- Film: The Zoya Factor: (Comedy, drama, romance)
- Cast: Sonam K Ahuja, Dulquer Salmaan, Angad Bedi
- Director: Abhishek Sharma
- Written by: Anuja Chauhan, Pradhuman Singh, Neha Rakesh Sharma
- Duration: 2 hours, 14 minutes
- Rating: 2
Story:
Born on the day Indian cricket team won its first World Cup (June 25, 1983), Zoya Solanki is considered to be a goodluck charm by her dad. While working at an advertising agency, she gets an assignment to do a photoshoot of the Indian team — going through a rough patch with a losing streak — in Sri Lanka. Zoya meets the team and its captain Nikhil Khoda (Dulquer), and the squad’s fortunes change. As India is playing the 2011 World Cup, the cricket board offers her `1 crore contract to become their lucky mascot. Will her luck prevail?
Review:
The screenplay of the film based on Anuja Chauhan’s bestselling novel by the same name is sloppy and all over the place. The first half is a slightly entertaining and tolerable, but the second part is not up to scratch. Sonam as Zoya is overenthusiastic and does not quite impress. Her chemistry and love-hate relationship with Dulquer is entertaining, but the character is poorly written and conceptualised, in spite of being the main lead. Sonam talks directly into the camera a number of times and after a point, it loses its innovativeness. The actress plays an underconfident and insecure girl, whom you want to root for but she’s not convincing and you feel nothing for her.
Sonam is meant to lead from the front as Zoya but fails to convert her good start into a hundred.
Coming to the good part, Dulquer Salmaan owns his character as the captain and is the only star, who smashes the ball out of the park. His dialogue delivery, diction and demeanour are on point (unlike the other South star Prabhas in Saaho) and gives his 100 per cent to the part. The Karwaan actor has a certain amount of swagger and delivers his role magnificently.
Another drawback of the film is its direction, which does not take the story forward and has too many loopholes.
Compared to Dangal, Mary Kom, Chhichhore, MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, etc. the film’s sports choreography is sub par. Sometimes, it’s like watching a video game on the Xbox! The actors don’t look convincing and the game comes across as caricaturish and juvenile. The Hindi commentary is jarring to say the least, especially Navjot Singh Sidhu being mimicked.
Angad Bedi as Robin Rawal, who is jealous, petty and frustrated after losing his captaincy to Nikhil, had so much potential but after a point, he does not reach that level and goes around in circles. Sikander Kher as Zoya’s older brother calling her jhaadu (maybe because of her frizzy hair) gets annoying soon, though he plays the part with sincerity along with Sanjay Kapoor as his and Zoya’s dad. The music is nothing to write home about either.
Verdict
The movie has sparks of comedy, drama and romance. It could’ve been a good film with more attention to detail and sound script. Watch it for Dulquer, and if have nothing better to do.
