Mumbai, September 6, 2004
Agence France-Presse
For 26-year-old actress Purva Parag, playing the role of one of the
world's most powerful women, Sonia Gandhi, president of the Congress
party, is a daunting task.
Parag spends most of her time reading books, watching
the news and studying videos of Gandhi -- how she walks, how she talks,
how she adjusts her sari to cover her head, how she smiles and how she
interacts with others.
"I am trying to see through her eyes," said
Parag, who is playing the lead in a medium-budget film called Sonia,
Sonia set for release in December.
Purva Parag, who plays Sonia Gandhi in the forthcoming Sonia, Sonia
"The film is not about Gandhi as a political person but it traces
the journey of a young girl from her home in Italy to India and then
to becoming the world's third most powerful woman. This journey is very
important."
Last month, US business magazine Forbes declared Gandhi,
57, the world's third most powerful woman after US national security
adviser Condoleezza Rice and Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi.
Gandhi won the accolade despite her sensational refusal
to become India's prime minister after having led her party to an upset
victory in April-May national elections.
She instead nominated former finance minister Manmohan
Singh to lead the world's largest democracy, though she remains chairwoman
of the Congress-led ruling coalition.
"No other woman in recent times has been more widely
revered in India than Gandhi," Forbes said.
"Gandhi gets to reign over her beloved country
anyway without having to take responsibility for any mistakes the government
might make. With political skills like this anyone would think she had
been born a Gandhi, and not simply had married into India's most famous
political dynasty."
Inspired by her growing power, filmaker TD Kumar decided to make a film
on her life story.
The feature, the first in recent years on any living
Indian politician, is a "film within a film" -- centering
around a US-based non-resident Indian who comes to India to make a film
on Gandhi.
The story revolves around the shooting of that film
and team's constant struggle to re-enact history. The story is laced
with high-voltage politics, personal drama and love.
Kumar, who has already made a film on Gandhi's father-in-law
and India's first prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, denies claims by
some critics that he is beatifying her.
"There's no beatification but there is also no
denying that she is the third most powerful woman in the world,"
he said.
"She is an enigma. She gave away the crown and
I was touched by it. My film is a love story -- the story of an Italian
girl's love of India."
Born in Italy into a middle-class family, Sonia Maino
met Rajiv Gandhi at a restaurant in Cambridge, England, where she was
learning English.
The encounter culminated in marriage in 1968 and Sonia
joined Rajiv in his New Delhi home.
She firmly shunned the spotlight and vehemently tried
to prevent Rajiv from entering politics -- even threatening him with
divorce.
But in 1984 when Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her
Sikh bodyguards and Rajiv was asked to take over, she could do nothing
against the wishes of an emotionally charged nation.
Seven years later, her worst fears were proved right
when Rajiv was killed by a woman suicide bomber, leaving her a widow
at the age of 44.
In 1998, when Congress suffered a humiliating defeat
to the right-wing coalition, the aloof former housewife was persuaded
to enter politics to unite the bickering factions of her family's party.
Traversing the length and breath of rural India, mastering
the national language Hindi and always traditionally covering her head
with her plain saris, she moved the voters and in May 2004 led Congress
back to power.
However, constantly attacked by India's Hindu nationalists
for her foreign origin, Gandhi preferred not to stir up another controversy
and gave up prime ministership, saying she was following her "inner
voice".
In the last sequence of Sonia, Sonia, the protagonist
stands in front of a portrait of Rajiv, saying: "I hope I have
proved true to you."