Battle Of The Biopics This Week At The Boxoffice

It looks  like the coming Friday  political stalwarts  from  different moral and  political outfits are all set for a clash at the  boxoffice.

While debutant director Vijay Gutte’s Manmohan Singh bio-pic The Accidental  Prime Minister  is  being talked about for all the wrong reasons(unflattering  depiction  of  Sonia Gandhi and her children), director Aditya Dhar’s Uri  which opens alongside  The Accidental Prime Minister  is also based on  cold hard political facts,  the  surgical strike against  Pakistan in  2016.

 The  disadvantage  of  delving into recent politics is  that  all the incidents, murky or  otherwise,  are fresh  in the audiences’ minds. There will be hell to pay if  the facts are messed around with. While the Congress I. is  up in arms against the hammy shrewishness of  its leaders  in the trailer of  The Accidental  Prime Minister, the  spiked references  to Pakistan in  the trailer  of Uri have already won the film a  curious audience which  is  tired of watching the neighbours  being mollycoddled  by Bollywood filmmakers.

 The  toughest political drama  this week is NTR the Telugu   bio-pic on the legendary   political  leader N T Rama Rao which has his son  superstar NTR Jr playing his father. It cannot be easy for a  huge star like NTR Jr to play his legendary father. It is never easy to get into the skin of someone this close .

Would NTR capture the essence of  the  mythical  man as seen through the  personality of his  superstar son? Would Anupam Kher be able to convince Manmohan Singh to watch  The Accidental  Prime Minister without  the real Singh flinching at his impersonator’s  doings? And would the surgical strikes of Uri probe wounds that are  too raw to heal?

Political dramas  have so far shied away  from addressing the  issue headlong  for fear of a backlash. But now  this could change.And the shift in  the audiences’ perception  of politics and politicians could happen this week.If any of the three political dramas  this  week succeed at the  boxoffice, that would be an encouraging sign for the Balasaheb Thackeray  bio-pic which open in two weeks’ time.