''Thackeray'' is a 2019 Indian

biographical film A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudra ...

written and directed by Abhijit Panse and made simultaneously in

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

and

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

. The film follows the life of

Balasaheb Thackeray Bal Thackeray (; 23 January 1926 – 17 November 2012), also known as Balasaheb Thackeray, was an Indian politician who founded the Shiv Sena, a right-wing pro-Marathi and Hindu nationalist party active mainly in the state of Maharashtra. ...

, the founder of the Indian political party

Shiv Sena Shiv Sena ( IAST: ''Śiva Sēnā'') () was a right-wing to far-right Marathi regionalist and Hindu ultranationalist political party in India founded in 1966 by cartoonist Bal Thackeray. Originally emerging from nativist movements in Bom ...

. The film stars

Nawazuddin Siddiqui Nawazuddin Siddiqui (; born 19 May 1974) is an Indian actor known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is an alumnus of the National School of Drama. Siddiqui's feature film debut was alongside director Prashant Bhargava in ''Patang'' (2012). He ga ...

as Thackeray and

Amrita Rao Amrita Rao (born 7 June 1981), is an Indian actress who is known primarily for her work in Hindi films. Rao made her acting debut in ''Ab Ke Baras'' (2002), which earned her a nomination for Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut in 2003. She su ...

as his wife. The film released on 25 January 2019, right after the 93rd birthday of

Bal Thackeray Bal Thackeray (; 23 January 1926 – 17 November 2012), also known as Balasaheb Thackeray, was an Indian politician who founded the Shiv Sena, a right-wing pro-Marathi and Hindu nationalist party active mainly in the state of Maharashtra. ...

Plot

The film is a biopic based on Marathi politician

Cast

as Meena Thackeray *Mukund Gosavi as

Prabodhankar Thackeray Keshav Sitaram Thackeray (17 September 1885 – 20 November 1973; born Keshav Sitaram Panvelkar, also known as Keshav Sitaram Thakre and Keshav Sitaram Dhodapkar, commonly known by his pen name Prabodhankar Thackeray), was an Indian social refor ...

*Sachin A. Jayavant as

Uddhav Thackeray Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (Marathi pronunciation: d̪ʱːəʋ ʈʰaːkɾeː born 27 July 1960) is an Indian politician who served as the 19th Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 2019 to 2022. He was also the president of Shiv Sena prior to ...

*Vishal Sudarshanwar as

Raj Thackeray Raj Shrikant Thackeray (Marathi pronunciation: �aːd͡ʒ ʈʰaːkɾeː born Swaraj Shrikant Thackeray; 14 June 1968) is an Indian politician and the founding chairperson of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), a regional political party. Raj wa ...

Rajesh Khera Rajesh Khera (''Rājēśa Khērā'') is an Indian television actor and voice actor who has acted in many Hindi films and is remembered for the role of fashion designer Maddy in '' Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin''. He was recently seen as a contender ...

Morarji Desai Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (29 February 1896 – 10 April 1995) was an Indian independence activist and politician who served as the 4th Prime Minister of India between 1977 to 1979 leading the government formed by the Janata Party. During his ...

Sanjay Narvekar Sanjay Narvekar (born 1962) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi and Marathi cinema. He mainly is a Marathi actor, who works in T V shows and films. His portrayal of Raghu (Sanjay Dutt)'s sidekick, "Dedh Footia" (lit. ''One and a half- foot ...

Krishna Desai Krishna Desai (died 5 June 1970) was a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI). He was a Member of Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra who represented the working-class Mumbai constituency of Parel, then a communist stronghold. Desai was m ...

*Praveen Tarde as

Dattaji Salvi Dattaji Salvi (1918-2002) was a leader of Shiv Sena and a trade unionist. He was a member of Maharashtra Legislative Council and was minister of home and labour in the ministry headed by Manohar Joshi Manohar Gaju Joshi (born 2 December 19 ...

Sandeep Khare Sandeep Khare is a Marathi poet, performing artist, actor, singer-songwriter, copywriter from Pune. So far he has published 3 of his books which are poetry collections, namely, 'Kadhi He..Kadhi Te..', 'Maunachi Bhashantare' (The translations ...

Manohar Joshi Manohar Gaju Joshi (born 2 December 1937) is a prominent politician from the state of Maharashtra. He was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 1995 to 1999 and Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2002 to 2004. He is one of the prominent leaders ...

Prakash Belawadi Prakash Belawadi is an Indian theatre artist, film director, television and media personality, who's also a teacher, activist and a journalist. He hails from Bangalore. He has participated in many seminars, conferences and festivals in India an ...

George Fernandes George Mathew Fernandes (3 June 1930 – 29 January 2019) was an Indian trade unionist, statesman, and journalist, who served as the 22nd Defence Minister of India from 1998 until 2004. He was a member of Lok Sabha for over 30 years, starting f ...

*Nikhil Mahajan as

Sharad Pawar Sharad Govindrao Pawar (Marathi pronunciation: �əɾəd̪ pəʋaːɾ born 12 December 1940) is an Indian politician. He has served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra on four occasions. He has held the posts of Minister of Defence and Mini ...

*Avantika Akerekar as

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

Sudhir Mishra Sudhir Mishra (born 22 January 1959) is an Indian film director and screenwriter known for directing the films ''Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi'', ''Dharavi (film), Dharavi'' and ''Chameli (film), Chameli''. Mishra has had a 30-year career, with his ...

as Mastan *Sanjay Kulkarni as

Diwakar Raote Diwakar Raote is a leader of Shiv Sena from Maharashtra. On 5 December 2014 Raote took charge as the Cabinet Minister of Transport in Maharashtra Government. He is also the guardian minister of Parbhani and Nanded Districts. Earlier he was ...

