The Zoya Factor

There were some Sonam Kapoor movies in the past like Aysha, Bewakoofiyan etc which were all like passable watchable romantic comedies that can’t be called as great films. The new Sonam Kapoor film featuring Dulquer Salmaan as the male lead, The Zoya Factor is a movie that is very much in that zone. I have not read the book, but the trailer itself was sufficient to get an idea about the plot. If you are okay with the kind of movies I mentioned in the beginning, then I would say The Zoya Factor will not be much of a headache for you.

Zoya Solanki was born on the same day when India lifted the world cup in 1983. Her father considered her as a lucky charm for cricket, but as an individual Zoya had a pretty unlucky life in professional and personal space. Things kind of changed when her ad agency asked her to conduct a small photoshoot of the Indian cricket team which leads to her introduction to team India who were going through a rough patch. Soon she became this lucky mascot of the Indian team and Nikhil Khoda the captain of the Indian team was absolutely against this superstitious thing. The rift between Nikhil and Zoya over the luck factor is the soul of The Zoya Factor.

I have to say one thing that, because they used the similar camera lenses people actually use to capture live Cricket matches, there was a great level of authenticity to the way the cricket portions were captured in the movie. I am only appreciating the way they captured, not the postures of the actors or the quality of cricketing shots. Abhishek Sharma’s fourth wall breaking narrative is effective to an extent, especially in the first half of the movie. In the first half, the movie is in that comedy mood where I giggled a lot. At many places, it sort of reminded me of the Hollywood romantic comedy Notting Hill where also this drastic difference in backdrops of the characters created a special charm. In the second half things becomes a bit clunky.  The movie itself is not so sure on how much of upscaling should be done to the drama that’s happening on screen. The movie somewhere becomes more of Zoya Solanki’s love story rather than a take on luck versus talent.

Sonam Kapoor has a typical way of playing these kinds of characters. Zoya is pretty much an extension of all those characters she played in movies like Khoobsurat, Aysha and Bewakoofiyan. The kind of charm Julia Roberts showed in the initial portions of Notting Hill, I could sense that kind of grace in Dulquer Salmaan’s Nikhil. The actor fits into the mold of a character like Nikhil Khoda comfortably. Angad Bedi is a one dimensional negative influence. Sanjay Kapoor and Sikander Kher are okay as Zoya’s family.

Abhishek Sharma has previously made movies like Parmanu, Tere Bin Laden etc. Here he is trying to pitch the movie as more of a romantic comedy. So hence when the movie reaches that phase where Zoya is struggling to cope with the pressures of being a lucky charm to something as emotional as Indian National Cricket Team, the feel is somewhat missing. But luckily for the movie, such emotionally complicated phases are happening only towards the end and there isn’t a huge portion dedicated to it in the screenplay by Anuja Chauhan and Pradhuman Singh. Like I already said, cinematographer Manoj Lobo’s decision to visualize cricket matches in the way actual cricket matches are covered gives the cricket visuals of the movie a refreshingly real feel. The music by the trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is catchy.

The Zoya Factor might not be a great movie that you will remember for a long time. But if you have seen the trailer and has an idea about what the premise of the movie is, you might find this movie as a passable comedy with some discrete fun moments to its credit. Clocking at 136 minutes, it’s definitely not a patience tester.

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