Mission Mangal Review: Mission Possible!

Mission Mangal Review: In 2014, India launched its indigenously made, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) or Mangalyaan and it created history. With a budget lower than Hollywood blockbusters, this was the first time a nation succeeded in the first attempt. Mission Mangal is the story of that mission albeit very dramatized — in a way that only the Hindi film industry can do. Mission Mangal is a typical Akshay Kumar patriotic formulaic movie. From Pad Man to his recent box-office success – Kesari, he has found success by igniting Nationalistic fervour (ironic given his Canadian Citizenship) and patriotic sentiment. Mission Mangal does not stray too far from that tried and tested formula. To its credit, this is more toned down than several of AK’s other recent movies.

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Rakesh Dhawan (Akshay Kumar) is a dedicated scientist at ISRO. After a failed mission, Rakesh is reassigned to the Mars program. His superiors hope that he will lose hope and quit. Even the building housing the mission’s office is decrepit and reflects the lack of confidence in the project. His colleague – Tara Shinde (Vidya Balan) – has the idea of making the Mars project a reality at low cost. Inspiration strikes while she is frying pooris at home (go figure!). They pitch their idea to the authorities and somehow convince them to go along with their idea. However, they do not get the team they want and get an inexperienced ragtag bunch to make the impossible, possible.

Akshay Kumar is at his best in these movies because these roles seem effortless for him now. Vidya Balan steals every scene that she is in, as she plays a scientist fueled by passion. The rest of the cast – Sonakshi Sinha, Taapsee Pannu, Kirthi Kulhari, Nithya Menen, Sharman Joshi, and HG Dattatreya – do well with the material. However, their characters are one dimensional and not fully realized.

The movie does well to explain scientific concepts to the layperson by relating it to real life examples but at times is too simplistic. Some of the action on screen is forced – a song where the gang cleans up the building comes to mind. There is also a very uncomfortable (and frankly unnecessary) scene where Taapsee’s character accidentally grabs a guy by the crotch. The laughs it elicits makes one as uncomfortable as some scenes in Kabir Singh do.

The Mangalyaan mission captured the attention of people across this country because it was the tale of an underdog winning. The movie based on that triumph is funny, entertaining and backed by some great performances especially by Vidya Balan. Let the team of Mission Mangal lift your spirits with some pop patriotism – it is an enjoyable ride.

Rating – 4/5 | Grade – A

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