Thackeray is a propaganda film that aims to lionise the Shiv Sena founder

More than anything else, Thackeray is a refresher course on the modern history of a city of paradoxes

It is revealing to watch news clips showing Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray hosting Pakistani cricketer Javed Miandad at his Mumbai home in 2004. Thackeray, the original “Hindu hruday samrat” (emperor of Hindu hearts), laughs as he admiringly recalls Miandad hitting the famous last-ball sixer that scarred a generation of Indian cricketers and fans. And he adds, incredibly, that he has nothing against cricket between the two rival nations. For a section of the TV press this rare conciliatory comment from the nativist politician amounted to perfidy.
 
The Miandad meeting is recreated in Thackeray, a bilingual biopic starring Nawazuddin