Bordering on propagandism accompanied, for the most part, by some very mediocre acting, Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran tries to capitalize on patriotism. Somewhere between a factual retelling of the nuclear detonation at Pokhran in 1998 and catering to the masses by developing a compelling fictional narrative, the film flounders rather miserably as we see in the Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran film review.
After a botched attempt to test the nuclear armament in 1995, India clandestinely planned to conduct the nuclear test in 1998. Dodging the prying eyes of the United States of America means evading their satellites that keep a watch hovering above the Pokhran site. Built around this premise, you have John Abraham as Ashwat Raina who leads the mission along with five others that are handpicked by him to detonate at the site without letting the satellites pick up any of the activity below.
For the filmmakers to tread this path needed not only deftness while handling Ashwat Raina’s personal story but also blending it seamlessly with the film’s central premise. As director Abhishek Sharma intertwines Ashwat Raina’s story with the nuclear detonations, you get a distinct feeling that it needed someone more experienced in executing it.
Capable actors can often mitigate the flaws of the film with their acting chops. However, in this case, John Abraham and company are incapable of doing that, thereby only making matters worse. Thoroughly miscast as Ambalika, one of the team members, Diana Penty struggles throughout the movie, and the same goes for a few others as well. Boman Irani who is otherwise on the mark uncharacteristically fledges here. The result is that the film fails to invoke the kind of emotions that it ought to elicit from the audience given that real events inspire it.
A bit of gimmickry cannot salvage the film as it lacks the depth that a story of this magnitude deserves. Also, the jabs that the team members take at one another with all their quirks only serve to sway the narrative away from the original story. That the filmmakers could think that to make a compelling film they couldn’t do without unduly peppering it, considering that such a significant event inspires it, is beyond me.
There isn’t much to gloat about this movie other than the cat-and-mouse between India and the United States of America and the former coming out triumphant in the end. You might want to watch this movie for the Pokharan story, but in all honesty, you wouldn’t miss all that much even if you were to skip it.
Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran film review rates Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran 
(2 / 5)
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