Maharani, Madam Chief Minister, and the marked shift of focus in Subhash Kapoor's onscreen politics

With Maharani and Madam Chief Minister, Subhash Kapoor seems determined to unearth the heroes in women that the public has already evaluated one way or the other. While these are interesting stories to explore, it also indicates a tactical shift, a clear-up act of his image that continues to trail him.

Bollywood today boasts of several filmmakers who engage with Indian politics in a variety of ways. While some like Anurag Kashyap, Tigmanshu Dhulia, and Vishal Bhardwaj choose to do it subversively, directors like Subash Kapoor and Prakash Jha follow a more knuckle-first approach, tackling Indian politics through its literalities. Of the two, the former has undergone a curious transformation over his decade-long career. With his new show Maharani, Subhash continues to see politics through the red-hot lens of sensationalism and exaggeration, with a recently acquired fondness for the stories of the lower castes.

Subhash's last two creations are a marked shift in terms of his politics, as they go searching for the life-affirming amidst the grimly unpromising. It could be down to a director growing beyond his journalistic instincts or merely a tactical shift in siding with the margins for the purpose of appeasement.

Subhash came in from the cold with Say Salaam India, a two-fold soft exercise in nation appeasement bringing together the two things Indians love the most – an underdog story and cricket. The unremarkable film was followed up by the breakthrough Phas Gaye Re Obama (2010), a satirical comedy of errors that managed to connect India’s sense of desperation with the global economic recession of 2008. Shouldered by terrific actors like Rajat Kapoor, Amit Sial, and Sanjay Mishra, the film written by Subhash was coarse and earthy in its portrayal of Uttar Pradesh and its people. Born and brought up in Eastern UP, Subhash’s familiarity with the geography, and its many caste and cultural complexities, shined through this ensemble piece that despite its moderate technical accomplishments, remains eminently watchable till date.[caption id="attachment_9674091" align="alignnone" width="640"] Still from Phas Gaye Re Obama[/caption]In 2013, Subhash made Jolly LLB (2013), perhaps the definitive moment in his filming career. Taking a small-time lawyer (Jolly) to the high-stakes corridors of Delhi High Court, and transforming him from opportunistic pest to reawakened social warrior, Subhash, though resigned to the system, also presented a way of fighting it – again through the individual. The film, a thrilling, yet comical take on the farce that is the Indian judiciary also gets its teeth into the rich and the elite. It was a marked shift from the defamation of rural India to the takedown of the well-heeled.[caption id="attachment_9674101" align="alignnone" width="640"] Arshad Warsi in Jolly LLB and Akshay Kumar in Jolly LLB 2[/caption]His next was the watchable but messy Guddu Rangeela (2015) that signalled at a hangover from Phas Gaye Re Obama. His next, would be the sequel to Jolly LLB, fronted by the man who cannot let a moralistic ode go by without poking the acting nose in it. That said, Akshay Kumar’s comedic chops can rarely be criticised. This second film, for all its borrowed energy and déjà vus, remains watchable. Now, before we look at what Subhash made next, we must also look back at how the director’s life publically came apart in 2014. Accussed by actress Geetika Tyagi of rape and molestation, and videotaped being slapped by her in a video that went viral, Subhash's public image took a massive beating. All of his subsequent projects have since been through the moral scrutiny of people who remember that episode. Herein lies the crucial connection, maybe, to Subhash’s last two projects Madam Chief Minister and Maharani, both of which came out this year. Two projects, that look at two lower-caste women, who became significant political figures in India's history. One through ambition and the other through chance. Loosely modelled on Mayawati and Rabri Devi, both projects do a decent job of excavating Dalit politics and portraying their suffering. Yet they are marred, somewhat, by Subhash's sense of grandiosity, his over-the-top filing of political character that leaves the boundary between reality and imagination so blurred you cannot tell what is realistic and what is not. There is the obvious explanation that in order to excite and entertain, Subhash overdoes the bits where he can bring in some grace, some life-affirming etiquette. Granted these are stories about India’s rough corners, no man or woman seems to want to take up the mantle of decency and dignity. Maybe. to Subhash's glee, that is the sad truth.[caption id="attachment_9674111" align="alignnone" width="640"] Richa Chadha in Madam Chief Minister[/caption]Subhash's recent projects suggest he has, to an extent, internalised the fallouts of the allegations against him. He seems determined to unearth the heroes in women that the public has already evaluated one way or the other. While these are interesting stories to explore, it also indicates a tactical shift, a clear-up act of Subhash's image that continues to trail him. All that said, Subhash's grasp of the hinterland and his ability to extract drama from local dialects alone is incomparable to many. With that, Subhash is also helping familiarise, however dramatically, India’s urban dwellers with a side of politics they neither engage with nor understand. Whatever the calculated intent behind this recent focus on forgotten women politicians, the results, the excessiveness withstanding, are largely positive, both in terms of education and entertainment. Maharani is streaming on SonyLIV.