Mission Mangal

Mission Mangal
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jagan Shakti
Written by	R. Balki Jagan Shakti Nidhi Singh Dharma Saketh Kondiparthi
Story by	Jagan Shakti
Produced by	Cape of Good Films Hope Productions Fox Star Studios Aruna Bhatia Anil Naidu
Starring	Akshay Kumar Vidya Balan Sonakshi Sinha Taapsee Pannu Nithya Menen Kirti Kulhari Sharman Joshi H. G. Dattatreya Vikram Gokhale
Cinematography	Ravi Varman
Edited by	Chandan Arora
Music by	Songs & Score: Amit Trivedi Guest Composer: Tanishk Bagchi
Production companies	Cape of Good Films Hope Productions Fox Star Studios
Distributed by	Fox Star Studios
Release date	15 August 2019 (2019-08-15)[1]
Running time	127 minutes[2]
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹32 crore[3][4]
Box office	est. ₹290.59 crore[5][6]

Mission Mangal (transl. Mission Mars) is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Jagan Shakti and jointly produced by Cape of Good Films, Hope Productions, Fox Star Studios, Aruna Bhatia and Anil Naidu.^[2] Loosely based on the life of scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation who contributed to India's first interplanetary expedition Mars Orbiter Mission, it stars an ensemble cast of Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Sonakshi Sinha, Taapsee Pannu, Nithya Menen, Kirti Kulhari, Sharman Joshi, H. G. Dattatreya and Vikram Gokhale.^[1]

Shakti, who worked as associate director on Kumar's 2018 film Pad Man, pitched the script to him, and principal photography commenced in November 2018.^[7] Mission Mangal was theatrically released in India on 15 August 2019, India's Independence Day. It received positive reviews from critics and earned ₹290.59 crore worldwide, becoming a commercial success.

Plot[]

In Bengaluru, at ISRO, after the failed launch of GSLV-F06 on 25 December 2010, due to a small mistake by Project Director Tara Shinde (Vidya Balan), Rakesh Dhawan (Akshay Kumar), a fellow scientist working with her, takes the blame for her. As a result, he is relocated to work on Mangalyaan as punishment. The new GSLV missions are given to Rupert Desai, a NASA scientist of Indian origin. The MoM (Mars Orbiter Mission) is thought of as an impossible mission by his coworkers due its aim of reaching Mars with its tight budget.

Rakesh learns that MoM cannot take off on the PSLV since the available technology has a payload of only 1500 kg and not enough fuel to fire the rocket to be carried to a distance of almost 5.5*10^7 kilometres. GSLV, if it had succeeded, could have taken the satellite to Mars as it had a payload of 2300 kg. However, recent significant failures of GSLV have jeopardised the planned future missions.

Back at home, Tara is badly caught in between balancing her career and her family. One day at home, while frying puris, Tara's maid informs of insufficient gas to cook all the puris, to which Tara tells her to heat the oil and turn off the gas, and turn it back on if the oil cools down, which sparks in her an idea to launch the MoM using PSLV. They would use bursts of gas to push the MoM satellite further into Earth's outside orbit, and then slingshot it using Earth's gravitational sphere, successfully saving fuel. She approaches Rakesh with the idea, who is convinced. The duo tries to get the other team members on board, but instead are mocked, though they later are convinced too along with the Director of ISRO. When Tara and Rakesh ask Rupert to lend them expert members of his team, Rupert instead gives them junior scientists and engineers, who have little to no experience in mission launches.

First, there is Eka Gandhi (Sonakshi Sinha), propulsion control expert, a youngster that hates most Indian things and looking for any chance to get away to NASA. Then there is the spacecraft autonomy designer Neha Siddiqui (Kirti Kulhari), who is struggling with rejection as a result of her intercommunal background. Navigation expert Kritika Aggarwal (Taapsee Pannu) is a devoted wife tending to her ex-serviceman husband Rishi (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub), who was severely wounded in action. Varsha Pillai (Nithya Menen) , the satellite designer and payload expert, battles with her mother-in-law's taunts at home for not being able to bear a child. Parmeshwar Joshi (Sharman Joshi), payload expert, relies more on the priest and his advice to and develops a romantic interest in Eka. Lastly, there is Ananth Iyengar (H. G. Dattatreya), the team's structural engineer, who is trying to complete his pilgrimage to Tirumala with his wife.

