Vidya Balan enchants audience with wry smile and witty dialogues in Shakuntala Devi trailer

The fascinating trailer unveiled on Wednesday was slated for may 2020 release. The Trailer gave a sneak peek into the adventures to watch quirky Vidya stepping into the shoes of the maths genius to utmost perfection. With her wit and humour, she instantly makes the viewer fall in love with her.

It is the third major Bollywood movie to head to a digital media platform owing to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, which has led to the closing of cinema screens across the country.

Shakuntala Devi will tell the story of the mathematics genius who was known to be witty and eccentric. Popularly known as The Human-Computer, She earned her a place in the 1982 edition of The Guinness Book of World Records for 13-digit multiplication in 28 sec. Apart from mathematics, she is also the author of a book on homosexuality which created quite a stir when it hit the bookshelves in 1977. This chapter is also explored in the movie.

The biopic shows the blended story of the eminent math genius, as she also struggles to balance her family with fame and passion but also a woman ahead of her times. She lived life on her own terms and did so unapologetically. You get to see her answering complicated math equations from right to left and left to right. The biopic is not just about Shakuntala Devi, the math wizard, it is also about Shakuntala — the woman and mother — with all her brilliance, whimsy and flaws.

Written and co-directed by Anu Menon  Shakuntala Devi also stars Jisshu Sengupta as Paritosh Banerji, Shakuntala’s, Sanya Malhotra as Shankuntala’s daughter Anupama Banerji, and Amit Sadh as Anupama’s husband Ajay. The dramedy is produced by Sony Pictures Networks Productions and Vikram Malhotra.

“Stepping into the world of Shakuntala Devi was as intimidating as it was exhilarating,” said actress Vidya Balan. ”Her story is inspirational and makes you see how if we believe in ourselves, the world is our oyster,” she added in a statement.

The 3- minute trailer goes on to show Shakuntala flying to London where she proves her computational powers and gets her name registered in the book of Guinness World Records. From going to London to pursue her ambition to finally marrying the man of her dreams, everything looks like a cakewalk for Shakuntala Devi until she becomes a mother.
Sanya Malhotra plays the role of Shakuntala Devi’s daughter in the biopic. The two are seen at bubbleheads as Shakuntala Devi blames motherhood for upending her desires, while Sanya’s character wishes for a ‘normal’ mother. The fact that Shakuntala Devi is not a perfect woman, and most likely not the perfect mother, is quite evident in the film’s trailer. This element of grey to Shakuntala’s character might work in its favour as the audience has been served the prototypical goody-two-shoes biopic multiple times in the recent past. A genius mind can do no wrong is a myth that we have held on to for far too long, and perhaps the biopic will help establish the fact that we are all as disfigured as the other person in the room.
The bittersweet milestones of the mother-daughter flow down the drama that the film promises. And even Vidya confirms at the end of the trailer, “We Indians are like that only. Drama or nothing.”

[zombify_post]