Shakuntala Devi - Adds up to one-time watch Review and Rating

“Shakuntala Devi” (film streaming on Amazon Prime); Cast: Vidya Balan, Jisshu Sengupta, Sanya Malhotra, Amit Sadh; Direction: Anu Menon; Rating: * * * (three stars)

Swedish auteur Ingmar Bergman in his 1978 classic, Autumn Sonata, set up an enchanting conflict of emotions between a renowned classical pianist and her rather average daughter, who stifles beneath the fame of her illustrious mother.

Many prolific filmmakers worldwide have used Bergman’s film as a textbook to explore themes around the relationship a famous mother may share with a daughter who yearns for a normal life. In India, random recall would bring back the late Bengali aesthete Rituparno Ghosh’s brilliant 1994 drama, “Unishe April” (19th April).

In “Shakuntala Devi”, director Anu Menon uses a similar tack while dissecting her subject, in a far more mainstream language. Shakuntala Devi was a phenomenon. She was also a mother and wife. Menon takes an interesting approach to dissect how the phenomenon was born at the cost of the mother and wife.

The idea is brought alive through a narrative that broadly unfolds through the eyes of Shakuntala’s daughter, Anupama Banerjee, which is why “Shakuntala Devi” is as much a biopic as it is a drama about a mother-daughter relationship.

The approach prevents “Shakuntala Devi” from becoming hagiography. The filmmaker scores with understated assurance while balancing the Human Computer and the human being.

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