The Zoya Factor
Rating: 3/5
Duration: 2 hours 14 minutes
Director: Abhishek Sharma
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance
Release Date: 20.09.2019
Star Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Dulquer Salmaan, Sanjay Kapoor, Angad Bedi, Sikander Kher, Saurabh Shukla, Rahul Khanna
Plot: Zoya Solanki (Sonam Kapoor) works as an executive in a leading advertising agency. She totally loves every aspect of her job. Her family considers her as a charm of luck when the matter is about winning matches in gully cricket. However, things change when Zoya has to leave for Dhaka for the sake of shooting an advertisement with the cricket team of India.
When the cricketers learn that Zoya had taken birthright at the moment when the country won its first World Cup in the year 1983, they're taken aback. Furthermore, the bizarre that eating breakfast with the lady makes the Indian team win on the pitch and not having food with her leads to a defeat, shocks the cricketers more. Ultimately, the guys in blue believe Zoya to be lucky for the Indian cricket team.
As destiny would grant it, India experiences a host of victories in cricket, and very soon the country starts treating her as a goddess. Very soon, Zoya gets an invitation from the president of IBCC for accompanying the Indian cricketers to Australia for the ICC World Cup. All this while, the lady can’t help getting attracted to the new Indian captain Nikhil Khoda (Dulquer Salmaan), who unlike others has no belief in luck.
Review: You must be aware of the fact that Abhishek Sharma's new movie 'The Zoya Factor’ is an adaption from Anuja Chauhan’s novel of the same name. Although the book received much love from the readers, the movie is likely to have a hard time because of its improper pairing of leads, slow pace, and predictable plot. That being said, although the film’s second half seems to be a bit faster, yet it is not much engaging. Moreover, as a viewer, you are likely to believe in the rationalities, coping with certain inconsequential events and clichéd treatment that is shown in the film. Apart from all these, you may also feel that the character development and the cinematography are also not much impressive.
The things that act as a saviour for the film are the brilliant performances by the lead as well as the supporting actors and some humorous sequences. The movie has many great scenes, and many of them involve either Sikander Kher or Dulquer Salmaan. In his second Bollywood film, Dalquer steals all the attention as Nikhil Khoda. The nerdy, understated Avinash of Karwaan transforms amazingly into the romantic, hunky Nikhil of The Zoya Factor. From being intense to playful – Dalquer is just outstanding in his character portrayal. On the contrary, the performance of Sonam Kapoor is not much impressive as Zoya. Having said that, the actress has done a good job in some segments of the film. Her comic timing is also quite appreciable.
Although Dulquer and Sonam have delivered good performances individually, their pairing is not up to the mark. The perceptible chemistry, which was expected by everyone, is actually missing.
The supporting actors, such as Sanjay Kapoor, playing the character of Zoya’s father, Sikander Kher, playing Zoya’s brother, and Angad Bedi, playing Robin, a key player of the cricket team, deliver a scoring performance. Anil Kapoor’s cameo role is absolutely breathtaking.
Not to forget, the commentary that was delivered during the match scenes deserves a huge round of applause. The enchanting music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy adds charm to the overall narrative.
Overall, The Zoya Factor is an enjoyable and fun film that can leave you chuckling for quite a few times. However, if you’re a cricketer or a cricket fan, don’t expect much because this movie mostly revolves around the leads and their romantic love affair and hardly lays any focus on the game.
