Governor: The Silent Saviour (Hindi) – My Flash Review: Untold story of 1991

In post-Independence India, 1991 is by far the most significant year. While the year is remembered for the advent of economic reforms and liberalisation, other notable events also occurred. The Gulf War, which triggered the forex crisis in India, and the tragic assassination of Rajiv Gandhi both happened in the same year. There were other significant events that precipitated the economic crisis and forced our hand to kick-start reforms and unshackle the economy. This film, Governor, based on facts but mixed with fiction for mass consumption on the big screen, focuses on the action at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in Bombay while the country was dogged by crisis after crisis.

Before the reforms were unleashed by then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh under the leadership of Narasimha Rao, India was in a phase of political instability, with minority governments propped up from outside. The minority government under Chandrasekhar had to make certain crucial decisions to avert sovereign defaults, which would otherwise have been difficult to take. First was allowing US warplanes engaged in the Gulf War to refuel in Bombay. Second was the decision to mortgage gold reserves with the RBI in the UK for short-term foreign exchange to pay our oil and other import bills. Both decisions were politically sensitive but imperative at the time. This film shows in detail the circumstances leading up to these decisions at the RBI and how they were eventually implemented under extreme pressure.

Obviously, in telling what otherwise would be a very dreary bureaucratic story, the writers and the director have laboured hard to add drama and heighten the tension in the screenplay. In doing so, as the tagline in the title suggests, they try to make the RBI Governor Venkitaramanan almost a Dhurandhar of sorts! This is, of course, par for the course in storytelling about real-life events, but the film struggles with oversimplifying complex issues like India’s forex crisis and the Governor single-handedly finding solutions from domestic situations at home and the lives of his office staff.

I remember author and commentator Shankkar Aiyyar, then a journalist with the Indian Express, breaking the story on the front page that India’s gold was being shipped to the UK with extreme stealth. The issue of India allowing US planes to be refuelled rocked Parliament and forced the then Chandrasekhar government to pause it after the initial few instances. In this film, a journalist also trails these stories and breaks them in the newspaper. Setting aside the forced scenes to keep the story gripping, the film does a good job of showing a lot of detail.

The writing team also follows a well-worn screenplay template for such films, with characters that are too predictable and sequences seen in more than a dozen similar films, such as showing the daughter of an RBI peon preparing for the IAS and cracking it at the end, and the dad saluting her as she leaves for her office on her first day.

Manoj Bajpayee is the RBI governor in question. He acts well, but these days he overacts a lot too. I wonder why the makers couldn’t find a South Indian actor for this role, since the governor is Tamilian and speaks little Hindi. In the role of the Deputy RBI Governor, Dr Rangarajan, the film portrays a Malayali character. I again wonder why. Rangarajan also played a crucial role in these decisions and the ones that followed, such as the back-to-back depreciation of the Rupee against the dollar.

Governor: The Silent Saviour is an interesting film and a good watch for those who want to understand the history and background of the events. But in terms of cinematic craft, the film is just okay. This could have worked well as a documentary, but who watches them?

My Flash Verdict: A Good watch.