*Mohaniraj Khare as Pramod Navalkar *Prabhakar More as

Wamanrao Mahadik Wamanrao Mahdik (1925-1999) was a leader of Shiv Sena. He was the first Shiv Sena member elected to Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. He was elected from Parel constituency in 1969–70 bypoll. He was mayor of Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also k ...

Ashok Lokhande Ashok Lokhande (born 9 September 1962) is an Indian film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for playing the role of Arun Rathi (Bhabasa) in the Star Plus Show ''Diya Aur Baati Hum'' and its sequel ''Tu Sooraj, Main Saanjh Piyaji'' ...

Yashwantrao Chavan Yashwantrao Balwantrao Chavan (Marathi pronunciation: əʃʋənt̪ɾaːʋ t͡səʋʱaːɳ 12 March 1913 – 25 November 1984) was an Indian politician. He served as the last Chief Minister of Bombay State and the first of Maharashtra after ...

*Praful Samant as

Vasantrao Naik Vasantrao Phulsing Naik (1 July 1913 – 18 August 1979) was an Indian politician who served as Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 1963 until 1975. To this date, he remains as the longest-serving Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Also, he had a c ...

*Abdul Quadir Amin as Jaidev Thackeray *Vidyadhar Paranjape as Subhash Desai *Balaji Deshpande as Rajni Patel *Anand Vikas Potdukhe as

Jambuwantrao Dhote Jambhuwantrao Bapurao Dhote (1939 – 18 February 2017) was an Indian politician. Known by his supporters as ''The Lion of Vidharbha'' & He is son-in-law of veteran Congress leader late Ramrao Adik . Dhote left Congress soon, and founded Vidha ...

*Anil Sutar as

Dada Kondke Krishna "Dada" Kondke (Marathi pronunciation: ̪aːd̪a koːɳɖke 8 August 1932 – 14 March 1998) was an Indian actor and film producer. He was one of the most renowned personalities in Marathi film industry, famous for his double entendre d ...

*Chetan Sharma as

Dilip Vengsarkar Dilip Balwant Vengsarkar (born 6 April 1956) is a former Indian cricketer and a cricket administrator. He was known as one of the foremost exponents of the drive. Along with Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath, he was a key player in the Ind ...

*Ashish Pathode as

Javed Miandad Mohammad Javed Miandad PP SI (Urdu: ; born 12 June 1957), popularly known as Javed Miandad (Urdu: ), is a Pakistani cricket coach, commentator and former cricketer known for his unconventional style of captaincy and batting. ESPNcricinfo desc ...

*Jaywant Wadkar as Police officer *Vineet Sharma as DCP Emmanuel Modak

Soundtrack

The music of the film was composed by

Rohan-Rohan Rohan-Rohan is an Indian music director duo of Hindi and Marathi films, various television series, ad films and web series. The duo consists of Rohan Pradhan and Rohan Gokhale. The duo are known for their work in Marathi and Hindi films includi ...

and

Sandeep Shirodkar Sandeep Shirodkar is an Indian film score composer, music director and record producer. He has also worked as an arranger of songs for other composers. He has composed background scores for notable films like ''Dabangg'', '' Bodyguard'', ''Onc ...

with lyrics by Dr Sunil Jogi, Manoj Yadav and Manndar Cholkar. The film's score was composed by Amar Mohile.

Reception

Critical response

Thackeray received mixed reviews from critics. Times of India gave the film 3 stars out of 5 and states: "While the honesty is commendable, it comes across that the lead character's political motivations lack clarity. Perhaps a more seasoned writer, could have fleshed out Thackeray's characters and eccentricities a lot better. But, its Nawaz's nonchalant performance that overshadows the flaws and leaves a lasting impact."

Times Now Times Now is an English news channel in India owned and operated by The Times Group. The channel launched on 23 January 2006 in partnership with Reuters. It is a pay television throughout India. Until 2016, it was India's most popular and the m ...

went with 2.5 stars out of 5 and has to say: "A lot of focus is put on making the film a tearjerker by emphasizing the aftermath of the riots, violence and fights that pretty much summed up Shiv Sena's history under the guidance of founder, Bal Thackeray. The film is good because of Nawazuddin's performance but it cannot be considered as one of the best biopics ever created." The life time domestic Box office collection is as per

Taran Adarsh Taran Adarsh (born 13 June 1965) is an Indian film critic and trade analyst. He is best known for giving trade figures and box office updates on social media. Career Taran Adarsh started his journalism career at the age of 15 with ''Trade Gui ...

. Raut also plans to continue the film with a sequel.

Controversy

Popular

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

and

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

actor Siddharth has slammed

for abusing South Indians.

“Nawazuddin has repeated 'Uthao lungi bajao pungi' (lift the lungi and *'#$ him) in the film #Thackeray. Clearly hate speech against South Indians... In a film glorifying the person who said it! Are you planning to make money out of this propaganda? Stop selling hate! Scary stuff!"

References

External links

* * * {{Portal bar, India, Film, Bollywood 2019 films Films scored by Rohan-Rohan Films scored by Sandeep Shirodkar 2010s Hindi-language films Indian biographical films Indian films based on actual events Indian political films Indian multilingual films Viacom18 Studios films Biographical films about politicians Cultural depictions of Indira Gandhi Cultural depictions of prime ministers of India 2019 multilingual films 2010s Marathi-language films Bal Thackeray Morarji Desai Thackeray family Cultural depictions of cricketers Cultural depictions of actors Cultural depictions of Indian men