Madhur Bhandarkars Indu Sarkar faces further political criticism

16 Sep 2017

Purely on the basis of his realistic approach towards films, Madhur Bhandarkar s films always are eagerly awaited. After having made a string of realistic films like Traffic Signal, Fashion, Corporate, Heroine and others, Madhur Bhandarkars latest offering is in the form of Indu Sarkar a fictional story of a stammering poetess which has been set against the backdrop of former Prime Minister (late) Indira Gandhis Emergency era. The last few days have seen this film making news for all the wrong reasons. A handful of controversies were in the form of the Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam writing a letter to CBFC chairman Pahlaj Nihalani to see the film first so as to ensure that the film did not show the great leaders in bad light. Post that, it was the Congress leader Jagdish Tytler getting irked by the film. He had asked Madhur Bhandarkar to suitably edit the film or be ready to face legal action for defamation. The film has now got itself into yet another controversy. This time round, its from the senior ministers of the Indore City Congress Committee viz., Vivek Khandelwal and Girish Joshi. They have now written a letter to the Cine Circuit Association (CCA) and Cine Gruh Sanchalan (CGS), wherein they have requested them to refrain from releasing the film in Indore. The said letter states that the Indu Sarkar is an attempt to dilute the national work done by Congress during that time. The aforementioned politicos fear that, despite the film being a fictional story, the films characters are inspired by real people in power and their portrayal just might be misleading. The said letter suggests that the government was encouraging political propaganda through Indu Sarkar.Film maker Madhur Bhandarkar termed the whole thing as a knee-jerk reaction. Earlier, a woman named Priya Singh Paul who claimed to be (late) Sanjay Gandhis daughter and wanted to take legal action against Indu Sarkar.As a step in that direction, Priya Singh Paul went onto move the Delhi High Court against Indu Sarkar , with a claim that the film portrays her father Sanjay Gandhi, and grandmother former Indian Prime Minister, (late) Indira Gandhi in a negative light. She also reportedly claimed that she did not desire any kind of media attention, but, had decided to come out and speak because a wrong impression was being created about her father. Directed by Madhur Bhandarkar, Indu Sarkar stars Kirti Kulhari , Neil Nitin Mukesh, Tota Roy Chowdhury and Anupam Kher in pivotal roles. It is scheduled to release in theatres on July 28.