Parmanu - The Story of Pokhran is a film co-written and directed by Abhishek Sharma. I had an idea about the film when it was announced a year ago but didn't follow any of the promotions the film did. I watched it since I heard the praises for this film (which I knew somewhere down my heart).Plot: Ashwat Raina is appointed as the lead for a team to conduct a nuclear test at the testing site of Pokhran in 1998.Story and direction: With films based on real life stories/incidents, it is bound that the creative team will take certain liberties to make the film viewable for the audiences. Sometimes those liberties work, sometimes they just don't. But in this film, I would prefer saying the latter (for the most part). The build-up and suspense is maintained all throughout the film although we know what the end result we be. I was especially caring for the lead characters for the entire runtime. And that is where this film wins. Abhishek Sharma and his team were able to bring me into the environment of tension the film is in and grasp my attention for all the 122 minutes of the film. The production values for the film are good (considering the tight budget of the film). The makers successfully transported me back to 1995 and 1998. Even the subplots that are introduced are not just for the sake of it. It meant something. I felt the makers have extensively researched the film and presented it to us, which is commendable. My only small issues were the tid-bits of commercialism that were thrown into the film, but that is fine.Music: The film has music composed by Sachin-Jigar and Jeet Ganguuli with BGM by Sandeep Chowta. While the later was good and tuned in with the film, I did have an issue with the former. The songs felt just like additions which were not so good. The film could have just done it without them. But still I did have a favorite song. And that was 'Thaare Vaaste' by Divya Kumar.Performances: A good film is defined by its actors. And this film has a good number of them. John Abraham did good on his part. Diana Penty was fabulous in her role. Aditya Hitkari, Yogendra Tiku, Vikas Kumar and Ajay Shankar performed with ease as if they were really the characters they portrayed. Anuja Sathe and Boman Irani did add their talent to this film.Favorite Scene: It would be the one where Prem and Ashwat during their first meeting say that all differences don't matter, and we should be concentrating on the work as hand. This scene was very important in establishing the relationship these 6 charcaters would embark on and how it would affect their work culture.Verdict: I would go on to say that this is Abhishek Sharma's best film as a director. With this film he proved that not only he is a good director but can also dabble genres other than comedy. This film was great from start to finish.I am going with an 8.5/10.

This movie has multiple layers, each fascinating in its own right. One layer gives you a glimpse into ineptness of and corruption in Congress party which fails to recognize visionary talents. Other layer shows ceaseless bullying by USA and how they care least about international peace and care only about maintaining a stranglehold on other countries to maintain their super power status. Yet another layer shows the relentless patriotism, driving individuals to lift the nation to great heights, including the visionaries in often misunderstood nationalistic party, BJP.Yet PARMANU is not about the parties or countries it is about the burning passion a patriot has to make the impossible possible to change the future of the country while risking family and personal life. Its a great manifestation of will power to achieve the goal of making India a Nuclear State which catching the bully (USA) off guard.A must watch!!!

The movie is full of editing mistakes, cringe-worthy dialogues, bad acting, over-acting, unnecessary bollywood-ish masala and horrible comedy scenes in the most serious situations. But worst of all is the very poor screenplay wrought with editing and factual mistakes. Just an example editing mistake - when the nuclear test preparation is in progress, they have to close down for the day to avoid being spotted by US satellite. In the process, they show that they bury the people working underground and basically cover them up while winding down for the day. Another dumb scene is when John Abraham does not remember passcode to enter the protected military area. He struggles to remember first half of the phrase and an army person helps complete the remaining half. I am sure this is not how things work in the military. These are just some of the 100s such mistakes throughout the movie. I watched the movie just out pure shock, its hard to believe people actually conceive and makes movies like this.For those who are logical, this movie makes so sense. Indian nuclear test is a historical event but this movie do such an injustice to the real events. All the high ratings are surely paid reviews by movie team and producer's side.

Other than the obvious feeling of patriotic euphoria this movie offers little. With good cast and crew this could have been another Chak De. Instead they picked John Abraham who was never known for his acting skills and to deliver a role of this magnitude is actually beyond his skill set. Movie feels like a shoddy pile of scenes, is littered with poor editing and direction. Story line doesn't feel real at all. Other than Boman Irani, everyone is disappointing and over all this is a bad movie. Reading a book on this topic would be more entertaining, this is a total waste.