We
recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon
Landing—still the greatest achievement in human history. The Indian Space
Research Organization (ISRO) also celebrated its 50th anniversary.
Although its finest hour cannot compare with the successful exploration of the
Moon, it has the considerable advantage of being much more recent. ISRO’s
successful launch of the Mars Orbital Mission (MOM) or Mangalyaan “Mars Craft”
probe is dramatized and romanticized in Jagan Shakti’s Mission Mangal, which is now playing in New York.
The
unsuccessful launch of the GSLV-F06 (a.k.a. “Fat Boy”) was not ISRO’s finest
hour. Perhaps a nickname that evokes memories of one of the original Manhattan
Project atomic bombs was bad karma. Regardless, mildly eccentric mission
director Rakesh Dhawan takes the fall, even though it was his senior
subordinate, Tara Shinde, who made the bad call. Hoping to encourage his
resignation, ISRO ostensibly promotes him to director of the Mars Probe
Mission, which is universally considered a futile dead-end.
However,
Dhawan stars believing when Shinde devises a method to reach Mars with
preexisting light rockets, through fuel conservation, inertia, and Mars’ own
gravitational pull. Although Dhawan’s inter-agency rival, former NASA scientist
Rupert Desai pooh-poohs the idea, the agency director is intrigued enough to
give them some budget—but of course, not quite enough. Dhawan will also have to
make do with the hand-picked agency cast-offs Desai assigns to him. Most of
them are women, but there is also an old dude and a sad sack, whose hopes of
marriage have been undermined by bad astrology charts. Think of the second act
as Hidden Figures, with a cup of 40-Year-Old Virgin mixed in.
Unlike
Chazelle’s First Man, Shakti is not shy
about flying the Indian flag—and why should he be? Still, it is a little odd
when the film ends with a triumphant speech from Modi, especially since the MOM
Probe launched before he was elected. On the other hand, it is nice to see
stills of the real-life ISRO scientists, none of whom are as photogenic as
their cinematic analogs, especially not Sonakshi Sinha as propulsion expert Eka
Gandhi, who would be comfortable as a cast-member of Sex in the City.
Be
that as it may, there is no denying how much fun it is to watch Akshay Kumar
somewhat play against his action-romance type as Dhawan. Think of him as seven
parts Ed Harris as Gene Kranz in Apollo
13 and three parts Fred MacMurray in The
Absent-Minded Professor. Frankly, most of the supporting ensemble largely
represents stock characters, but Sanjay Kapoor adds some interesting wrinkles
as Shinde’s more-complex-than-we-initially-assume husband, Sunil, who also has
a chance to get down on the dance floor. Remember, this is a Bollywood movie.
