Suman K Sharma
He kills at will. He disposes of billions at a stroke of his pen. No corner of the globe is beyond his reach. The world sits up and listens when he speaks. He can elevate anyone to a high position and bring down the top man of the land to the status of a nobody. Like anyone else, he too has his appetites for good food, sex and entertainment but their fulfillment is the least of his perks. Meet Francis J Underwood, President of the United States, the most powerful man on Earth! Or is he? Barrack Obama remains the POTUS till 2016. We all know that. Here we are talking of the leading character of a Netflix TV 40-episode serial, House of Cards.
Like all good stories, it has a simple idea behind it – pursuit of power at all costs. Denied the position of the Secretary of the State (Foreign Minister) by the newly elected President, Garrett Walker; Francis, House Majority Whip, vows to wreak havoc upon the administration he had tirelessly worked to bring in power. First goes the bespoken Secretary of the State, then the Vice President and eventually the President himself – thanks to Francis’ deft machinations. They fall and up goes Francis, step by assured step.
Francis works like a hurricane that uproots everything obstructing its path, carrying away with it all the rest. Not for him are emotions of love, hatred and even self respect. Cold-bloodedly, he pushes his secret lover, journalist Zoe Barnes, young enough to be his daughter, before a running train when she threatens to become a liability. He digs graves for his political peers, superiors and protégés and gently persuades them, when they have served his ends, to jump into oblivion. Congressman Peter Russo, young, energetic and a man of promise, has fallen to addiction and indiscriminate womanizing. Francis takes him under his wing, brow-beats him to go for de-addiction, convinces him that he is the right material to fill the governor’s position in the state of Pennsylvania. But there are hardly any takers for poor Russo. Francis sets to work upon the people who matter. He buys off Linda Vasquez, President Garrett’s Chief of Staff by exercising his considerable influence to get her son admitted in a college of repute (and we thought such things didn’t happen in dreamland ‘Amreeka!’). He wins over the President’s objections about Russo and at the same time prepares, the Vice President, who is not on good terms with the President, to go back to his old seat of Pennsylvania governor. So what if Russo is Francis’ own candidate. That is part of his grand stratagem: play a weak candidate against the Vice President to make sure that the old man wins. But there would still be Russo to handle. Through his right-hand man Doug, Francis sends a call-girl, Rachel Posner, to lure the ex-addict to hit the bottle again. His chessmen fall in place. Russo is publically discredited as a drunkard, Vice President’s seat falls vacant and the President swears in Francis as his deputy in the Whitehouse. In the process, if Russo, soggy and senseless with whiskey, is left to suffocate in car parked in his own garage (by Francis, who else?), it is passed off as a case of suicide. The man was dispensable in any case. As for the pretty Rachel, she would also be eliminated later at Underwood’s behest. Then comes his master-stroke. He pushes his President into such a web of lies, flimsy cover-ups and shamed-faced admissions that Garrett, poor soul, has no option but to resign. Underwood becomes the US President and goes for yet another round of power play, appointing wife Clair UN ambassador, putting up with the snide remarks of Russian President and preparing himself for the 2016 Presidential elections. There is a scene, rather too strong for finicky viewers, that highlights Francis’ cynicism. As the Supreme Commander of his country’s armed forces, he participates in a commemorative ceremony honoring the heroes of the Civil War. Separating himself from the persistent paparazzi with the plea that he wants a few minutes alone to pay respect to his diseased father, the man walks down to a grave – his father’s – unzips his pants and urinates on it for good measure.
There is another side of this man – one who spends a whole night boozing and pulling pranks with his old friends in a dark corner of his alma mater, the man who often steals to his favourite eatery – a dingy kiosk which would not pass even for a wayside North-Indian dhaba – and shares pleasantries with its down and out owner, Fred. On becoming the US President, he invites Fred and his son over to the Whitehouse and makes his teenage son sit in the Presidential chair. With his wife Claire, Francis shares intimate moments over a single cigarette they both enjoy turn by turn. A tired Doug – his alter ego – can rest his bothered head on his presidential shoulders even after having struck for himself a hush hush deal with his political rival, the redoubtable former Attorney General, Dunbar. President Francis Underwood is fond of video games, building a miniature theatre of the Civil War is his hobby and he insists on polishing his own shoes. Who won’t give their right arm for such an adorable man?
But at end of the day, his own wife and soul-mate, Claire, walks out on him – because what he ultimately cares about is absolute power for himself. That is the comi-tragedy of being the most powerful man.
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