The biographical movie has seen a resurgence in India in recent years. Biopics have revolved around sports stars such as the athlete Milkha Singh in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013), cricketers M. S. Dhoni in M. S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016), Mohammad Azharuddin in Azhar (2016), and Sachin Tendulkar in Sachin: A Billion Dreams (2016). Films have also been built around other real-life people whose actions in extraordinary, often inimical and daunting conditions become the subject of the biopic: Neerja Bhanot, the flight attendant who died in the 1986 Pan Am hijacking, is portrayed in Neerja (2016); Manjhi, a man who, over twenty-two years, carved a route through a hillock armed with just a hammer and a chisel, is portrayed in Manjhi: The Mountain Man (2015); and Charles Sobhraj, the conman and killer, is portrayed in Main Aur Charles (2015).

The nation figures prominently in the biopics, especially the ones around sporting stars. The family is an equally important theme. They propose, implicitly, a cultural citizenship founded on aspirational models and attitudes. They also embody a complicated, layered aesthetic that conjoins artifice and artifact.

The Notable Subject

Admittedly, the hagiographic biopic bestows a certain immortality upon the “character” of the story. In addition, this immortality is also bestowed through the concentrated attention audiences bring to bear upon the figure. Murray Pomerance writes,

The notability of the subject is the effect of a dual discourse in the biopic. First, the sporting biopics, appropriating the public discourse around figures like Tendulkar, highlight their grandest achievements, which are presented as being nearly miraculous. “Sachin's magic” was a commonly heard comment in connection with his batting, and Dhoni's great powers in finishing off a match to India's advantage was also often deemed miraculous in public discourse.