With a peppy start that reminded me of Shaw's Pygmalion, this biopic on Shakuntala Devi is notable for its tour de force of a performance by an elegant and energetic Vidya Balan and the general description of her life and times.

It conveniently glosses over some of the more controversial years of the her life while attributing her bumptious and ambitious nature as a negative influence over her parenting skills. It suggests parenting is a complex concept, and thereby poses questions that have no right or wrong answers. Some of the more memorable dialogues are about parenting and mathematics, which may seem odd to millennials, but they are still delightful to hear. For building substance, there are several arithmetic-solving sequences too.

Anu Menon's well-made execution is good in the beginning, but then it frequently reminds you that it's a feminist film, and the proceedings reek of misandry. It's fun to watch but only till the midpoint which is followed by gooey melodrama (Malhotra hugely disappoints, constantly screams) that is ghastly even by Bollywood standards and just simply attempts to exonerate the central character of glaring issues that it so majestically described a few frames ago. Unfortunately, the film ends with the modern biopic's biggest anathema: hagiography. But it's baffling that Jisshu Sengupta has such an uncanny resemblance with Devi's partner. TN.

The last decade provided some classic films to Bollywood in Biographical genre and since then many makers decided to find more and more and stories from history. The major heart winning factor in those biographical dramas were the Inspiration tales of legendary personalities. A genius personality like Shakuntala Devi couldn't be left behind by the Bollywood fellas and on obvious basis it turn into a biopic. I feel very sad to say that, the Greatness of this genius mind is demolished by the wrong choice of script and nasty storytelling of disastrous proportions. The makers failed to understand what to pick from a Legend's life and what to skip. The film doesn't look like an inspirational tale for a moment instead it is a defamation of Genius mind because of her disaster personal life.

It is based on the life Shakuntala Devi, a mathematician, astrologer and author and it depicts her journey from the childhood till the modern days. The Writer fails to define the legacy of the character and doesn't even bother putting some efforts to make it look genuine. There are no valid reasons shown in the film on how did Shakuntala Devi actually became World Famous personality and how did she do the miraculous calculations. From where did she get knowlege of astrology? How did she suddenly lost it because of daughter when at first place she was doing it fine before giving a birth to her daughter. So, it was just like an unknown magic which came and faded away without any logic.

Throughout the runtime it focuses more on her disaster personal life which audience would despise and the lovable parts like her genuineness barely make presence. And even those genuine scenes are spoiled by the pathetic comical humour which was not needed in an intelligent and intense atmosphere. I don't understand why those all highly educated behave like an IQ level of matriculation level? Why so crispy and why it needed gags? In short, it's more about that dramatical mother-daughter philosophy which didn't make much sense than "A Human Computer Shakuntala Devi". Like they said in the film, "Mothers and daughters, what a waste of day". You will love the Mathematical Genius and Human Computer Shakuntala Devi but more than that you are going to hate 'Shakuntala Devi' as a person.

After the sinked writing if there is something floating on surface then it is performances of actors. Vidya Balan is full charged and promising throughout the film but not upto her own high standard. Sanya Malhotra and Amit Sadh makes us feel their presence while Jisshu Sengupta does everything right in his role. Supporting cast of foreign actors is funnily portrayed for no reasons and there is not much to talk about them.

I remember watching Anu Menon's 'Waiting' and i loved it. That film was absolutely brilliant, it was so connected and justifying to its context but what the hell happened with Shakuntala Devi? Why did Menon made it out of the context and crafted it so immaturely? Like I said before the writing sucks but I was expecting something good from Menon and it was just another disappointing aspect of the film.

A film like Shakuntala Devi could have been a well made product if only makers knew what to adapt and how to present it. The legend is not defined as Legend and that's the biggest issue with this film. If you remember biopics of some legendary characters like Gandhi, Milkha Singh then you know how those films Inspire you and provide you a bit of courage to do something in your life and unfortunately Shakuntala Devi is totally blank case in there. Logically it is very bad film but dramatically it is somewhat watchable and that too if you are happy with typical emotional segments and good performances by the cast members.

RATING - 4/10*

Tone, Script & Story: A so called story (not biopic) bringing to attention life of genius Indian mathematician Shakuntala devi scripted around her personal (family) life.

The thing is getting her name in to Guinness book for being a peculiar mathematician seemed to be the peak instance in her life for a fellow fan like me. The scripting however ruined that for me. Apart from that it's a good watch. I liked how so many of her numbers were particularly favorite, some of them being highlighted in movie.

Direction, Screenplay, Cinematography: Justified. Music: Average. Acting: Justified.

Final Verdict: Watch it for numerical fun and distant personality of Shakuntala putting light on same aspect.