Parmanu The Story of Pokhran: 5 Reasons Why John Abraham's Thriller Fails to Make a Bigger Explosion Despite the Potential

For people who complain that Bollywood never takes risks, Alia Bhatt's Raazi and now John Abraham's Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran should feel like manna. Paramanu has everything going for it to be a masterpiece - it has an interesting premise that should make every Indian proud. John Abraham is a dedicated producer who often backs good cinema. Parmanu's pre-release buzz was mostly made up of the legal tussles it was involved in, but hey, even that's publicity, right?

When the movie came out, Parmanu turned out to be a fairly engaging thriller that had its heart in the right place. The movie works best when it focuses on the nuclear tests and the whole operation surrounding it. Unfortunately, the makers couldn't get rid of their Bollywood tendencies, therefore diluting the impact and turning the movie into a hydrogen bomb that sputters out in the end. Here are five reasons why the Abhishek Sharma-directed Parmanu fails to make much of its core subject and premise.

Using a fictional setting to tell a real story

Parmanu is fine when it shows the operations of carrying the nuclear tests in secrecy. However, we can't help but ask why it is shown that the whole operation happened because of the ingenuity of a fictional character, who proposed and later executed the plan. Why didn't the makers do the research to actually recreate the real happenings and involve the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in the proceedings, instead of mentioning his efforts in the credits scene? Were the real incidents not exciting enough?

Poor production values

While the makers did their best to recreate the era of the '90s, the production values of Parmanu also feel like they belong to that era. The VFX is plain bad, and the presence of green screen can be felt in many scenes. The scenes involving the Americans feel like they have been borrowed for the director's Tere Bin Laden series.

The flawed execution and lack of in-depth discussion

Thanks to its interesting premise, Parmanu had the potential to be our version of Zero Dark Thirty or The Hurt Locker. But the direction by Abhishek Sharma is okay at best, though he must be lauded for how he executed the scenes where the hero manages to keep the nuclear tests hidden from the eyes of CIA. Also, unlike the movies I mentioned earlier in the para, there is no discussion of the moral ambiguity in being a nuclear state, when there is enough development to be done in other areas.

Silly subplots

We love family dramas, don't we? So the makers have to also focus on the hero's family side, leading to some silly drama of a suspicious wife, who doubts there is something going on between Raina and his colleague. There is also a random fight scene between John's character and an ISI agent, because...Bollywood movie!

The wasted potential of Diana Penty's character

Diana Penty's character, a RAW agent, starts off with a bang when she trolls the hero for not thinking someone in her position can be a woman. However, that's the only impactful scene we see her in. For being a person in charge of intelligence and security, she fails to stop spies from finding out their cover and also stopping them from getting the leader's room bugged. Moreover, Raina often overrides her in her own domain, making decisions on her behalf. Diana Penty's character often ends up being the name-equivalent of her code-name 'Nakul', a Pandava who more often feels like he is just there to add the numbers.

Have you seen Parmanu? Do you agree with our views here?

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 25, 2018 06:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).