Main Atal Hoon Movie Review: Pankaj Tripathi is 'atal' in an attempt to save shaky biopic

Star Cast: Pankaj Tripathi, Piyush Mishra, Raja Rameshkumar Sevak, Daya Shankar Pandey, Payal Nair

Director: Ravi Jadhav

Main Atal Hoon Movie: Story

Growing up being righteous, getting inspired by the political philosophy of KB Hedgewar (Ajay Purkar) and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (Daya Shankar Pandey), a very young Atal Bihari Vajpayee is a proud member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. This might ruffle some feathers, but just like Saadat Hasan Manto, even Vajpayee held the mirror to expose the reflection of the society during and after the Independence through his words.

His monthly magazine ‘Rashtra Dharma’ shook the government back then (as narrated in the film) & Atal stepped up the ladder to not only become India’s 10 Prime Minister but also serve three terms, boosting the country to new heights. How he rose and all the challenges and criticisms he faced are merely touched to narrate the story of the ‘Bhishma Pitamah of Indian politics.’

Main Atal Hoon Movie: Script Analysis

Ravi Jadhav & Rishi Virmani’s story once again proves how not every great story can be turned into a biopic. I had similar issues with Omung Kumar’s PM Narendra Modi biopic, whose review I titled “Even the greatest stories need good narrators!” That should be the same one-liner review for this one as well.

Following Wikipedia’s bullet points treatment, the narration is exceptionally bland to execute even the greatest milestones of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s career. Yes, we all know it’s a yesteryear story, but the ‘gloomification’ of its visual theme is so high that it starts hurting your eyes after a point of time.

Main Atal Hoon Movie: Star Performance

I don’t think I’ve ever been so critical about a Pankaj Tripathi performance, but this is not it. Not because he’s doing something wrong, but because he didn’t notice he’s doing something wrong throughout the film. His impersonation of Shri Atal Vajpayee steers to the caricature land way too often than you’d expect. He tries hard, but it just looks like he’s reading the dialogues instead of just delivering them.

The pauses between the lines and the rhythm may all be an ‘Atal’ trait, but it just doesn’t land how I expected it to be. The subtlety is missing. Why did the makers even try to make him look like a college student? The whole sequence was awkward because how would you serve a 47-year-old as a student without de-aging? None of the other actors make it up

Main Atal Hoon Movie: Direction, Music

Ravi Jadhav‘s direction never allows the narration to achieve the desired impact. Even the high-voltage sequences pass away blandly because of poor writing.

Monty Sharma’s ear-deafening background score serves no purpose, being just another misfit amidst all the other misfits. You won’t listen to any of its songs for the second time, and that says everything about its soundtrack.

Main Atal Hoon Movie: Conclusion

All said and done; this is the classic case of having so much to tell but failing to find the right way to do it.