praveen77

Mission Mangal is reminiscent of most of Akshay Kumar's well-meaning social issue movies; perfectly nice and watchable, but tinged with a slight regret that more could have been done with such an interesting theme. What could have been an ambitious effort in the right hands, a stab at posterity, instead turns into a decent enough, yet not wholly memorable experience. This falls right in line with other attempts by Akshay Kumar such as Toilet-Ek Prem Katha and Padman.

The movie starts off with a look at a failed launch of a lunar probe, for which the head of the project, Kumar's Dhawan, takes the fall though the primary misjudgment lay with Vidya Balan's character. Banished to the outlands of the far from feasible (so they think) Mars mission, he is joined by a guilt-ridden Vidya Balan. They are joined by a team of mostly inexperienced ISRO members, each of whom have their own arcs. Most of this is believable. For example, Nitya Menen plays a character who worries about getting to look like an 'aloo', while desperately wishing for a child with her husband. Tapsee plays a woman wanting to learn driving in order to become more independent. There is an older member of the team who is just counting the days till retirement. Apart from these, there are some standard tropes which a movie usually introduces to show that it is also 'topical'. Kriti Kulhari plays a Muslim divorcee who finds it tough to get rental accommodations, while Sonakshi Sinha is the typical 'modern' woman who sleeps around and prefers to work for NASA than ISRO. Sharman Joshi, in a relevant film after a while, plays a bachelor hoping for his kundli to match for marriage rather than for a successful Mangal mission.

But it's really Vidya Balan's character, as mostly happens in a film starring her, who steals the thunder here. Her Tara Shinde is, at the outset, the typical Indian working mom. She takes care of most of the household chores, has a mostly unsupportive and mildly chauvinistic husband, gets all the blame for kids going haywire and keeps a respectable job. But there is more steel to her than meets the eye. She is perfectly capable of standing up to her husband in a firm, yet gentle manner and keeping her kids on the straight and narrow when it's needed. In fact, the more I think of it, the more it seems it's her character which saved the movie from total mediocrity. And it's her idea of saving the fuel to make up for lesser funds which kickstarts the whole process. From then on the film mostly follows the standard underdog template, though they do a reasonably good job of dumbing down the science for us mere mortals to grasp the specifics.

There are some parts though where the film flounders in trying to conform to Bollywood tropes. Seeing the ladies with brooms trying to dance around was hugely not in tune with the rest of their characterizations. Also, did there really need to be such an obvious antagonist to Kumar's Dhawan in Dalip Tahil? But, as I said above, Akshay Kumar's movies do tend to reach more people than the average critic-friendly film. And if his attempts at social education does help important topics get more traction, maybe we should begrudge the effort but instead should praise it for what it does well. All in all, I would say this is a fine example of a family friendly social entertainer.

Whatever be one's opinion on the movie as a whole, there can be no denying the impact it had for the better on Malayalam Cinema. This was a landmark film in Malayalam movie history simply because it marked the definite turning of the tide from the mediocre and mostly sub-par work which was being churned out of this once luminous film industry. Speaking as someone who was depressed at the state of Malayalam cinema in the first decade of the 21st century, I am eternally grateful to the whole team behind this masterstroke of a movie, especially its director, Rajesh Pillai. Because post this, it looked like our cinema just couldn't stop being experimental. I can unabashedly say that I am a huge fan of new age Malayalam cinema and its embracing of modern storytelling themes. But without this to lay down the marker and challenge an audience which seemed to be creeping into acceptance of the superstar parodies of neighboring states, the change may not have taken wings.

The premise is simple. A famous actor's daughter is dying and needs a heart transplant. An accident happens and a matching donor is suddenly found. Now it's a question of getting the heart from one city to the other in the middle of rush hour traffic in a couple of hours so that the transplant can be done before it is futile. But the emotional trip this puts us through is what the movie is all about. Adrenalin rush at one point, emotional outbursts at another point, a whole host of characters are brought together in intersecting story lines. They all perform well, but special mention must go to Lena and Kunchako Boban, both in stereotype defying roles which probably resurrected their careers. However, after a long time in Malayalam, here was a movie which rather than being noticed for superstar actors had instead a superstar script, and found overwhelming acceptance from a state known for its acceptance of good films but deprived of the same at the time.

Sadly though, Rajesh Pillai passed away recently. His first movie was the forgettable Hridayathil Sookshikaam (Kunchako Boban and Bhavana in the lead) and he disappeared from the scene for a while before unleashing this thunderbolt out of the blue. His subsequent movies didn't live up to the almost impossible expectations this one set, though I did like the pleasant Milli. However sad his passing, we can have the consolation that he left behind such an epoch defying movie for us to savor.

This is an almost genius piece of film making. Dileesh Pothen's 'Maheshinte Prathikaram' brought Fahad Fazil back into the fold in a big way but it was a movie which grew on me, after being a little underwhelmed by it on first viewing. But here, he grips you from the start and never really lets go till the end credits roll.

Fahad Fazil continues his fine form, but I would consider him to be more of an admirable supporting foil here. The movie's main protagonists are the couple played by Suraj Venjaramoodu and newcomer Nimisha Sajayan. After a realistically humorous mix up on first meet, they have a furtive romance before tying the knot. While traveling in a bus, a thief (Fahad Fazil) is caught in the act of stealing her gold necklace. While she is adamant that she saw him gulping it down, he protests his innocence to the police.

In fact, I would say it is the scenes at the police station that elevates this film to another level completely. The brilliance of the narration is in the way it makes everything seem so utterly realistic, and yet peppy and satirically humorous in its enactment on screen. The police officers here are not black or white, but like most people occupy the gray area in between. While genuinely wanting to help resolve the conflict here, they also cannot help but try to twist things to suit their perspective at various points in the story. The resolution when it eventually comes is probably the best they could have done with this wacky beautiful film.

Performances are uniformly brilliant. Suraj Venjaramoodu has been finally stepping away from his trademark buffoonery act in recent times, but this has to be one of his finest roles. The utter realism he brings to screen of a common man stuck in a little bit of a muddle and trying his best to resolve it is exemplary. Nimisha Sajayan maybe a newcomer, but she seems perfect for this – again a realistic blend of spunk and sass, yet vulnerable to the events around her. Suraj's chemistry, both with her and with Fahad Fazil is another clincher – it couldn't be better. The police officers, led by Alencier Ley, are all obviously fine actors who have got roles to shine and grab the opportunity.

Movies like this don't come along often. When they do, they deserve every accolade and recognition they get. A must MUST watch.