Rating : 2.5/5
Genre : Romance
Year : 2019
Running time : 2 hours 14 minutes
Director : Abhishek Sharma
Cast : Dulquer Salma, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Sanjay Kapoor, Angad Bedi, Sikander Kher
Kid rating : G
Zoya Solanki (Sonam) is a scatter-brained ad agency exec. Unlucky in love and getting the short end of the stick at work, life changes when she unwittingly becomes a good luck charm for the Indian Cricket Team. This is palatable to all but the Captain Nikhil Khoda (Dulquer) who believes that her “luck” will take away from the team’s hard work. Quite a bummer, this philosophy, especially because Zoya is on the verge of falling for Nikhil.
The Zoya Factor is based on the similarly named book by Anuja Chauhan. I haven’t read the book, but I sure hope that it is better than this vapid, empty-headed film. The film feels sparse, like a short story stretched thinly over it’s 2 hour runtime. There’s very little happening in the film, so there’s lots of empty space with nothing interesting on screen. Ergo, boring.
There is very little character development. The film is mainly focussed on Zoya, and a ditzy little whiner she is.There are so many characters in the film; one would have thought that a little backstory for some of them might have bolstered the film a bit. Also, for a romance, this film seemed to have precious little of it – and I’m going to blame the pitiful screenplay here. The two leads just fall in love; the why and the how are a mystery. For a romance to work, there have be more than just the broad brush strokes.
Once again, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja portrays a flighty young girl, accident-prone but well-meaning; she must be able to play one in her sleep now given the practice (Khoobsurat). Zoya’s character was pretty annoying. The girl seemed to wilt at the slightest setback, and wallowed in tubfuls of self-pity and petulance. Zoya is shown to come from a middle-class family but she appears fairly entitled and princessy – or maybe that’s just Sonam being herself 🙂 Kapoor hams her way through the movie, and her acting is just so affected, that it is off-putting. I always though she was a good actress (Delhi-6, Neerja) but she probably needs to have a stronger director to reel her in.
The only thing going for the movie is the charismatic hero (although what’s with the hair?). Dulquer, whom you might have seen in Karwaan, is charming as Nikhil, and actually manages to brighten up the scenes he is in. It is hard to imagine why a charmer like Nikhil falls for a whiner like Zoya; I’m not bought into the romance at all. The Zoya Factor had so many problems, it is hard to imagine a scenario where this film would work. One would have needed a better screenplay, a less insipid heroine (someone like Alia would have worked) and a director who knew what he was doing.
Unfortunately, with the current combination, the Zoya Factor is at best less than average.
Kidwise: Clean
