I was intrigued upon hearing the true story of Mission Mangal. It's a story which deserves a lot of praise for its humongous achievement and is something India should be proud of. Did the film do it justice? Yes and no.
Mission Mangal was directed by Jagan Shakti in his directorial debut and his direction was really good. It's not easy to balance an ensemble cast along with the story but Shakti manages to retain that balance for as long as possible. The VFX was okay. There were times where it looked really good and times where it looked fake.
Akshay Kumar delivers a great performance as usual. You can tell how passionate he was about this film as he gives a lot of energy to it. It felt satisfying seeing the likes of Sharman Joshi on the big screen again. The other scientists (Taapsee Pannu, Sonakshi Sinha, Kirti Kulhari, Nithya Menen and HG Dattatreya) do well in their roles. The standout amongst everyone was Vidya Balan. A lot of the film is focused on her character's life and she feels genuine in her role throughout.
The writing, at times, felt contrived. I felt Dalip Tahil's character was over the top at times and some of the supporting cast members were underdeveloped. There was a subplot involving Vidya Balan's son which felt forced and was just implemented in the film for additional drama. There is another scene which takes place in a train but it was unnecessary to the main storyline and crammed in to just show women empowerment. The makers had a lot of fit into this movie's runtime. If they removed some scenes then the film would've flowed better. Despite this, the writers cleverly use analogies and theories to simplify the complexity of the mission for the audience.
Mission Mangal is not a bad film by any means. It does have its flaws relating to some of the characters and the writing itself but the film has its heart in the right place. It's brilliant to see something extraordinary like this being recognised widely by the public and by the end you will have that unshaken feeling of proudness and patriotism for India.
Mission Mangal was directed by Jagan Shakti in his directorial debut and his direction was really good. It's not easy to balance an ensemble cast along with the story but Shakti manages to retain that balance for as long as possible. The VFX was okay. There were times where it looked really good and times where it looked fake.
Akshay Kumar delivers a great performance as usual. You can tell how passionate he was about this film as he gives a lot of energy to it. It felt satisfying seeing the likes of Sharman Joshi on the big screen again. The other scientists (Taapsee Pannu, Sonakshi Sinha, Kirti Kulhari, Nithya Menen and HG Dattatreya) do well in their roles. The standout amongst everyone was Vidya Balan. A lot of the film is focused on her character's life and she feels genuine in her role throughout.
The writing, at times, felt contrived. I felt Dalip Tahil's character was over the top at times and some of the supporting cast members were underdeveloped. There was a subplot involving Vidya Balan's son which felt forced and was just implemented in the film for additional drama. There is another scene which takes place in a train but it was unnecessary to the main storyline and crammed in to just show women empowerment. The makers had a lot of fit into this movie's runtime. If they removed some scenes then the film would've flowed better. Despite this, the writers cleverly use analogies and theories to simplify the complexity of the mission for the audience.
Mission Mangal is not a bad film by any means. It does have its flaws relating to some of the characters and the writing itself but the film has its heart in the right place. It's brilliant to see something extraordinary like this being recognised widely by the public and by the end you will have that unshaken feeling of proudness and patriotism for India.