Prophets have fared better. Moses, Noah and Solomon have been converted into bearded stereotypes, while Muslims have skirted the injunction by portraying the Holy Prophet not as the actor but as the invisible observer. In the film The Message, for example, the audience sees the dramatic action through his eyes.
Actors portraying Hindu deities enjoy free rein. NT Rama Rao became so indistinguishable from Lord Vishnu, Rama and Krishna that some devotees might have been forgiven for regarding him as an eleventh avatar. Historical figures have elicited mixed responses. While Prithiviraj Kapoor’s Akbar and Dilip Kumar’s Salim were accepted at face value, Hema Malni’s imitation of Razia Sultan raised plucked eyebrows. Shahrukh Khan’s Ashoka and Deepika Padukone’s Padmavati have been confronted by mini-armies of critics.
Interestingly, political leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru have been spared a tell-tale exposure on screen or on stage. Film directors have been kind to them. Anyone who has seen Mark Robson’s Nine Hours to Rama (1963) or Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi (1982) or more recently Gurinder Chadha’s The Viceroy’s House can appreciate the reverential treatment of Indian leaders. The Ravana figure in such films is usually allotted to M. A. Jinnah. Jamil Dehlavi’s Jinnah (1998) unconsciously followed Lord Chamberlain’s rule and appeared fifty years after the Quaid’s death. Like the Quaid himself, the film about him had a painful ending.
The latest offering of contemporary bio-epics is Vijay Gutte’s The Accidental Prime Minister, an ungenerous account of Dr Manmohan Singh’s years as India’s 13th prime minister. Audiences have paid good money to see the film. One can be sure that even if Dr Manmohan Singh.is paid to, he will never see it. It is bad enough to have a scissors and paste job done on your achievements. It is cruelty itself for a Congress PM to be caricatured so mercilessly by Anupam Kher, a BJP sympathiser.
The writer-director Gulzar used Mrs Indira Gandhi as the mannequin for his film Aandhi (1975). He gave his heroine Suchitra Sen the pseudonym ‘Aaarti Devi’ but the white-streaked coiffure, the bordered sari, the mannerisms were a piercing parallel, blunted by Gulzar’s discreet treatment of Mrs Gandhi’s vulnerable femininity. The film Aandhi found no favour with Mrs Gandhi’s Congress. It needed a Janata government to permit its release.
For the 2019 elections, Congress is taking no chances. It has chosen Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to play the part of Mrs Indira Gandhi. Not only does she look like her grandmother, she will follow her political script and style. Is it an admission that Rahul Gandhi cannot on his own combat PM Modi? We will know only when the closing credits scroll.