However, after the announcement of India's second Moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, the mission's budget is cut by 50%. In between the tight schedule and minuscule budget, Tara and Rakesh continue to work on their MoM project by making several compromises. Tara and Rakesh realise that the junior scientists working on the project have low morale and motivation to make this mission happen, leading to the team slowing down. Tara soon realises that in order to meet their budget and schedule, she must make the team members change their attitudes, and motivate them to make their dream jobs into a reality. She is successful with this, and the team puts all their hardwork and energy into solving the issues with the mission, and making it happen. Meanwhile, Varsha happens to be pregnant and soon delivers a child. The MoM satellite is finally launched on PSLV on 5 November 2013 (after an 8-day delay due to weather), and is named Mangalyaan (Sanskrit: Mars-Craft) and is successfully inserted into Earth's orbit. Rakesh and his team celebrates the successful launch. However, while doing the sixth orbit-raising manoeuvre, the jets fail to launch, pushing the mission 6 days behind. Rupert mocks the team, while Tara continues to keep hope that something will happen. Couple months later, on the way to Mars, the satellite is hit by a solar radiation wave, heavily damaging the communication systems of the satellite. When the team manages to regain communications, they realise that the solar radiation had increased the speed of the satellite and pushed it further, making up the 6 day gap they had incurred while doing the orbital manoeuvres with Earth. After spending 298-day transit to Mars, MoM satellite is inserted into Mars orbit on 24 September 2014, making the country 4th in the world to do so and the first country to do it in the first attempt.

Cast[]

Production[]

On 5 November 2018, to coincide with 5 November 2013, the day the Mars Orbiter Mission was launched, Mission Mangal was announced. Principal photography for the film began later in mid-November.^[8][9] In early February, Pannu finished her schedule of shooting.^[10] Shakti initially had Mohanlal and Sridevi in mind for the roles played by Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan. Shakti pitched the idea to Kumar while working as an associate director to R. Balki in Kumar's Pad Man.^[11]

In November 2018, a copyright infringement lawsuit was filed against the makers of the film by the filmmaker Radha Bharadwaj.^[12]

Soundtrack[]

Mission Mangal
Soundtrack album by Amit Trivedi and Tanishk Bagchi
Released	15 August 2019[13]
Recorded	2018–2019
Studio	A T Studios
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	10:32
Language	Hindi
Label	Zee Music Company
Producer	Amit Trivedi
External audio Audio Jukebox on YouTube

The music of the film is composed by Amit Trivedi while the lyrics are penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya.

Tanishk Bagchi was roped in as a guest composer and wrote and composed a promotional song, "Tota Udd".

Release[]

The film was released in India on 15 August 2019 on the occasion of Indian Independence Day.^[14]

Reception[]

Critical response[]

Mission Mangal received generally positive reviews from critics.^[15] Rajeev Masand of News 18 gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and said, "Ultimately, Mission Mangal is enjoyable and entertaining. Even the jingoism doesn’t feel entirely out of place. Director Jagan Shakti delivers a space movie that lifts off and frequently soars."^[16] Raja Sen of Hindustan Times gave the film only 2 out of 5 stars and said, "The facts are stupendous, but director Jagan Shakti decides to go fast and fictional, creating an underdog story that — while often likeable — plays out like a fable."^[17]

Box office[]

On its first day of release, Mission Mangal earned ₹29.16 crore nett in India to become the third highest-opening for a Bollywood film in 2019, and Kumar's highest opening ever.^[18] It recorded collections of ₹16.75-17 crore on the second day, outperforming in the regions of Mumbai, Mysore and Kolkata.^[4][19] On its third day of release, a Saturday, the film collected ₹23.5 crore nett.^[20] It earned ₹27.5 crore nett on Sunday, marking the highest earning for a Bollywood film in 2019 on a single day.^[21] The following day, it showed a drop of 50 percent from Friday's earnings to collect ₹8.5-8.75 crore nett.^[22]

As of 12 October 2019, with a gross of ₹238.80 crore in India and ₹51.79 crore overseas, the film has earned ₹290.59 crore worldwide and have become seventh Highest gross Bollywood movie of 2019.^[5][6]

References[]

External links[]

• Mission Mangal at IMDb
• Mission Mangal at Rotten Tomatoes
• Mission Mangal at Bollywood Hungama