Chalo Jeete Hain is a 32-minute film on an exceptionally sensitive boy who was confronted with an existential question when he was not even 10 years old: Who do we live for? This boy is a reflection of the childhood of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The movie shows that Narendra wore clean clothes, even took the trouble of ironing his shirt, enjoyed Ramlila, participated in theatre, was a conscious boy, and contemplated sitting by the riverside while his friends would play.

The movie is shot in the Prime Minister’s village, after two-and-a-half months of research put in by young award-winning filmmaker Mangesh Hadawale. This is his third film. The film is produced by Mahaveer Jain and Bhushan Kumar.

A special screening of the film was hosted by none other than the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan at the GMC Balayogi Auditorium located in the Parliament Library building. A casual participant would have assumed it to be a Bharatiya Janata Party event, because hardly anyone was there from other political parties, apart from the staff of the Parliament. There were BJP party workers, leaders, and some lawyers, who were seen sloganeering before and after the screening—“Bharat Mata Ki Jai. Modi Zindabad!”. Top BJP stalwarts were in attendance along with Mahajan, including L. K. Advani, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, and Manoj Tiwari, to name a few.

The plot of the story is simple. Ten-year-old Narendra (he didn’t like his father calling him “Narender”) was from a poor family. His mother worked in other households, and his father ran a tea stall at the local railway station. Narendra helped his father at the tea stall after school. His friend at school, Harish, belonged to a depressed caste, and had to discontinue schooling because he couldn’t afford to buy a uniform.

Narendra participated in a play titled “Yellow Flower”, which portrayed the exploitation of people from lower castes. Narendra was awarded ₹20 for his performance by the village head. He used this money to buy Harish a uniform, and the latter resumed attending the school.

All through the story, the child Narendra kept confronting people, including his father—they seemed perplexed, and the audience loved it—with the same existential question he was grappling with: who do you live for? Finally, he got the answer from his schoolteacher, who evoked the story of the life and death of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. “People remember them for they died for the nation,” the teacher told Narendra.

The film tries to emphasise that Narendra, from his very childhood, knew he would live for others and for the nation. And, as they say, the rest is history.

There’s no doubt that Modi’s rags-to-riches story is not only exceptional, but is a tribute to the Indian democracy.  A son of a chiawallah from a lower caste—as the film vividly portrays—went on to become the prime minister of the largest democracy of the world. No mean feat, that. The film tries to instill that this was possible because Narendra, from an early age, learned to live for others.

The film is well made with nice aerial shots and emotive scenes; the essence of the place and the characters is well-captured. It’s rather an engaging movie—if one was to look at it as a promotional film released a year before the elections. One can’t escape the feeling after watching the film, that nationalism in Narendra dawned as some sort of a spiritual realisation at an early age. He is, undoubtedly, the chosen one by the destiny to lead the nation.

The GMC Balayogi Auditorium was packed. People reserved vacant seats for their friends. When a BJP worker was confronted, “How can you hold on to so many vacant seats when people are standing?”, he presented a wad of cards, as if he had booked the whole auditorium. The people sitting around, fairly amused, had a good laugh. When the matter was reported to the security, they politely refused to intervene.

Sushma Swaraj was mobbed—people were desperate to have selfies with her soon after she arrived to the hall, followed by Mahajan. The last one to walk in was nonagenarian L. K. Advani, a movie buff, who is these days seen in various events that make Modi loyalists raise an eyebrow. A few months ago, Advani attended the launch of a book titled Anita Gets Bail authored by Arun Shourie. Shourie was a minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government, and is lately seen as a staunch critic of Modi. Advani was also seen at the book release function of Karan Thapar’s Devil’s Advocate earlier this week, where Rahul Gandhi eloquently evoked Advani (“Mr Advani will agree with me”) to sermonise to fight, but not hate, an adversary.  

Finally, when the special screening function was to be concluded with a vote of thanks by the producer of the movie, Mahajan expressed her desire to say a few words. She remained in her seat and said, in Hindi, “Today is an auspicious day, we won the Kargil war. This small film has a deep message: who do we live for? People who think like little Narendra can do good to the nation. An inspirational film with a good message. A man with these ideals had done India proud all over the world, and the world looks at India with admiration.”

Chalo Jeete Hain will now be shown at different forums and perhaps will help people understand our prime minister and his motivations better.