It needs courage and conviction to pick unconventional themes and less commercially viable subjects to make meaningful films. The latest additions to that list of artists and film-makers are actor-producer John Abraham and director, Abhishek Sharma who undauntedly have put together an engrossing, two-hour film ‘Parmanu: The Story Of Pokhran’ based on the Pokhran II tests in 1998, after which India was recognized as a nuclear power on the global stage.
To research and zero in on a true story of great national importance which has been, however, less hyped over the years in terms of achievement and taking a few cinematic liberties to create a gripping docu-drama and bring alive all the fascinating history of India’s biggest nuclear breakthrough is a most laudable effort by the team of makers.
To pick holes in the story-telling and fictionalized version of events would be easy for such a technically difficult subject to portray on screen packaged as an exciting and suspenseful sequence of events. What is also achieved is building up the fusion of three basic parts of the nation’s security, the nuclear scientists, the army and the intelligence agencies buttressed by some proactive bureaucratic support, all culminating into great patriotism and nationalistic pride. At the same time the film avoids the trap of the usual jingoism and over-the-top hype of our the mainstream masala films .
John Abraham, in his new avant-garde avatar as a sensitive actor brings the same intensity to his role as he did in ‘Madras Café’ and is well supported by Boman Irani and Anuja Sathe with stellar parts. The other actors and ‘Pokharan’ desert storms lend fair authenticity to building up the tense aura of a fight against time and fending off many forces that would prevent the successful completion of the nuclear tests in 1998, having failed once before in 1995.
Two significant comments here – one, that the show was full of College students (who would love to see what we can be truly proud of and the real people like scientist Abdul Kalam our Ex-President, behind it ) and two, the horrendous trailer of another Salman Khan magnum-opus in the making – ‘Race 3’ – one-man demolition army at work again ! ‘Parmanu’ in stark comparison is a classic, in its simplicity and sincerity of purpose
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