The Craft of the Biopic

THERE IS REALLY very little to pick apart about Sam Bahadur, the biopic of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, who, as chief of army staff, led India to a decisive victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war and the consequence of which was the creation of a new country itself, Bangladesh.Vicky Kaushal dons the role well. The director Meghna Gulzar keeps it straight without descending into jingoism. The period setting is brought alive nicely. The movie, itself, isn’t breaking any box-office records like Animal, which released alongside, but it has still done reasonably well, which means the audience didn’t give up on it after the first weekend. And yet, when you walk out of the theatre, there is the distinct feeling of not be­ing entertained enough, the primary duty of cinema. The reason for that is one that assails most biopics—the filmmaker feels compelled to make a capsule of the entire life of his or her subject in those two or three hours. But all human beings, even those who have made immense contributions, only have some moments of great­ness—the rest of the time, they are as ordinary as the rest of us with not much fodder for drama.

Any enterprise wanting to be true to the subject’s life and not his moments will therefore have to be hostage to some staidness. On the other hand, getting away from the trope can lead to more riveting stuff. A prime example of such a movie is when one of the greatest filmmakers made a biopic on a legendary personality—Steven Spielberg’s opus on Abraham Lincoln. He didn’t worry too much about Lincoln’s lifestory and just took one mo­ment—the passing of a Bill in Congress that made slavery illegal that the US president was completely invested in. Through the events surrounding that episode and Lincoln’s role in it, Spielberg brought to life his character, flaws, the troubled family life and every meaningful aspect of his subject that a good biopic should exhibit even though you didn’t feel like you were watching a biography but a political thriller. If Sam Bahadur were made likewise, revolving around a singular chapter in Manekshaw’s life that de­fined him—say, around the 1971 war— it might have been a livelier project.

There are other ways to make biop­ics. In the one on Steve Jobs written by Aaron Sorkin, the fulcrum that holds it together are the product launches of Apple that its founder is hosting. Sometimes, the conventional form might actually be the best fit, as with A Beautiful Mind on the schizophrenic mathematician John Nash. But here his entire life is relevant because of the mental disease that chases it and so the drama follows. Filmmakers take the tried and tested route because it is just easier and, probably, safer. It is hard to go wrong with a subject like Manekshaw in the hands of a compe­tent director. To stray from the format would be to take a risk with the mate­rial, but it would still be worthwhile for separating the great from the good.

About The Author

Madhavankutty Pillai

Madhavankutty Pillai has no specialisations whatsoever. He is among the last of the generalists. And also Open chief of bureau, Mumbai  

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