Vidya kasam, watch it only if you love Balan

Solve this first: (Her daughter’s story) + {cribbing²} ÷ facts x colourful Bollywood drama – plot = ?

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You call this a biography of a world famous mathematician– Shakuntala Devi and see her young daughter, who was deprived of her love, still holds it against her and fails to move ahead in her life. That’s what she feels. And when the movie almost shows the journey of her mother – also based on the same formula of a grudge on mother – from her growing up days to finding success abroad and even getting a recognition as a ‘Human Computer’ and her name in the Guinness Book of World Record, somewhere the daughter still could not get over her childhood days away from her father and with a busy successful mother.
That was a brief story above.

While I would not call it a good or a bad movie, drama is something that has had its audience with handkerchiefs, always.

Personally, I would first appreciate casting directors Sehar Latif and Yash Nagarkoti’s choice of Vidya Balan. She knew what to deliver and brought out multiple personalities simultaneously to take the central character sailing through a rough sea! As the hurried approach to quickly wrap up her childhood days did not satisfy my demands, the storyline ahead was a mess.

A vibrant young woman from Bangalore perhaps knew everything even after not attending school. From repairing broken English to living her life in altogether a new world was too easy for her. Director Anu Menon, really?

All she grieved about was her parents’ behaviour and loss of her elder sister. That’s not movie making. I am sorry. You may have touched emotions with your portrayal of four generations and shows of bonding of girls with their mothers, but establish your story first. Poor story jointly written by Menon and Nayanika Mahtani.

Unnecessary colours to wooing attitude towards men to demanding a baby from a good-looking later-found ‘homosexual’ Bengali man, our superheroine in Kanjeevaram was too advanced to deal with every problems in her life.

I repeat, this was something that her deprived daughter in distress narrated about her ambitious colourful mother who failed to take care of her. What else?

If acting could save a movie, this somewhere is jointly rescued by Balan and her onscreen daughter Sanya Malhotra. Vidya kasam! Rather, I would say Shakuntala Devi has been portrayed as a happy-go loudmouth villain!

Cinematography by Keiko Nakahara is good at certain places if not throughout, dialogues by Ishita Moitra is also good at many places and so it editing by Antara Lahiri.

As it’s a ‘women-centric’ move, sorry movie, the first man (her father played by Prakash Belawadi) was shown as a carrier (on a cycle) or a manager or a PR person, the second (her husband played by Jisshu Sengupta) a mere sperm donor and the third (her son-in-law played by Amit Sadh) a big supporter, sidelined by his wife’s problems to deal with her mother’s fame and his dormant dreams of becoming a father.

P.S: No offence but Shakuntala Devi move, oops movie, should have been reviewed by a woman perhaps to understand the emotions attached to it. I am sorry but even a son loves his mother and fights with her. Or perhaps the Mothers’ Day emotions in every child would have fitted the bill better!

Rating: 2.5/5