Anupam Kher to play Rabindranath Tagore in a biopic but the question is why

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high…” That’s how the English translation of one of Rabindranath Tagore’s most quoted Bangla poems goes. But with a new Tagore biopic in the works at Bollywood, the minds of Tagore loyalists might bear some fear inside for now the bearded bard is to be played by Anupam Kher. 

In an Instagram post from July 8 (Saturday), the veteran actor took to Instagram to reveal a production still from what he claims is his 538th project. With the film being a Tagore biopic, Kher appeared to sport the flowing, white beard synonymous with the Bengali thespian while wearing a dark jobba, a fashion amalgamation that Tagore had come up with by combining the Japanese kimono and the Sikkimese bakhu. 

While many of the comments on Kher’s Instagram post cheered on for the actor’s next step, some also raised questions on the burden of accurately playing a Renaissance Man like Tagore. 

Kher seems to be a peculiar choice given that his last tryst with the biopic genre was the critically-panned The Accidental Prime Minister. While he has portrayed Sikh sardar men in previous roles such as his Golden Globe-nominated performance in Bend It Like Beckham, Kher’s portrayal of former Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh came off as a laughable caricature rather than the real deal. 

This one performance can obviously not challenge Kher’s other dramatic performances but he is also arguably relying on some hammy acting these days. 2022’s polarising hit The Kashmir Files, for instance, made Kher win a couple of awards but it can be argued that his performance as the trauma-struck Kashmiri Pandit Pushkar Nath meandered more towards Kher’s overacting.

To portray the multi-talented Bengali, Kher must rely less on melodramatic theatrics and more on his understated performances such as A Wednesday or Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara. Also, it doesn't help that Kher has not dabbled in any Bengali films before. Here's hoping that he doesn't stick to Bollywood's "oodi baba" stereotypes!

Then, there’s also the issue of Tagore’s politics. The Nobel laureate’s artistic ventures like literature, theatre, and music (Rabindra Sangeet) can be conveniently touched upon but what about Tagore’s political thoughts? The idealist’s anti-imperialist literature itself proves his denouncement of colonialism and in 1919, he also notably shunned his knighthood after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. 

But at the same time, Tagore penned essays critiquing Gandhism and the Swadeshi Movement and even denounced nationalism. Following his visits to World War II-era Germany, he critiqued Nazi ideology and delivered speeches arguing that “a nation is that aspect which a whole population assumes when organised for a mechanical purpose”. Most of these thoughts were later compiled in a book, simply titled Nationalism. 

Despite this, Tagore was a patriot to the cause of freedom. After all, the man ended up writing two countries’ national anthems! But his enigmatic politics would require tasteful execution in the Anupam Kher-starrer. And if the actor himself has some creative control over the project, one can only hope that Tagore’s portrayal is not driven by any inaccurate propaganda. 

Kher has never shied away from unabashedly expressing his admiration for the PM Narendra Modi-led Bhartiya Janata Party. His personal politics have seeped into both The Accidental Prime Minister and The Kashmir Files in some way or the other. Admirers of Tagore can only cross their fingers with the hopes that Kher doesn’t turn the Tagore biopic into another propaganda vehicle. 

“Nationalism is a cruel epidemic of evil that is sweeping over the human world of the present age.” -Rabindranath Tagore