Cast: Vidya Balan, Sanya Malhotra, Amit Sadh and Jisshu Sengupta

Director: Anu Menon

Rating: ***

Shakuntala Devi is about the late world record holder mathematician Shakuntala Devi's dedication towards Math, her passion to travel all around the globe and much more. The film focuses on how the restless and hyper-ambitious lady managed to conquer the world but failed in her personal life.

The film begins with a small village in Bengaluru, where Shakuntala Devi at the age of 5 is able to solve difficult math problems and her family is quite happy with her actions. Soon Shakuntala's father decides to use this talent as a source of income for the family and gradually Shakuntala becomes an eminent personality. But a mountain of grief breaks out in her life when her elder sister (Sharda) succumbs to death due to lack of money for treatment. Shakuntala who is the sole breadwinner of her family resents her parents for not taking care of her sister. She starts feeling that her parents love the money she earns rather than her, and this resentment persists throughout her life.

The heartbroken girl leaves for London, and this time with her mathematical skills, she earns widespread fame all over the world. After a period of being alone through her thick and thin, Shakuntala meets Paritosh (Jisshu Sengupta), an IAS officer. Both fall in love with each other and soon become parents to a lovely baby girl Anupama. What follows is a dramatic tale of love and emotions that touches your heart.

Anu Menon, the director of the movie, has done a nice job here. She presents Shakuntala's life to your screen beautifully and takes you on her journey along which is full of fun, emotions and humour. The screenplay is gripping from the very beginning though it tends to move too fast at points making you feel like the director was in a rush and losing the grip on the storyline as the film moves forward. But overall, it succeeds in entertaining you and that's the important thing.


The best part about the film is the performance of all the characters, especially Vidya Balan who proves that perhaps no other actress can match the dedication and grip she has on her characters shining all the way on your screens from the start till the end. The woman carries the whole film on her shoulders and beautifully so.

Sanya Malhotra has also done justice with her character as Anupama and her chemistry with Vidya, though weak at points is believably convincing and the unique pair of mother and daughter might bring tears to your eyes. Amit Sadh and Jisshu Sengupta also look good in their parts and support the women of the film throughout.

The film has 4 songs in total, out of which 3 are sung by Sunidhi Chauhan and the last is by Monali Thakur and fit the timing in the film perfectly.

In a nutshell, Anu Menon's "Shakuntala Devi" is an entertainer in its core. Vidya Balan's amazing performance makes you ignore a few bad things that are there. The film makes you laugh and cry and then makes you laugh again. Overall, It's a Vidya Balan film so you know that you are going to get a strong performance with some extra dose of life on your screen. Watch it for Vidya Balan once.