Modi has won Varanasi. India 2019 too. The Modi-led BJP is looking at its second consecutive Lok Sabha win. And in the theatres, Vivek Oberoi is teaching people the recipe for the perfect bed, err morning tea. The tea with adrak and elaichi and Amul milk that can open your eyes and make you see the Modi wave that India is embracing for the next five years. In Omung Kumar’s PM Narendra Modi, the biggest takeaway is this tea straight from a Sanjeev Kapoor show. Everything else is what we’ve already seen happening in front of us in the past years that the word ‘Modi’ been part of our vocabulary.
PM Narendra Modi traces the journey of our Prime Minister from his tea-selling days to his days spent rallying for desh and deshwasi. The film, ‘biopic’, ends with Modi taking oath as India’s Prime Minister after his landslide win in 2014. If only Vivek Oberoi and Co. would have waited a few more days. We could have seen 2019 too. Maybe a sequel is on its way, who knows.
But credit where it is due. Vivek Oberoi couldn’t have asked for a better Bollywood comeback. He did not have to act in the film. His impression of Modi is so off point that through the 2-hour-15-minute film, you are constantly comparing him to our Prime Minister and thinking… maybe Modi IS a better actor than Oberoi. At least the Prime Minister speaks his speeches with conviction, can look into people’s eyes and promise achchhe din and win the country a second time.
Vivek Oberoi fades in front of Modi the leader. Because when you play a man as in the public eye as Narendra Modi, you need to be bloody sure of your art. Vivek Oberoi does a half-hearted job of playing Modi. He grimaces, makes strange faces and tries expressing himself from behind that beard and mustache, but falls terribly short of playing our man at the Centre. Meanwhile, the number of greys and black hair in his eyebrows keeps fluctuating.
