Mandela : Long Walk To Freedom

There are great biopics (Lincoln, Gandhi).  There are really bad ones (Bhaag Milkha Bhaag).  And there are the ones that leave you hanging because the impression that you had about the person was just so much bigger that what the movie portrays her/him to be.  For e.g. there was Jobs from 2013 which was closer to bad.  And now we have Mandela – Long Walk To Freedom.

When someone mentions the great man’s name (may his soul rest in peace) you are filled with awe about a life that was gargantuan.  And if there was a biopic made about the man, it had to be the same.  It had to not just be big in terms of casting and mind you Idris Elba was not bad at all.  But after Morgan Freeman had done his bit with Invictus, young Elba had huge shoes to fill.

It is probably there that Justin Chadwick needed to up the ante in terms of overall intensity of narration and screenplay.  In nearly 2.5 hours, there was very little that I saw that made me feel part of the experience.  There was a fleeting moment when the movie covered civil unrest in South Africa, before the elections and Madiba says, “ After so much suffering, why would anyone believe that putting a mark on a piece of paper would change the world”.

That was probably the only moment that the magnitude of the man came to the fore.  For the rest of the movie – before & after this instance – you are searching for inspiration.  You are left a wee bit exasperated because here was an opportunity to truly immortalize Nelson Mandela.  A case of so close yet so far.

To his credit, Chadwick doesn’t shy away from showing aspects of the story like Mandela’s promiscuous youth and infidelity.  He shows the transition of Winnie Mandela from an average everyday person to one who is as angry as can be.  But what they do shy away from is diving deeper into the alleged atrocities during Winnie’s time as the leader of the ANC.

Idris Elba is definitely a strong Mandela and when you look around, you really don’t see too many options in the A-Listers.  That could have been reason to look at local South African talent.  When you look at the local cast like Tony Kgoroge and Riaad Moosa, they appeared upto the task.

At the end of the day, it came as no surprise that Mandela was “snubbed” at the Oscars.  Correction – a snub would be when the movie met the set standards.  Unfortunately, this one did not.  At 6.5 on 10 it is definitely watchable but not the best homage to the "Trouble Maker".

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi287352857/?ref_=tt_ov_vi