Mission Mangal Review: A successful take-off

Mission Mangal (2019), directed by Jagan Shakti, steers away from all that I feared and carves a niche in the Space film genre.

From L to R: Nithya Menen (as Varsha Pillai), H.G Dattatreya (as Ananth Iyer), Taapsee Pannu (as Kritika Aggarwal), Akshay Kumar (as Rakesh Dhawan), Vidya Balan (as Tara Shinde), Sharman Joshi (as Parameshwar Naidu), Sonakshi Sinha (as Eka Gandhi), Kirti Kulhari (as Neha Siddiqui)

Initially I was hesitant to watch the film after seeing the cast. Albeit the prolific cast, I was still recovering from Padman. Women in that film were either whack or mere props. Poor Sonam. But afterall, it was PadMAN. I was not ready to see five actresses' roles get watered down in the midst of a superstar. Something that happens way too often in Indian Cinema. Well, to my surprise, this film was nothing like that. Thank you Jagan Shakti and Thank you Akshay Kumar. Thank you for helping this movie reach the nooks and corners of the world.

There are so many things that happened in the film that make me want to say this is undoubtedly one of the better films Bollywood has produced in 2019.

Let me just get the few things that did not work for me out of the way. Firstly, there's a song sequence where we see the scientists dancing with brooms as they clean their working space. That one scene was quite jarring. Another scene that really put me off was when Kritika's character accidentally grabs her driving instructor's balls instead of the break. Funny? Err...no.

Right from the start, the director has made it clear that he did not cast these 5 women to be saved by the men in the film. In the first scene we see Tara (Vidya Balan) make a huge blunder and Rakesh (Akshay Kumar) saves her from the humiliation and pins the blame on himself. For those few minutes, I thought this was going to slip into the age old Saviour Complex (where the man feels he is responsible to save the woman in trouble). Well, in the next few minutes of the film we see Tara bounce back and propose a new solution to a problem Rakesh faces. Usually we would see the hero save the damsel in distress. Tara saves herself. Well done, girl! Vidya Balan, yet again, hits the ball out of the park. Everyone in the film justified the role given to them but Vidya's character had so much depth and we saw so many different shades of her character.

"THE" Poori making scene

While the Poori making scene got some flak for showing that women are domesticated even in a work setting and all, I tell you - watch the film. There's nothing wrong with a woman cooking or not cooking. Taken out of context, that scene may seem wrong for stereotyping a woman at her workplace. However, in the film, she's merely drawing her life experiences and adding value to her work. Once again, Good Job Girl!

Moving on to the men in the film...What a variety! On one hand, we see a middle-aged man who can't wait for his wife to resign and take care of his kids. On the other hand, we see an injured soldier who encourages his wife to go live her dream and serve her country. We see an old man who helps out his wife in the kitchen. The subtlety of this particular scene normalises such behaviour and that makes them even more beautiful. I can't get over how some male characters were so beautifully portrayed. In a mainstream Bollywood film with a superstar, you don't get that everyday.

Each one of these women battle various personal issues. Through these personal ordeals, the director tried to offer his commentary on some social issues. Varsha's mother-in-law constantly nags at her for not having children. Eventually she and her husband try to conceive through IVF and succeed. There's a line she says that really, I mean really, impressed me. She says, "I don't want it to seem like we are having this kid because of her pressure." My friends, she had a choice. Women in this film are able to make choices. Just through that one line, the director makes it clear that they are having this kid because they want to. Not because they have to. Something so simple to understand portrayed impeccably through that one line. Through Neha's challenge to find a home to stay in, we see the prejudices a divorced muslim woman faces. Through Tara's struggle to manage her home and her work, we see the need for an important support system at home for working women. While on one hand her husband kept wanting her to quit her job, her son kept telling her to never give up on her dream.

Why did I say that this film carves a niche in the Space Film genre? One thing I love about Bollywood is their songs and dance sequences. Other than a very amped song that leads you in the climax, the director addressed some truly Indian doubts and practices (such as Astrology) in the film.

Particularly, why do you still believe in God if you believe in Science? (Pretty good question I must say!)

As the movie progresses and we get a peep into the lives of these women (unfortunately, we do not really learn much about Rakesh's life other than the fact that he is very very very single), we too root for them to succeed. When the satellite finally lands on Mars, you can't help but to shed a tear or two. It isn't a fact anymore. It is a story - one which you personally know people who were involved.

The film is based on a REAL achievement which thousands of supermen and superwomen were a part of. Here's a little sneak peak: https://www.cntraveller.in/story/mission-mangal-true-story-real-isro-women-who-powered-india-mission-to-mars-mangalyaan/