Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran (2018)

A look at India's second confidential nuclear test series at Pokhran led by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, during the time of PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tenure.

Director:

Abhishek Sharma

Writers:

Saiwyn Quadras, Sanyukta Chawla Shaikh (as Sanyukta Shaikh Chawla)

Stars:

John Abraham, Boman Irani, Diana Penty

Top Rated Indian Movies #176 | See the Top Rated Indian Movies as rated by our users.

Cast

Credited cast:
John Abraham	...	Capt. Ashwat Rana
Boman Irani	...	Himanshu Shukla
Diana Penty	...	Capt. Ambalika
Anuja Sathe	...	Sushma
Vikas Kumar	...	Major Prem Singh
Yogendra Tiku	...	Dr. Naresh Sinha (as Yogendra Tikku)
Aditya Hitkari
Ajay Shankar	...	Puru Ranganathan
Darshan Pandya
Mark Bennington	...	Daniel
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Shyam Bhagat
Zachary Coffin	...	CIA Officer Stephen
Nishikant Dixit	...	Officer in PM House
Satinder Singh Gahlot	...	Suresh Yadav
Tan Raj Ghale

Storyline

Captain Ashwat Raina's efforts to turn India into a nuclear state are at first met with criticism and then years later, with an offer from the government. With the help of Himanshu Shukla, the Prime Minister's principal secretary, he leads a team to conduct a second nuclear test series. The only major threat lurking is the American Lacrosse satellite which caught the first test preparations, further causing America to warn India about such future tests. With their patriotic hearts and unbreakable spirits, Ashwat and his team race against time to conduct the tests confidentially while the country's worsening political scenario as well as the presence of spies from US and Pakistan puts them into both mental as well as physical challenges.

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Plot Keywords:

army | indian army | based on real events | nuclear test | nuclear reactor | 

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Taglines:

1998, India: one secret operation, six Indians shocked the world, made India proud.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | History

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Instagram

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

25 May 2018 (USA)

Also Known As:

Parmanu

Filming Locations:

India

Company Credits

Production Co:

J.A. Entertainment, Kyta Productions, Zee Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

129 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Parmanu was officially announced on 15 April 2017 via Taran Adarsh's Twitter handle.

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Goofs

While John Abraham is taking tuition classes, the matter on the black board keeps changing between camera shots.

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Quotes

Capt. Ashwat Rana: What we thought was for the nation. What we did is for the nation. And what we got will be for the nation.

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Crazy Credits

A lot of real-life footage has been used in the film.

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Alternate Versions

In the Netflix version, the Hindi subtitles placed during the English dialogues have been removed. Also, the intermission text has been removed with no visual being cut.

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Connections

Features Mahabharat (1988)

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Soundtracks

Shubh Din
Lyrics by Vayu Shrivastava
Music by Sachin Sanghvi and Jigar Saraiya
Performed by Jyotica Tangri and Keerthi Sagathia

User Reviews

A must watch patriotic film. John's career best.

Directed by Abhishek Sharma, Parmanu is a film based on true incident of nuclear testing in India (1998). Film features John Abraham, Diana Penty, Boman Irani and Anuja Sathe in prominent characters. It speaks about the historical event of India becoming a nuclear state.

First of all, let me tell you frankly that I was not going for this movie till the last night. Somehow I felt that it's going to be a boring film as what will they show about nuclear test! But last night, I read one tweet praising about it. So I made up my mind to take a risk. Believe me, I am extremely satisfied now!

What went through during the test of nuclear, that also with super secrecy from entire world, especially CIA. There is a constant pace that the film continues on with lot's of happening in between. There is a strong emotional factor, too. And above all, the patriotism makes it a worthy watch for every Indian.

John Abraham is at his best. Many will say that this is his best film in the entire career. Also, he is a producer of this film. There were some issues, and because of that the film's future went in danger. But he somehow manages to break all the odds and Today he made it to the theatres as well. Kudos to him for lifting up such a story which the entire nation needs to know.

Diana Penty looks perfect for the role. She acts beautifully and looks charming. Anuja Sathe delivers a solid performance as a wife of John. Boman Irani is excellent. His conversation scenes with John are the best! Supporting cast, especially the Pandavas have done a great job. They keep you engage as well as entertain throughout.

Music by Sachin-Jigar adds an element of Rajasthani touch. Folk tunes and voices are very much relatable to the story and situation. Sapna by Arijit is my favourite from this album.

Location adds thrill to the story. Storms and sands are captured well. The whole setup of plant was developed superb. It is hard to crew for the setup pf 1998 in the current year, but they have done it nicely. Though, the blast could have been shown better. Although, it is nice now. Usage of old footage such as speech by Bajpayee is also good.

Overall, this film should not be missed. You will feel proud for sure. This film is an ode to our engineers and scientists. And that too in a thriller format. John Abraham and Abhishek Sharma deserve applaud for making such a wonderful film. And I wish John will make such films in future as well (like his production house did in the past). So, a must watch story of Pokhran. 4/5.