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Is the ‘PM Narendra Modi’ biopic funded by the opposition?

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Nairita Mukherjee
Nairita MukherjeeMar 19, 2019 | 18:10

Is the ‘PM Narendra Modi’ biopic funded by the opposition?

It's not every day you have a biopic being made, based on the life of your prime minister.

And that's true for any country. But in India, there will be two in just the last six months — first, The Accidental Prime Minister based on Sanjaya Baru’s book of the same name, about our ex-PM Manmohan Singh — and now, PM Narendra Modi, based on the life of our current prime minister, starring Vivek Anand Oberoi.

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The former was critiqued to no end for its cartoonish portrayal of Dr Singh, written off immediately as an opposition-funded reverse propaganda film to malign Dr Singh’s image.

With the first look — actually, nine looks — of Vivek Oberoi as Narendra Modi, apparently in various stages of his life, released recently, the same question is being asked again — is this an opposition-funded reverse propaganda film to malign Modiji’s image? 

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9 times Vivek Oberoi did NOT look like Narendra Modi. (Source: PR image)

It sure looks like it!

And it all started with the casting of Vivek Anand Oberoi.

Of the nine looks released, which shows Vivek from a young RSS worker to a seasoned politician, four seem to be stills from Vivek’s older films — with zero resemblance to the man he is trying to portray.

In one, he is dressed as a mystifying saadhu baba — a popular totem in many Hindi films, but never the main character.

In another, he is dressed as a Sikh man — we don’t quite know why.

Two particular looks of the released nine seem to have a ghostly (nope, it’s not a mistake, I meant ghostly, not ghastly) resemblance to Narendra Modi. But, even there, instead of looking the man, it looks caricaturish, cartoonish — and worst still, potentially damaging so close to the election.

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PM Narendra Modi was slated for an April 12, 2019 release — and phase 1 of the Lok Sabha 2019 elections starts from April 11. And now, in something that can be termed an 'unprecedented move', the release date has been brought forward — from April 12 to April 5.

Still, the question of damaging the image of a viable candidate remains.

And that is why it is imperative we speak about the Nawazuddin Siddiqui starrer Thackeray. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that it was (pretty much) a Shiv Sena film. Aside from the politics of it — which one may or may not agree with — the film was a clean one, with special care taken to ensure Nawaz looked enormously like Bala Saheb.

If anything, this amateurish portrayal of Narendra Modi — with sub-standard and low-budget make-up — will only help the opposition’s case.

All they need to do is wait for the film to release and it will turn into a national joke in no time.

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Last updated: March 19, 2019 | 21:17
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