“Arjun ke haath kaanp sakte hai,ghayal Draupadi ke nahi” This is how Indu replies to Nanaji ‘s  rhetorical question “Tumhare haath kaapenge  to nahi”  And Madhur Bhandarkar's  movie based on Emergency, ‘Indu Sarkar'  takes off.

May be owing to the topic (Emergency) or because of the title of the movie, or bungling CBFC, but Indu Sarkar did generate lot of melodrama on streets and heat in TV studios even before it hit the theatres. Which of course means lot of free publicity. But which also means many of the movie goers are aware beforehand what movie is going to offer.  I too, dragged wife and kids to the theatre with the motivation of watching an ultra-political movie.

That’s where Madhur Bhandarkar manages to surprise us! And Surprise positively. This movie definitely is about the darkest chapter in Indian democracy called Emergency. It is definitely about how Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi used state machinery to take away every form of Liberty from Indian citizens. It is definitely about how press freedom was muzzled. But more than this, Indu Sarkaar is about an Individual who uses this tyranny to redefine her own life! It’s about an orphan girl with stammer who chooses Call of Conscience over personal profit and a cushy life.  It is about an unfortunate girl who, just by pure luck, after getting what she craved for, throws it all away to take on an imposing enemy and fight a war which can never be won. And it’s also about how small inconsequential looking individuals can defy gargantuan modern state.

Indu a girl brought up in an orphanage, can’t speak fluently but can write lovely poems. She has big expectations from herself and dreams to be a poet/writer of repute. But after advice from one of the teachers, compromises herself to a pedestrian dream of getting married. And as luck would have it, after uncountable rejections, she manages to marry a powerful, good looking bureaucrat named Naveen Sarkar. And as it looks like she has made it, life takes a turn.  In June 1975, the incumbent government then, headed by Mrs Gandhi decides to bring in Emergency in the country. Being married to a privileged bureaucrat, it hardly makes any difference to Indu’s personal life. But as she starts looking around she finds many people who are suffering. More and more evidence starts emerging that something horrible is happening around her. This makes Indu uncomfortable and she starts posing difficult questions to husband Naveen. She questions the basic premise of Emergency and government's right to infringe on people's lives. But somehow Naveen manages to silence her.

Hitherto Emergency hasn’t affected Indu on personal level. This changes on a fateful day, when a minister close to Sanjay Gandhi and his crony Builder friend decide to raze down Jhuggi Basti at Turkman Gate to construct a Shopping Complex & Five star hotel. The evacuation plan goes awry when residents of slum decide they can’t be forced out of their houses just like that and will fight. To quell the aggressive mob police use brutal force and tear gas shells. This leads to crowd throwing stones and police answering back by opening fire. The mayhem creates havoc, destroys many houses and leaves scores dead. And for the first time Indu comes face to face with effects of Emergency. In that mad wave of devastation she finds pair of brother-sister aged between 8-10 years, frightened to death looking to get out of that hell hole alive! Somehow miraculously she finds spark of courage and saves both of them and takes them to the safety of home.

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As expected Naveen strongly disapproves and asks her to get rid of the kids as quickly as possible. But by now Indu has shaken off her mask of a mild, obedient housewife and taken her original Avatar of a woman aspiring to change the world! When she comes to know that those poor kids have lost both their parents to police brutality she decides to take her husband on! When Naveen threatens her to either dump kids or get out, she decides it’s time to call quits. And in the middle of the night Indu along with those two orphaned kids leaves her home.

But ill fate continues to chase her. And her cup of sorrow over flows when Naveen, uses police to snatch kids from Indu by slapping false charges. That’s when Indu decides she had enough and joins activists who are opposing Indira Gandhi government. Collaborating with those activists she goes on to create quite a headache for government when they successfully disturb a showcase event for foreign journalists in Mumbai. And the message that all’s not well in the country is communicated to outside world. While accomplishing this, Indu’s transformation from a subdued homely girl to dare devil activist is truly stunning.

Be it the forced sterilization episode or the brutal torture faced by activists scene or Turkman Gate destruction, Madhur Bhandarkar has portrayed the draconian Emergency in a manner which leaves you shaken. Kirti Kullhari as Indu has done a fabulous job. So has Anupam Kher in a cameo playing lynchpin of the anti-emergency movement. Tota Roy Choudhary also does a good job playing Indu’s husband. But for abysmal dialogue delivery, my favourite role is by Neil Nitin Mukesh as Sanjay Gandhi. The bone chilling arrogance and air of authority around him is something special.

Everybody who has a distant memory of those dreaded 19 months between 1975 and 1977 must should watch Indu Sarkaar to revive them again. And millennials and  teens must watch it to understand what Emergency means.