Why biographical movies are just terrible

 

Another day ,another news of an irritating , dull upcoming movie about the life of a prominent politician- this time Indira Gandhi played by Kangana Ranaut.  Telugus to their credit have rejected movies about NTR and YSR Reddy rendering them utter flops. 

The problem with such movies is that they are completely one dimensional and lacking in any insight or artistic merit. The critic Baradwaj Rangan said it best while describing the awful cardboard film Rang Rasiya- "its like reading a wikipedia page". Most of these movies are glorified documentaries or rather hagiographies. A somewhat interesting feature would have some less than appealing details about its main protagonist. Will we explore the well-founded rumor that Indira Gandhi was a sex fiend for which she was expelled from Shanti Niketan? Or her son's obsession with forcible mass sterilization? Of course, no, the Congress government would call for bans and arrest of all involved. Other parties such as BJP, TDP, DMK etc would behave in exactly the same way if they felt that their chosen idols were maligned. So much for the "world's largest democracy". If the script is derived from the PR department of the persons estate, then dont expect it to be a meaningful or even entertaining film in any way

Documentaries are about people. Not movies. Movies are dramatized and fictionalized versions of people which take some liberties for dramatic license and artistic expression to create their own mythology. And this mythology would have some lessons, hopefully allegorical and metaphorical (the average Indian film throw all subtelty out the window and delivers a lecture on the evils of this and that and how we should all be good citizens often with the protagonist facing the camera!!)

Why pick on Bollywood, even Hollywood's biopics are incredibly dull and lifeless. The ones which are indeed successful and entertaining such as Wolf of Wall Street aren't really about the character on whom it is based but rather what he represents and use some of his exploits in the film but consider took many cinematic liberties to get the directors vision across. As I pointed out when I just started this blog- it isn't a very noble vision. But a very well made film nonetheless.

An exception to all this is Paul Schrader's(writer of Taxi Driver and Last Temptation of the Christ) brilliant highly stylized and operatic Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters about an eccentric writer ,filmmaker Yukio Mishima turned right wing traditionalist who insisted that Japanese people in the 1970s reject western decadence(ironic since he was a homosexual who enjoyed western style freedom) and reembrace militarism and the worship of the Emperor and when his appeal to a garrison failed, he committed seppuku.

No one came close to this type of biopic, mostly because a similar character is rare to find, and no one has the courage and moxy of Paul Schrader to make such a film(he was evicted by Mishima's wife from filming on the estate for including his homosexuality in the final cut)