Having performed a number of fictional characters on display screen (and one notable actual individual in 83), Pankaj Tripathi is headlining his first biopic now. He performs former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Essential Atal Hoon, a movie by Ravi Jadhav. A day earlier than the movie’s launch, Tripathi speaks to DNA about his portrayal of the statesman and trying to be neutral whereas retelling his story.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a multi-faceted persona, somebody who was a politician, poet, and author all rolled into one. Speaking about attempting to comprise his life in a movie, Tripathi says, “To make a movie on Atal ji’s life in two hours is like attempting to comprise the ocean in a teacup. He led such a grand, huge life that it appears not possible. However even then, Ravi Jadhav and Rishi Virmani picked necessary incidents from his life and weaved them right into a thread in order that it looka like a narrative, which has a starting, a center, and an finish. Our movie is a few political persona however one who was a poet too. So it’s pure that you should have poetry, politics, or his private life that individuals have no idea. Now we have tried to stability all this.”

Political movies in India have usually been accused of taking a aspect. Biopics of each PM Narendra Modi and Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray confronted these accusations. However Tripathi asserts Essential Atal Hoon doesn’t take that route. “We’re telling this story whereas being neutral. We’re presenting his persona in a impartial method. After all, there was ample analysis and the author and the director have their viewpoint whereas narrating this story. I’m simply the car to take that viewpoint ahead. However from what I gathered is that the entire narration could be very neutral, the place no matter they discovered of their analysis, they’ve saved it,” the actor tells us.
However aside from the political slant, biopics in Indian cinema have usually been labelled hagiographies, whitewashing and glorifying the protagonists, be it Sanju or MS Dhoni: The Untold Story. When requested if Essential Atal Hoon additionally stays away from the negatives and controversies of PM Vajpayee’s life, Tripathi says, “I feel the viewers will see all this on the 19^th (the day of the movie’s launch). If I say that there are personalities in which you’ll’t discover something grey or contradictory, then what can we do there. However I assume the reply to this query we are going to get as soon as the movie releases and folks watch it and analyse it.”

Directed by Ravi Jadhav, the movie additionally stars Piyush Mishra, Raja Rameshkumar Sevak, Daya Shankar Pandey amongst others. It’s slated to launch in theatres on January 19.