I saw Sanju on the day of its release and it left me cold. It reaffirmed my view that Bollywood rarely gets biopics right. Bollywood biopics are either adulatory or a complete whitewash because we don’t like to see our heroes flawed. A flawed hero, after all, is Bollywood blasphemy.
Often these films are designed to give a new lease of life to the persons they are modelled on, or they transform into mouthpieces for the wronged central characters for whom they are making amends. Watch Daddy , based on the life of gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli, or Haseena Parkar , based on the life of Dawood Ibrahim’s sister, Haseena Parkar. These characters are not heroes by any stretch of the imagination, but if the film is a biopic, or is even loosely based on some real-life account, Bollywood follows a formula. Even Mary Kom , based on the boxer, or Rang Rasiya , based on the life of Raja Ravi Varma, furthers the myths created around the eponymous central character who is rendered a one-dimensional hero prototype. You ought not to think of these characters as regular people but as demi-gods or goddesses you must admire.
In fact, films such as Mary Kom, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (on Milkha Singh) and M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story have spawned a new genre: the Bollywood sports biopic film. Make a tearjerker rags-to-riches story, eschew all mention of caste and gender politics, include inane songs and some adrenaline-pumping sports sequences, and you have a sanitised Bollywood biopic. These films are mere spectacles. They do not intend to ignite any dialogue, even about things that are wrong with the sports ecosystem in the country.
An exception is Anurag Kashyap’s Mukkabaaz , which chronicles the struggles of a lower caste boxing champion. It is based on research on boxers from lower castes across U.P. and has begun conversations which will hopefully be sustained. The other exceptions in recent memory are Shahid , based on the life of lawyer and human rights activist Shahid Azmi, and Dirty Picture, based on the life of Silk Smitha. Dirty Picture features a deeply flawed female protagonist and exposes the abundant sexism in the film industry.
Coming back to Sanju , it is important to note that director Rajkumar Hirani and actor Sanjay Dutt are friends. In fact, Hirani almost single-handedly turned around Dutt’s career with his much-lauded Munna Bhai franchise. Bollywood’s proverbial bad boy did a role reversal in these films through his encouragement of Gandhigiri, which the audiences found most endearing.
I also often wonder what women are doing in these films. They are just straightjacketed ancillaries in a deeply patriarchal iconography.
But most of these biopics have silences woven into the script. Those, for me, are the real stories: to discover people for who they are and not showpieces meant for adulation.
The writer teaches literary and cultural studies at FLAME University, Pune
