Shakuntala Devi: Film Review

  Film Review

SHAKUNTALA DEVI

A Wrestle between Mathematics and Motherhood

 

“Jab amazing ho sakti hu, to normal kyu banu.”

By Varsha Varghese

 

Anu Menon’s OTT released biopic ‘Shakuntala Devi’ is a lively, buoyant and tear-jerking portrayal of the math wizard who always went beyond the lines that society drew for her. Undoubtedly Vidya Balan perfectly portrayed Devi with her thunderous laugh, spontaneous wit and humour-filled killer looks. The filmseems to take an exaggerated tone leaving no room for boredom to sweep in.

The movie is split among three facets of Ms. Devi’s life. The first one deals with her childhood, where we get glimpse view of her poor brahmin family and her mathematical skills are used for monetary gains by her father. Despite all this the family could not save Devi’s ailing sister with medical care and finally she succumbs to death. This leads her to develop a strong resentment to her family and she decides to leave her family to become a successful woman in a world of successful men. The second part is about Shakuntala’s growth as a mathematician. It deals with her transformation from a village girl to a sophiscated young lady following her translocation to Europe. 

The third part of the movie revolves a lot around the tagline “mothers and daughters”, this is exactly where I would like to begin my critique. Yes! Did the life of India’s celebrated ‘Human Calculator’ get reduced to what it means to be a mother? Often, we hear that women will fix the last the nail in the coffin of patriarchy but here is an example of how women dug their own grave. Ironically ‘Shakuntala Devi’ is a movie made by women, of a woman and for women. It could be very positively used to inspire today’s young women who wishes to enter the world of mathematics but are pulled back by the society citing the lack of women in the field. Moreover, Devi accomplished all these at a time when patriarchy reigned. But sadly, the script replaced mathematics with that of mother.

There is no wrong in showcasing mother-daughter relationships. But when you decide to unbox to people the life of a person whom the Indians aren’t much aware of , and especially the biopic of a woman in STEM environment the crew could have done so much more then to set a benchmark of motherhood for her.

Keeping aside maths, Shakuntala was a strong advocate of LGBTQ+ movement, who even wrote a book titled ‘The World of Homosexuals’. The opportunity that can be used to normalise Indian audience about homosexuality got reduced to a trivial mother-daughter fight, when according to the movie Devi says that her ex husband is a gay for promoting her book. The movie says that Devi lied about her husband’s orientation, but this scene contradicts with several media reports that her interest to the cause of homosexuals stemmed from her marriage to a gay man. The film throws little light on Devi’s interest in astrology and politics. 

To put it in a nutshell, ‘Shakuntala Devi’ is a pleasant watch but is more of a dramatic and emotional exaggeration of a woman who carved out her territory in a male dominated subject. The storyline can be taken in only with a pinch of salt.