Leader - My Review

Spoiler alert - If you have not watched the recent Telugu Movie - Leader, please be aware that this post may spoil it for you. To start off, I think I am probably the first one on the planet or at least will belong to a select minority on the planet that have been disappointed by this movie. It is possible, that all the hype generated made me expect way too much from the film. To set the record straight, I certainly liked the overall concept, the gripping screenplay, the characters, the actors and of course the powerful dialogs that hit us when we realize how pathetic the state of Indian politics is. You also have to commend Sekhar Kammula for being bold enough to take the path that has been less traveled. That said, I feel the movie showed and addressed only a part of the overall situation and in my naïve imagination, I was expecting to see Sekhar Kammula show us a complete end to end journey of a ‘Leader’ as he navigates through the Indian political landscape to emerge as a true leader. To make myself clear, here are specifically two things that made me feel the movie fell short in my expectations:

• The way Arjun Prasad plays the game and becomes the CM in the first half of the movie conveyed to me that even if one wants to be an honest politician he needs to have the resources – monetary and contacts to be able to actually reach to a position of some power that can make an impact. So, it seemed like it was Sekhar Kammula’s view on how Y.S Jagan could have reacted during the turmoil A.P went through when his father Y.S Rajasekhar Reddy died unexpectedly and the Congress party was searching for an able successor. This is definitely a clever way to play the system and if only Jagan was like that, it would have certainly brought in a fresh wave of hope to the A.P political scene. However, let’s say someone like JP garu had the same intention, could he have pulled it off given his limited monetary resources? I used to think and imagine that one way to clean the political system is if smart, educated youngsters get into the field, but do they have any hope or chance of succeeding unless they have loads of money to spare like the Scindias, Pilots, Gandhis, Nandamuri clan or the YS clan??? But, they are only a handful.. What about the others like you and me who have the interest, but not necessarily the monetary power? I guess Sekhar best represented what is possible today given the state, but again I was hoping to see something even more smart and heroic by showing a common man do it rather than someone who has thousands of crores freely available.
• Arjun Prasad’s inner turmoil when he realizes he is also becoming just another politician and his transformation into a People’s Leader (independent party, padayatra and all) was all very hard hitting and realistically portrayed, but that is still just the first step. I would have really liked to see how he moved forward after that. So, how does he actually navigate the system and achieve his goals of ‘Avineethi Nirmulana’ and ‘Kula Vyavastha nashanam’ is not shown at all. I expected to see how this young dynamic leader like Arjun Prasad can in fact make the Government more transparent and perhaps bring in a more corporate like results oriented working culture in the Government. Is that a long fetched dream.. can we get there?

Having followed the recent elections in A.P, the turmoil during YSR’s death and the most recent Telengana debacle, I am definitely not disillusioned or naïve to think that the solutions are straightforward and do realize that whatever change we want to see has to start from ourselves and it will still take many many years or generations before we see it take fruit. Oh well, may be there will be a sequel answering my questions or maybe it’s within each of us to find our own answers if we are truly interested. Another way to look at it is: Nobody actually showed the answers or the path to the likes of Bhagat Singh, Subash Chandra Bose, Gandhi, Nehru, etc., They each found their own way during India’s freedom struggle.. Similarly, we each need to find our own path to navigate the important Political struggle that India is going through now… the real question is ‘Do we care to do it right and even if we care, can we dare to do it?’