FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
IN HER LATEST OTT FILM KATHAL, SANYA MALHOTRA DEMONSTRATES HER TALENT FOR PLAYING RELATABLE CHARACTERS
The recent inauguration of the grand new Parliament building neatly symbolises Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s style of leadership. It was widely acknowledged that an upgraded parliament facility was needed, whether refurbished or new. The proposal had been bandied about for over a decade and the then Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar had even set up a high-powered committee for alternatives to the 1927-vintage building. During his second stint in office, Modi took the bull by its horns and an elegant, state-of-the-art building came up over 65,000 sq. ft within a period of two and a half years. Mindless of an accompanying storm of controversy, its inauguration on May 28 was a spectacle full of pomp and circumstance. That’s Modi for you. Bold and brave in his decisions and actions, regardless of criticism.
As he completes one more year in office, the BJP is projecting his entire nine-year rule. We have covered his first stint in office extensively and therefore have decided to examine his second term as a run-up to the general election next year. This period is unique, as no Indian prime minister has been handed such a poisoned chalice. He has faced an unprecedented, species-threatening pandemic that flung the world economy into a recessionary spiral, and this was followed by the Ukraine conflict, which put further pressure on the economy.
His first term, in many ways, laid the foundation for what was to follow. He realised then that if he was to change India, he had to bring change to the bottom of India’s pyramid—the toiling masses. One of his first initiatives was the introduction of the JAM trinity—Jan Dhan Yojana for opening bank accounts, Aadhaar to establish a unique identity, and mobile connectivity for digitisation. This was combined with the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, as part of which 110 million toilets were built across India, transforming the lives of millions, especially the women. This was followed by schemes dealing with basic necessities like gas connections, affordable housing and electricity. Modi’s only mis-step in the first term was the illconceived demonetisation, when 86.4 per cent of the country’s total currency by value became worthless overnight.
Buoyed by his renewed mandate in May 2019, he got off to a flying start. In July 2019, he criminalised triple talaq; in August, he audaciously abrogated Article 370 to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status; in December, he passed the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act. In early 2020, Covid-19 hit India. In the management of the pandemic, Modi 2.0 came into full form. The lockdown of 2020 was akin to the shock-and-awe methods of Modi 1.0, especially demonetisation, and the second wave of 2021 was particularly harsh. But the regime learnt its lessons. Retracting from panic responses, it got down to serious business. At 2.2 billion vaccine doses, India rolled out the world’s biggest immunisation programme. Pandemic infrastructure expanded dramatically—from 14 testing labs, we now have more than 3,300, private and government included. And Ayushman Bharat brought a safety net to 107.4 million poor families.
The refusal to panic was evident also in the way the economic ‘long Covid’ was handled. What India got was not instant relief by way of monetary largesse. Modi resisted the temptation that even countries like the US succumbed to, and that paid off in terms of a stable economy amid a tottering world. Inflation was crushing, but the alternative could have been anarchic—and an expanding welfare net cushioned the distress.
Most strikingly, Modi turned crisis into opportunity. Big, bold reforms lit up that murky phase—a massive infra push, the Production-Linked Incentive Scheme, the privatisation of Air India, the partial offloading of LIC, defence manufacturing going towards self-reliance, the forces being restructured first with the appointment of a Chief of Defence Staff in 2020 and then through the Agnipath scheme in 2022, the beaver-like Nitin Gadkari ensuring that highways zipped along at more than double the 12-km-a-day speed recorded in 2015, the Nal Jal Yojana, a digital backbone being laid for targeted welfare. For a pandemic period, an impressive roster.
Foreign policy, the domain that tracks India’s graph in the world, was an equally tough mountain to climb. An overbearing China threatened our 3,488-km border along various points of fragility. As the game of attrition went on, experts spoke of wounds both tactical and territorial. But New Delhi hunkered down too, and responded with strategic countermoves with a wider international coalition, especially the Quad. Now, a deeper embrace of the US could have had tricky consequences as the Russia-Ukraine conflict erupted in 2022, but the Modi regime navigated India to a singular path that balanced old ties with new imperatives. Foreign minister S. Jaishankar paid his bills as one of Modi’s ablest ministerial aides. And now, G20 inverts the symbolism of India seeking a place at the high table: it is the host itself. India also decided to plough its own trade policy furrow by not joining large trade blocs like the RCEP and aggressively pursuing bilateral trade agreements.
Go through the following pages put together by our bureaus, and what you see is a gritty negotiator transacting with the future. It’s not a cloudless sky: joblessness is a bane, social harmony remains a problematic area and inflation is intransigent. Going into the home stretch for the big battle of 2024, delivery will be even more key, but you can expect Modi to continue on his path for bold and dramatic actions. For the people will be striking their own deal between present and future.
Q. You seem to have a liking for the small-town young woman, be it Pataakha or Pagglait. What was your approach to playing Mahima, the police officer in Kathal?
My conditioning since my debut film, Dangal, has been that without homework, set pe naa jaaiye, naak kat jaayegi [Go to set well-prepared or risk being embarrassed]. I’ve never been around police officers. Through Kathal, I got to spend time with female officers in Gwalior. One of them said, ‘Hum auratein hain joh aaram se sun paati hain’ [We’re good listeners]. After meeting her, I felt Mahima could be feminine, empathetic and have a gentle quality to her.
Q. This is your fourth Netflix film. Is it hard to say no to Netflix, and more so to Guneet Monga, who also produced Pagglait?
She understands what I like. I didn’t want to do Pagglait because I didn’t have the confidence to shoulder a film. But she changed my mind. I saw how well it was received .... She was excited for Kathal and I felt if she is excited, then I must trust her. She has a good script sense.
We all know that. She has an Oscar.
Q. What do you think OTT has given you as an actor?
A lot of freedom to experiment with the kind of roles I am doing and the scripts I can pick. Not only actors but a lot of people in the industry also feel that now. I have seen a major change in my career and have access to a way bigger audience.
Q. Do you think 2023 is a seminal year for you with films like Jawan and Sam Bahadur?
Definitely. I shot five films back-to-back in 2022. I was jumping from one set to another .... I was doing so much work, but I couldn’t see any of them coming out and judge where my career was going. This year is about sitting back and watching what works for me. Mrs. [a remake of The Great Indian Kitchen] is completely different from Sam. Jawan is another ballgame altogether. It is a big one for me.