The era of Bollywood that makes movies on Indian history and Indian history-making people, has been a bittersweet success; bitter because facing history, from whichever narrative true or false, is challenging and opens up scars for a people who think therapy is bougie. And sweet because, well, Bollywood is quite good at this game.

‘Emergency,’ a 2025 historic bio-drama, impeccably got right what season 8 of Game of Thrones got wrong; the ‘Mad Queen Character Arc’.

Now I understand the moral implications of comparing such a historically acclaimed and respected personality like Indira Gandhi with a rather promiscuous character from a fairly controversial television series, like Daenerys Targaryen. But come one, it’s a really fun idea to compare how screenwriters and storytellers from across the world portrayed their versions of this iconic trope.

Like any historical bio-drama, we are shown Indira Gandhi’s familial conflicts and her rise in the political ladder of newly-formed India. She gathers her footing on the political world stage in her first term as Prime Minister. She is shown battling the current of being a woman of such ‘sakta’ or ‘power’ in a “man’s world”. Time and again, we are shown snippets of how the men around her think she’s just the daughter of the elite with a squeaky voice who can’t hold her own.

So we see as she grows and gains an iron fist with which to command her men. Her confidence was never the problem; the girl was groomed on the principles of power. The problem was her authority to never be challenged. And with the environment she had to work in, it was basically a constant threat.

The thing is, and this I consider so beautiful and realistic, is that she never really changes herself for these unfair conditions. She wears and presents herself the same way. Her body language, the subtle lip pursing, and head tilts always stay the same. Her love for her spoiled son is the same. What changes are her instincts.

She changes from the Indira who reacts calmly to the misogynist remarks from her military generals to the one who squeezes the throat of the press and imprisons anyone who’s against her. She goes from the Indira who gave wise and bold retorts to Western powers to safeguard her people’s rights to the Indira who would enforce an emergency just to clutch onto her power.

This is her gradient into the mad Queen.

Kangana Ranaut delivers a hall-mark-ing line here that seals Indira’s descent into her Mad-Queen Arc:

“If I can fight against the world for their (the people of India) rights, I can also fight against them for my own rights.”

Now, that’s just wrong justification-ing, and we can see that our protagonist’s moral compass has gone astray. This moral holocaust lasts quite a while. During this time, the entirety of Indian people suffered severely. She loses the people’s trust.

And slowly but surely, one thing in her still tried to bend her back. Her conscience. It is an utterly horrible and deplorable feeling. And it’s grounded for every person. Indira knows she has committed horrible, unspeakable acts, her conscience knows it, but she cannot, for the life of her, come to accept that she did this wrong. It cannot be stated in words how hard this act is. Of once having gone so, so far and deep into your hole of dark instincts, that when you finally become aware of your atrocious acts, it’s just impossible to bring yourself to accept that you messed up that badly.

It’s not easy. She has her demons. And she has to fight them. She has been

“…riding on a vicious and terrifying tiger, and she fears that if she comes off it, it will devour her as well.”

But she must. It takes a long, long time. But she does. This is her rebirth. She lifts the emergency and holds elections and loses. But in this rebirth, she has redefined defeat. Even when she is imprisoned, her whole perspective is anew.

And she starts blending into the people a bit more and slowly but surely gains their trust back. She remembers her purpose. It wasn’t supposed to be the lust for power, but rather her passion for her motherland. She goes into her second term as Prime Minister with this resolve, and frankly, it was so beautifully arousing to watch.

This arc is so beautiful because the viewer is allowed to breathe with it. We understand her motive all along her journey. Nothing ever seems out of place or not-reasoned-for. And with her story’s end, we are given another poetic cue. The words that were once almost a narcissistic slogan, then a power-hungry justification:

“Indira is India and India is Indira”

Metamorphose to show her redemption and rebirth, and her embracing her true purpose:

“Indira can go but India must go on.”

Now I have no comment for the history buffs because I am the last person to know anything candid about India’s history. Half of my knowledge was just turned on its head as I have just been educated about Operation Searchlight and the genocide of the Bengali people that Pakistan’s dictators committed.

So, on the bright side, I shall say it’s a must-watch for historical-political-thriller-enthusiasts. But I will recommend this, as this movie was unlike other political dramas because it dealt with Indira almost perfectly. They didn’t show too much of her personal life, but took us along with her long journey so that we understood her every motive and every decision. They let her character breathe rather than rushing into her historical moments. I really appreciate that for the filmmakers. That’s something GOT writers couldn’t get right.

I wish upon you undisturbed watching hours and the utmost contentment with your unfolding character arcs in these times.