'PM Narendra Modi' biopic review: Should you watch?

Film: PM Narendra Modi
Rating: 1/5
Language: Hindi (U)
Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Zarina Wahab, Boman Irani

Let’s start with the name: Why would you have his designation in the title of the movie? It's especially odd as the film ends as his oath-taking ceremony just begins.

This is but a minor flaw, one that most viewers will oversee because they are overwhelmed by the little voice in their head that screams out at practically every scene: “Bullshit! This could not possibly have happened!”

PM Narendra Modi will basically leave Modi’s ardent fans scratching their heads and liberals, tired from their recent meltdown after the election results, wishing the film did, in fact, release when the Model Code of Conduct was on.

But if you are not a Sanghi waiting for goosebumps or a triggered liberal, this film is absolutely gold: few other films would go even near the extent to which PM Narendra Modi trolls itself.

I even have a theory that if it wasn’t Omung Kumar and Vivek Oberoi who made this, and instead some hardcore Modi-hater, they would have probably made the exact same film.

Not that this is not a propaganda film, but that for propaganda to work well, there needs to be some subtlety, which is PM Narendra Modi's great failure.

Here, it’s not enough to be a Modi supporter. The target audience of the film is the sort of people who believe, with full conviction and not the slightest trace of irony, that Modi is God’s greatest gift to India.

The film starts in Modi's childhood. Religious serials in India have a trope where a god, now born into a human family, comes fully equipped with boundless spiritual/philosophical knowledge. Bal Narendra is something like that. He is the sort of kid you probably had in your class and secretly hoped would fall into a ditch for being the teacher's pet.

The film traces the origins of Modi’s dislike of Nehru, the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign and his love for the army, none of which probably is true.

There’s even a scene where Modi, incognito as a Sardar on a bullet, has the police give him a classic Bollywood chase. When Sardar Modi reaches his destination, he begins showering pamphlets on Indira Gandhi and many international delegates from a top floor.

One, to say the least, is left wondering where he had been keeping those pamphlets, and why those sheets don’t obey the laws of physics. One also wonders why since Omung was anyway not planning to base Modi’s biopic on his life (this is as much a biopic as Abraham Lincoln: vampire hunter is), he didn’t go all the way?

There could have been a dance-off between Indira and Modi! They could have got Oberoi to wrestle a bear in the Himalayas, Leonardo DiCaprio-style!

In conclusion, this is not a movie you can miss. It’s so bad, it’s good! Go watch, embrace the inner Sanghi in you.