Film: The Accidental Prime Minister
Year of release: 2019
Spoken by: Anupam Kher (Dr Manmohan Singh)
Spoken to: Akshaye Khanna (Sanjaya Baru)
Dialogue writer: Mayank Tewari (and 4 others)
This film will be always be a dark spot on Anupam Kher. Though he has gone over the top in some films, he has generally been a competent actor. In this film, in his desire to please certain people, he tries so hard to look stupid and spineless, that he really destroys the film single handedly. Many have categorised this film as pure propaganda. I think the film is better than that and even if they took a rookie actor from some wannabe acting school to play Dr MMS and remade the film - it will be a far better film. It's still not as bad as it was made out to be. Unfortunately the main actor completely misses the plot. However this dialogue resonates with me. As I grow older, I completely agree with it. Hence it needs a place on my blog.
Although there is a disclaimer at the beginning that this is a fictionalised account and bears no resemblance to any real characters, I fail to understand what that means, when the characters are called Sonia Gandhi, P Chidambaram, Sanjaya Baru, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh. But I will also play along and assume no such real characters exist. So a certain minister called Jairam Ramesh supposedly leaks a letter written by someone called Sonia Gandhi. An irate Prime Minister calls Jairam and remonstrates with him. He also warns him not to repeat it. As Jairam leaves, Sanjaya enters. Sanjaya asks,
"Sir, Jairam kaafi upset lag rahe the?"
Dr Manmohan Singh answers,
"ek age ke baad, DaanT khaane ki capacity kam ho jaati hai"
What a lovely insight! Delivered unfortunately in a lousy way by an otherwise competent actor. Such a tragedy. Just imagine how an Irrfan or Nawaaz would have delivered it. Or Anupam's current bete noire Naseer!