‘Thackeray’ Critics’ Verdict: Nawaz Film Charged With Propaganda

Check out the critics review of ‘Thackeray’.

Film: Thackeray
Director: Abhijit Panse
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Amrita Rao

Excerpts from film reviews of Thackeray:

In the process of exploring the rise of the demagogue, the film makes his thuggery and rank bigotry seem normal. Thackeray proudly resurrects the Sena’s violent campaign against South Indian communities in Mumbai in the ’60s (lumped together under the pejorative term “Madrasi”). The notorious rallying cry “Uthao lungi, bajao pungi” (strip off the lungi, sound the trumpet) has been turned into “Bajao pungi, hatao lungi”, (sound the trumpet, drive away the lungi) but the sentiment brims over with the same hate. All through the revisionism, Thackeray is portrayed as a cool autocrat who enjoys his pipe and cigars and a mug of beer and is a devoted husband to his wife Meena (Amrita Rao). The movie ends with the Shiv Sena’s peak moment in Maharashtra politics – the victory of the Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in the 1995 state elections.

Nandini Ramnath, Scroll.in

At many points while watching Thackeray, I felt uneasy at the propaganda-laden script with its attacks on migrants, majoritarianism view and endorsement of bullying and violence in the guise of nationalism and social service. In one scene, as he speaks to a troubled Muslim family that suffered during the Mumbai riots, the camera pans over a tiger sculpture and, even as Siddiqui speaks, a roar is built into the background music.We only see moments of Thackeray’s vulnerability in his time spent with his wife Meena (Amrita Rao). Otherwise he’s the cricket-loving, beer-drinking, pipe and cigar smoking, roaring ‘tiger’ who can stop cricket matches and call his soldiers to take up arms if required, someone who is single-minded in his political agenda.  

Udita Jhunjhunwala, FirstPost