‘Parmanu – The Story Of Pokhran’ pre-release survived a lot of controversies and now after watching it, one can understand why John Abraham has put every last of his blood, sweat and tear in this one. Based on a real event, this uncovers various other things educating everyone with what happened in Pokhran.
Ashwat Raina (John Abraham) is a junior bureaucrat who tries to present his plan of testing nuclear bombs to the team of the Prime Minister. Unfortunately, his plan is presented as half-baked and he’s asked to stay out of its execution. The plan fails and the failure is credited to him, which results in his termination. He starts his new life as a civil service teacher in Mussoorie.
Three years later, comes in the scene, Himanshu Shukla (Boman Irani), the new Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, and he asks Ashwat to resume his plan which was left incomplete in 1995. Ashwat, comes to his ‘Deadpool’ mode and starts building up a team to execute the mission of testing multiple nuclear bombs in Pokhran. Tucking way from the America’s Lacrosse satellites, how the team executes this covert mission is what the story is about.
‘Parmanu – The Story Of Pokhran’ is up to the level of ‘Airlift’ and ‘Baby’; it forces you to imagine how it would have been directed by Neeraj Pandey and we’ve Akshay Kumar delivering the lines instead of John Abraham. This somewhere reminds one of James Cagney’s classic ’13 Rue Madeleine’ because of how the proceedings take place by India fooling the US satellites. No movie is termed as a classic until it has some flaws in it and ‘Parmanu’ contains some fair share of loopholes. It has given a treatment that a thriller deserves, making you sit on the edge of your seat till the end.
The climax packs a solid punch and will leave everyone in shock. One better thing about the film is that it never crosses the line of patriotism to be a jingoistic affair. It had a lot of chances to throw up pop-patriotism but Abhishek Sharma makes sure not to take the story for granted. We’ve seen how Neeraj Pandey got this formula right for ‘Baby’; Abhishek manages to add his light-hearted touch here too.
John Abraham delivers a mind-blowing performance; he proves how he can mould himself in any shape depending on the script’s requirement. He feels the patriotism and that is visible with his expressions. Boman Irani has a limited, yet pivotal role in the film. He does not have much to experiment with his role but subtly fulfils his presence. Diana Penty is as charming as ever and acts well, yet again. We just wonder why we are not seeing her doing more films. Yogendra Tiku shines out from the remaining cast as he’s given some hilarious lines.
With the songs of the film, it seems the makers hired the musical duo of Sachin and Jigar in wholesale because the songs are there in abundance. “Thare Vaaste” and “Kasumbi” work big time, given the situations they are being used in the film. As for the rest, none of the songs are worth remembering but they are not an obstruction too. The ‘Neerja’ duo of Saiwyn Quadras and Sanyuktha Chawla Sheikh have penned this miraculous script. Full marks for the research but you need to be in touch with the history of this story to know what’s fact and what’s fiction. Aseem Mishra, the man behind movies like ‘New York’, ‘Ek Tha Tiger’, ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’, has created the tense atmosphere with his stunning cinematography.
On the whole, ‘Parmanu’ is the thriller Bollywood needs. It keeps you entertained throughout, along with enlightening the facts about an epic tale which was still under wraps. John Abraham is a winner; a must-watch!
Rating: 4/5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQFb12N0Arc