Review for SHAKUNTALA DEVI:
•Language: HINDI
•Duration: 02 Hours 06 Minutes.
•Genre: BIOGRAPHICAL DRAMA.
• PREMIERED ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEOS.
• REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI.R.VALIYAVEETIL.
•POSITIVES:
1: DIRECTION.
2: STORY, SCREENPLAY & DIALOGUES.
3: PERFORMANCE OF ACTORS.
4: MUSIC AND BACKGROUND SCORE.
5: CINEMATOGRAPHY.
6: EDITING.
•NEGATIVES:
1: PREDICTABLE STORYLINE.
•ONE WORD: A fascinating journey to the world of Shakuntala Devi.
The film unfolds the story of Shakunthala Devi who can solve any kind of mathematical calculations. She migrates to England to look after her family. The world gets fond of her way of doing mathematics and further, she holds a world record on solving the fastest mathematics equation. Eventually, she becomes rich but the relationship with her daughter gets scattered. Rest of the story unfolds the life of Shakunthala Devi and her daughter.
The movie is directed by Anu Menon whereas the story and screenplay are written by Ishita Moitra, the movie comes under the banner of Sony Pictures Networks India and the online distribution is done by Amazon Prime Videos.
First of all the filmmaker, Anu Menon deserves a huge applause for bringing out a beautiful biographical drama. As a world-famous Mathematician, Shakuntala Devi is well known for solving tricky calculations but everyone doesn’t know much about her personal life and in this biographical drama it’s all about her life and her adventurous world of maths.
Starting with the direction, Anu Menon had shown her excellence in filmmaking. The entire direction held by her was passionate about the clever way of engaging execution. In all aspects, the life of Shakuntala Devi was brought effectively by the director without giving any kind of confusions. The interesting fact I found in the direction of Anu Menon was the change of tone, the transition of periods comprising with factors like sentiments, parenthood, romance, humour and betrayal was conducted authentically according to the plot.
The various circumstances wrote in the story faced by the central character have many occurrences of various sentiments and these various human emotions have been brilliantly implemented in the screenplay too. Importantly, the screenplay hasn’t lost any of its grasps not even for a single moment which completely makes the film enjoyable and charming. Like mentioned above the screenwriters had successfully won in writing all the emotions and by the constructively making the entire film as one of the greatest films of this year.
The dialogues written by Ishita Moitra are another winning highlight of the film. Each and every dialogue was amazingly written especially at the emotional scenes. The words written by Ishita Moitra were having the power to contrive the viewers in which one can genuinely feel the depth. None of the dialogues was dramatic and that’s what I liked the most. As a periodical movie, the conversations lead by each character in a different period was according to its times, the taking style was precise. Also in the dialogue, the right rhythm was present in every scenario, especially at the scenes of mother-daughter, all their fight, their love and their sorrows were having the perfect matching words for setting the adequate momentum.
Vidya Balan as Shakuntala Devi was absolutely outstanding, it was her stealing show. I was really speechless by seeing her performance, she was not acting she was living as Shakuntala Devi. It was happy to see her natural way of acting, the stunning way of getting into the character was also extraordinary. The various kinds of emotions which she expresses give the right impact for the plot. The change of behaviour in the character was detained faultlessly, really liked the innocence which she portrays in the first part, also her emotional scenes implies the modest quality acting. Also, the dialogue delivery held specially at the situational comedy scenes was flawless. Sanya Malhotra as Anupama Banerji the daughter of Shakuntala Devi did a terrific performance. Her chemistry with Vidya Balan was strong which gives the true love and affection of a mother and daughter also, the emotional scenes paired with Vidya were mindblowing, and the desperateness of a daughter who lacks the affection of a mother was tackled up ideally. Honestly, it was a delight to watch their sharing combination which clearly makes them a best formidable pair of a loving mother and daughter.
Amit Sadh as Ajay Abay Kumar and Jisshu Sengupta as Paritosh Banerji did a notable performance. Their respective husband roles were interesting and good to watch and both of them did complete justice to their supporting characters. Araina Nand as 8-year old Shakuntala Devi and Spendan Chaturvedi as 12-year-old Shakuntala Devi also did a noteworthy performance.
The musical work for the film is composed by Sachin-Jigar and the background score is tuned by Karan Kulkarni. Among the various composition, the song ’Paheli’ sung by Shreya Ghoshal was too melodious, the tune and magical voice of Shreya had given the true bond of mother-daughter love. Another song called ’Rani Hindustani’ sung by Sunidhi Chauhan made the means of fun to show the manner of the central character. The song ’Jhilmil Piya’ by Benny Dayal and Monali Thakur was nice to set the mood for a romantic date just like in the movie. Also, the song ’Pass Nahi Toh Fail Nahi’ sung by Sunidhi Chauhan was good with a fine match of teacher-student kindness, can’t find in the movie but present in youtube. The background score made by Karan Kulkarni was significant, to formulate the perfect scenarios Karan had given his promising effort. To fix the mood every background tunes were felt realistic particularly at the emotional scenes because those fine tunes will make the viewers feel and realize more depth and intensity.
The cinematography of Keiko Nakahara was awesome, the visuals of Britan was captured impeccably. The lighting technique used in the indoor scenes was also perfect and the various frames showing the combination scenes of Vidya Balan and Sanya Malhotra were appealing to watch. The enditing of Antara Lahiri was favourable with perfect cuts that haven’t given any mismatches in viewing. Credits should be also given to the heads behind who had involved in the Art Department and Costume Department. The periodical changes in the set were realistic and also the various styles in the costumes according to the different periods were meticulous.
So overall the film Shakuntala Devi had given me a best-satisfying experience because of its wonderful making along with the great story and screenplay, really enjoyed the film. The phenomenal performance of Vidya Balan is a treat to watch which won’t disappoint anyone and definitely a worth watch for the big time, just go for it with your family.
• VERDICT: EXCELLENT
• RATING: 4/5.
