and has been made to celebrate their admiration . If you are a bhakt ( devotee ) of Modi , watching the movie is a must . I am not one of these devotees , but I found the film entertaining enough to engage my full attention for 2 and a quarter hours .
Verdict---Decent.
Three out of five stars .
The movie begins with Modi selling tea in childhood to help his father make ends meet , while his mother washes utensils in people's households to help his father financially . Watching the scenes made me realize why Modi cried when he met Mark Zuckerberg ; reaching such a powerful position where he got to meet powerful people from being a simple tea seller whose mother literally was a servant in people's homes was something worth getting emotional about .
He is shown to be patriotic from childhood and salutes the national flag whenever he sees it . Offers free tea to soldiers of the army and eavesdrops on every conversation made by elders about the situation on the frontiers when the country is at war with China . He comes under the influence of a RSS ( right wing organisation ) functionary called Inamdar who offers him a path of joining RSS . But at this point Modi dreams of being an ascetic and his parents are worried about him going astray . So they fix his marriage . He is shown refusing to get married though actually he got married but abandoned the woman who still remains his official wife . Point to be noted is that he remains amazingly popular among women even after doing this .
So Modi really becomes an ascetic living in the himalayas wearing saffron ( colour of hinduism ) clothes in snowbound conditions . His guru however asks him to do something for his countrymen by joining politics and he goes back to his home state Gujarat to Inamdar , the RSS functionary who warmly welcomes him into the fold of the RSS . When RSS men are imprisoned by the government and few are to be found to lead a march against the government , Modi shows his resourcefulness by inviting people to claim money looted by the government from them and rousing them with a fiery speech . From here there is no looking back .
As then PM Indira Gandhi declares an emergency which is a threat to democracy , Modi is shown to throw leaflets into the press conference she has organised to explain her reasons to the foreign press . Those leaflets tell the truth about bamboozling of democracy in India , severely embarrassing the PM . The whole episode seems to be fictitious . As democracy is re established , the formation of the BJP party from which Modi is PM now brings a new political chapter in Modi's life ; from a worker of the RSS he has now become a politician of the BJP . But he continues his work by building canals of water for parched regions of Gujarat after seeing it's women struggle to bring water to their homes in metal pots carried on their heads . The women vote for BJP praising Modi's work and his vote winning ability is seen .
However the chief minister of Gujarat is not happy with the increasing popularity of Modi who he sees as a rival and he forces the head of the BJP to send him away from Gujarat to national capital Delhi . But Modi comes back to help during an earthquake in Gujarat and party high command makes him chief minister . After this happens the most controversial event in his political career---what I call the post Godhra riots , after muslim goons burn alive nearly sixty hindus in a train at the railway station of Godhra . Hindus in Gujarat take terrible revenge by killing muslims in retaliation , and Modi has been held to be the leading the retaliation . As expected , the movie whitewashes Modi's role in the retaliation by showing him trying to control the riots he probably didn't attempt to control in real life .
The United States was influenced to cancel his visa as punishment for Modi's role in the riots , and the influencer is shown to a fictitious businessman named Aditya Reddy ( Prashant Narayanan ) who had tried to bribe Modi earlier . Modi is shown rebuffing him by telling him that nor will he get bribed himself nor will he allow him to bribe others . Modi wows to one day come to USA in triumph later , and it is now part of history that the US was forced eat humble pie and invite him to the country after he became PM of India .
Modi invites industrialist Ratan Tata ( Boman Irani ) to build cars in Gujarat , cutting the red tape for which India is notorious and makes his image as a business friendly politician . Aditya Reddy then corrupts a media personality played by Darshan Kumar to malign Modi's image , but Modi is shown to turn tables and beat him in a televised interview . The stage is set for him becoming PM .
Among the politicians , I found the actresses playing former PM Indira Gandhi and the actress playing leader of Congress party Sonia Gandhi to be looking exactly like the real life persons . Atal Bihari Vajpayee acts exactly like the real person , while LK Advani and Mulrli Manohar Joshi are good too . Vivek Oberoi does not try to copy Modi , though he tries to speak hindi language with a gujarati accent .
Pakistan is Modi's rival in the later part of the film , and it is shown sending it's soldiers ( not terrorists but actual armymen ) to kill Modi . Needless to say , Modi faces the situation with the courage of a lion with a 56 inch chest that he has been lionized to have . More time is spent on his handling of the terror attack by Pakistan backed terrorists in the hindu temple of Akhardham than his handling of post Godhra riots , thus attempting to enhance his image as master in tackling terror .
Modi calls India as Hindustan throughout the film , thus making no bones as to his commitment to hindu nationalism . Photography of the film is good and so is background music . Indeed the movie is sweet music to his millions of admirers across the globe , and has been made to celebrate their admiration . If you are a bhakt ( devotee ) of Modi , watching the movie is a must . I am not one of these devotees , but I found the film entertaining enough to engage my full attention for 2 and a quarter hours .
Verdict---Decent.
Three out of five stars .
