Parmanu The Story of Pokhran Movie Review: John Abraham and Diana Penty's Thriller is Intriguing in Parts

The much controversial Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran is finally ready for release. The John Abraham-starrer is based on the 1998 Pokhran nuclear tests carried out by India. Parmanu, which is directed by Abhishek Sharma, has been in the news for the legal tussle between John Abraham's production company and KriArj Entertainment. Now that the movie is about to hit the screens, let's check out if Parmanu is worth the fuss.

In 1995, Pakistan, with the help of China and America, is on the threshold of becoming a nuclear state. Ashwat Raina (John Abraham), an engineer in Research & Analysis, proposes to do nuclear tests in retaliation to show the world that India is no less a force than the superpowers. However, thanks to red-tapism and botched execution, America finds out about the tests before they are conducted, leading to Ashwat losing his job. Three years later, with the change in regime, Ashwat is brought back on board to lead the team that has to conduct a fresh nuclear testing away from the prying eyes of CIA and ISI, on the ground where they failed before - Pokhran.

Sorry for going personal here, but I remember what a proud moment it was for me as a teenager when India had successfully conducted the nuclear tests in 1998. It was an even prouder moment, when CIA head admitted on live television their failure to detect these tests (a moment that the movie faithfully replays through real footage). Such a fine moment and I wondered why it took two decades to make a movie on how India became a nuclear state. Now that Parmanu is here, we can stop cribbing, right? I would have, if the makers had paid a little more attention to production values and execution.

Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran needs to be applauded for bringing about the details on how our intelligence managed to blow dust into the eyes of CIA and carried tests under their noses. The movie comes alive when Raina and his team are in the planning and delivering on that within the little time-gap they have (doing work when there is a blind spot from the American satellites). It leads to some thrilling moments that may not bring your heart into your mouth, but at least, make your forehead break a couple of sweat-beads. Even though the characters and the situations are fictional, the operation and codenames remain the same. There are a couple of smart gems in the script, like a simple scene involving a serving of onions lead to a huge callback later.

Save for a couple of glitches (families dedicatedly watching 1990's Mahabharata in 1998), Parmanu also manages to make the era right. The bit I liked the best involves those bulky mobiles and that joke on how incoming calls are highly priced (never mind, the placement of the joke came so wrong).

In fact, if Parmanu didn't continue to fall into the trap of clichés and family dramas and focussed mostly on the operation, it would have been a fantastic effort.

Sadly, that's not the case, as the writers throw in most of Bollywood's favourite clichés in the mix. So yes, we have to have a hero who has to be in his lowest phase before he bounces back high. He needs to have a wife who should be oblivious to everything he does because wives aren't to be trusted, right? Never mind we have seen similar situations in Akshay Kumar's Baby and even John Abraham's own Madras Cafe. Of course, the wife has to feel suspicious, bringing some contrived family drama right when things get interesting. We have politicians who make silly suggestions and are corrupt to the core.

Then there is Ambalika, Diana Penty's character, who happens to the Intelligence head of the project. Her intro makes Raina sheepishly admit the lack of gender disparity in his planning (He named his team Pandavas after all). It was a good introspective moment that Parmanu never explores later. So she gets stuck with the codename, 'Nakul', and for an intelligence head, she remains mostly around the fringes. She even fails to properly protect her team getting infiltrated and becomes a bemused player in the family drama. Moreover, it is Raina who still gets to call the shots even in her domain. So much for a strong female part.

The portions involving the Americans feel like leftover footage from Sharma's own Tere Bin Laden series. The production values are strictly average at best, with some scenes giving out the feel of a television soap. The special effects are tacky, especially in the climax. Also, what's with the mannequin shot in the climax? It makes the scene feel so amateurish, instead of the heart-thumping pride we should have felt in those portions. The dialogues go from plain boring to chest-thumping, thankfully, stopping itself before enemy-bashing. Also, I can't help but have a snide suspicion on how Parmanu tilts towards a certain political party. At times, the writing feels very plastic and manipulative.

This, I believe, is all because of the movie's main glitch - its resolve to make things fictional surrounding a real incident. Parmanu could have easily been a far more riveting project, had the makers taken the guts to invoke the real team in the narrative, instead of fake ones. Why was Raina made the sole hero when the late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, who has the architect of the project, is mentioned just in the credits scene? Wasn't the planning behind the real tests intriguing and exciting enough?

Talking about performances, John Abraham is decent and gives his heart out to a role that remains one of his better characters. He deserves more brownie points as a producer, at least for backing this movie that no one bothered to attempt. Diana Penty is strictly okay, though that has more to do with how her character is written. Boman Irani shines in whichever scene he appears in.

Yay!

- The premise

- The dedication of the lead actors

- Some thrilling moments

- the retelling of the operation.

Nay!

- The direction

- Unnecessary family drama

- Poorly written characters

- Average production values

- Clichés and caricatures

Final Thoughts

Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran had a fine story to tell, that every Indian should know and be proud of. It has quite a few thrilling moments, which would have made a far more interesting watch, had the writing and the execution been better. Still, would recommend Parmanu as a decent one-time watch.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 25, 2018 12:31 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).