'Governor: The Silent Saviour' Movie Review: Manoj Bajpayee’s film is hugely relevant considering today’s economic crisis

Language: Hindi

Director: Chinmay D Mandlekar

Cast:  Manoj Bajpayee, Adah Sharma, Noushad Mohamed Kunju

'Governor: The Silent Saviour'  is a serious watch and not for the ‘massy’ audience. But definitely a movie that will make you think. It is engaging, immersive and most importantly hugely relevant.

The film talks about a pivotal chapter in India’s economic history, when the nation was standing on the verge of bankruptcy in 1990.The movie highlights the outrage around the rising tension amongst the common people. In fact, the film opens with a young businessman burning himself alive on the roads of Mumbai because the bank refused him loans. That time the country’s economy was in doldrums. The common people were not aware that we were heading towards bankruptcy.

‘Governor’ Movie Review: Is India heading towards bankruptcy like 1990, this Manoj Bajpayee film will make you think

Amidst this crisis, the nation had to take a crucial step to save India from collapse. The movie perfectly captures this intense and challenging phase of our country and the one man who saved the nation S. Venkitaramanan played by Manoj Bajpayee. The RBI office took time to even accept him during his initial days, but being a simple man who thought about the wellbeing of his country, he didn’t give up. As it’s mentioned in the film, “Fathers never quit.” There are several such dialogues in the film that are going to move you. S. Venkitaramanan was an IAS officer, who was appointed to lead RBI during that time of acute economic crisis. His rescue strategies did work.

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As usual Manoj Bajpayee’s performance was gripping. Governor is indeed a courageous movie showing the mis-governance during that time. The movie talks deeply about the lesser known chapter of the Indian economic crisis.  The film focuses on the 1990–1991 severe economic crisis when India was on the verge of bankruptcy, facing a severe balance of payments crisis and dwindling foreign exchange reserves. It was this man, S. Venkitaramanan (Manoj Bajpayee) who believed that we can get funds from the IMF and when that didn’t happen he thought of another solution. Venkitaramanan is famously known for authorizing the pledging of India’s gold reserves with the Bank of England and the Union Bank of Switzerland to raise USD 405 million, avoiding a sovereign default. There was huge objection from all quarters on his decision. But he went ahead with it along with the support of the government and his colleagues.

A still from ‘Governor’ movie

Manoj Bajpayee's performance, inspired by true events, was exceptional. If you are going for this movie, let me tell you it isn’t just a piece of entertainment. It is an absolutely serious watch, and you need to be geopolitically aware of what happened then and what’s happening now to understand the gravitas of the situation.

Again, I genuinely felt that Adah Sharma's character as a journalist in the film was completely irrelevant. It didn't add any value to the film; rather, her presence diluted the urgency of the film and made it look frivolous. It is amusing as being a journalist myself that one senior editor can cover so many beats, whether it is aviation, business, or also crime.

Rating: 3 and half (out of 5)

WATCH the trailer of Manoj Bajpayee’s ‘Governor’ movie here