Review: The Numbers Add Up Nicely In Vidya Balan's 'Shakuntala Devi '

Cast: Vidya Balan, Sanya Malhotra, Jisshu Sengupta

Director: Anu Menon

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Shakuntala Devi, a warm and whip drama from the life of an extraordinary woman whose head for the numbers is legendary, is constantly entertaining and emotionally engaging, a triumph for both director Anu Menon and lead actress Vidya Balan.

The numbers add up very well in this warm and vibrant film marked by controlled tone, even when the feelings expressed on the screen require a bit of enhancement and a certain degree of melodrama inevitably creeps into the treatment. It is a good balancing act of leadership.

Vidya Balan also demonstrates an exceptional ability to moderate a lively performance of an incredible woman with an air of normality, significantly increasing the appeal of the performance.

Made by a women's team, Shakuntala Devi is definitely feminist at its core, but fortunately it's not all there is to the eminently observable biopic, a release from Amazon Prime Video.

He presents a buoyant and inspiring portrait of a woman who lived life on her own terms, was often close to paying a price for her, but never allowed herself to wonder if the decisions she made in life were wrong.

Shakuntala Devi is projected to be the woman she was, a citizen of the world who did not take root anywhere. In fact, she mocks her bureaucratic husband, Paritosh Banreji (Jisshu Sengupta), the couple who married in the late 1960s, because they refuse to leave Calcutta.

In one scene, in which she is with Tarabai (a superb Sheeba Chadha), the owner of a London guesthouse that she reviews after first sailing for Old Blighty, Shakuntala claims that we are human beings, not trees; We have legs and not roots. She also has wings.

Her differences with her husband form a crucial part of the story. The husband describes her as "a storm" that does not get in the way. She steps aside when she realizes that neither marriage nor motherhood can compel Shakuntala to drop anchor and say goodbye to her passion for mathematics.

The script, written by Menon and Nayanika Mahtani, is, as the movie puts it in advance, "based on a true story seen through the eyes of a daughter." It represents the performance of a legendary mathematician, writer, and astrologer in an era when a woman with a sari and pigtails was not expected to `` perform '' arithmetic miracles on stage, let alone in cities around the world.

But just as important to the film is the conflict Shakuntala faces and the anguish she suffers in the process of trying to balance her relationship with her parents, husband, only daughter, and son-in-law with her ambition.

The film acknowledges the contribution of Shakuntala Devi's daughter, Anupama Banerji, and her son-in-law Ajay Abhaya Kumar, played on screen by Sanya Malhotra and Amit Sadh, respectively, in shaping the story. But this is not a disinfected and asymmetric biographical film.