**The Zoya Factor ** Review Thread - Dulquer Salman , Sonam Kapoor

Review: Dulquer Salmaan shines in romcom starring Sonam Kapoor

The Malayalam movie star is paired with Sonam Kapoor in the screen adaptation of Anuja Chauhan’s bestselling novel.

Wannabe show boat meets dreamboat in The Zoya Factor, a movie that both suffers from miscasting and benefits from perfect casting.

Abhishek Sharma’s shambolic romantic comedy, based on the bestselling 2008 novel by Anuja Chauhan, gives top billing to Sonam Kapoor, but all the attention is hogged by the name that follows hers in the credits.

Malayalam star Dulquer Salmaan made a hard landing in Hindi cinema with the aimless road movie Karwaanin 2018. Karwaan did little to bolster Salmaan’s crossover ambitions despite his fluency in Hindi, and the unevenness of The Zoya Factor threatens to derail his second Bollywood outing too. Yet, Salmaan’s camera-friendly manner and outsized charm stand out in a movie that mashes together romance, cricket and advertising in the hope that at least one of the themes will stick.

As it happens, at least two pay some form of dividend. The old-fashioned Mills and Boon-style romance has its moments despite the mismatched leads. The irreverent approach towards a sport that has become a quasi-religion in India is both a departure and a relief. The advertising portions are poorly handled, and apart from providing an excuse to plug brands throughout the narrative, tell us little about the crass commercialisation of cricket. “The Pepsi Factor” this isn’t.

Sonam Kapoor plays, for the nth time, the Queen of Klutz. She is Zoya Singh Solanki, who considers herself unfortunate despite having a loving father and brother, living in a sprawling house with four television sets, and possessing a fashionably mismatched wardrobe.

Zoya is a grunt in an advertising agency that handles the account of brands endorsed by the Indian cricket team. Assigned to handle a photo shoot of the men led by Nikhil Khoda (Dulquer Salmaan), Zoya blurts out her big secret: she is a lucky charm when it comes to cricket. India lifted the World Cup trophy when Zoya was born, and her presence ensured that her brother Zorawar won every one of his gully cricket matches. Could Zoya’s lucky streak be escalated for Nikhil’s team, which is on a losing wicket despite its talent? Might not Zoya’s presence at the breakfast table prove to be the talisman that the team needs to win yet another World Cup?

Yes and yes. There have been flimsier reasons to bring potential lovers together. Zoya soon has it all. Nikhil and his boys win all their matches, and he is burying his lips in her collarbone. Two villains arrive in the form of scheming team player Robin and his selector uncle Jogpal. They drive a wedge between the lovers by overselling Zoya’s importance and hammering Nikhil’s confidence.

The melodrama that follows the souring of ties between Zoya and Nikhil proves to be a waste of time. The best bits in the 136-minute movie replicate the spirit of frothy fun from Chauhan’s novel. The Zoya Factor was written at a time when cricketers had already been deified and the sport was elevated to the quest to find a cure for HIV. Yet, Chauhan’s novel paradoxically worked as a throwback to the days when losing a match didn’t mean the end of the world. Her low-key treatment of the cricketers and the game itself, and the cornball sentiment that characterised the ardor between Zoya and Nikhil, pulled the novel through its agreeably silly premise.

The question of the role played by chance in cricket is rushed through in the movie. What’s luck got to do with it? Ask Sonam Kapoor, who has the meatier role despite being far too seasoned to be playing the ingenue. Kapoor’s limited skills especially show up in her comedy scenes, and Salmaan easily pushes her into the shadows during their sparring moments. Zoya’s perennial dithering and mushiness when Nikhil comes into view undercut the attempt to insert a feminine presence into the macho world of cricket.

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Other members of the cast fare better than Kapoor: her real-life uncle, Sanjay Kapoor, as her father; Sikander Kher as her protective brother; Angad Bedi as Nikhil’s nasty rival; Manu Rishi Chadha as the dastardly cricket board director who cares more about his nephew than the game. Two unseen commentators who roll out droll humour during the matches also leave their mark in a movie whose major achievement is to act as a reminder of the time when cricket used to be fun and games rather than an act of war.

THE ZOYA FACTOR MOVIE REVIEW: THIS ONE DELIVERS ON THE BALL

• TIMES OF INDIA

ISTCritic's Rating: 3.5/5Story:

 Born on the same day that India won the 1983 cricket World Cup, Zoya is considered by her family to be a lucky charm when it comes to winning matches, albeit gully cricket. But when the Indian cricket management want to sign her on as a lucky mascot for the present team, Zoya finds herself in a fix. 

Review: Zoya (Sonam Kapoor), a junior copy writer in an ad agency is sent on an ad photo shoot with the Indian cricket team. When a love struck Zoya meets Nikhil Khoda (Dulquer Salmaan), captain of the Indian cricket team, they hit it off instantly. But soon, she has the entire team eating out of her hands because she lets out her ‘luck factor’ story over breakfast with them. And incidentally, the underperforming team even win the next couple of matches. And they have their lucky charm to thank for it. 

While Nihkil relies solely on self-belief and hard work, his team is increasingly drawn towards Zoya as their lucky charm --- something that Nikhil strongly dissuades them from believing in. Matters come to a head when Zoya and Nikhil start dating, but the team management wants her on board as the team’s lucky mascot. 

In his second Hindi movie outing, Dulquer Salmaan exudes oodles of charm as Nikhil. If in his Bollywood debut ‘Karwaan’ we saw him as the understated, almost nerdy (and very likeable) Avinash, in ‘The Zoya Factor’ Dulquer goes all out with his hunky, romantic avatar as Nikhil. From being playful to intense, Dulquer steals the show as he is absolutely brilliant in his portrayal. 

Sonam Kapoor as a goofy junior copy writer fits into her role like a glove. In between dating losers and trying to save her flailing career, Sonam’s comic timing as Zoya is on the ball through most of the film. And together, Sonam and Dulquer’s chemistry works its magic and grows on you.

Director Abhishek Sharma gives us a light-hearted romantic comedy that hits all the right notes from the word go. An adaptation of Anuja Chauhan’s novel by the same name, the vibe here is breezy and feel-good. Even some of the improbable moments are dealt with amusingly well. Anil Kapoor in a cameo steals the moment with that one fleeting scene. The supporting cast with Sanjay Kapoor as Zoya’s father, Angad Bedi as Robin, another key player in the team, score well. Sikander Kher as Zoya’s brother pulls off some fine comic moments in the film. Special mention for the running cricket commentary which is absolutely howlarious. The pleasant soundtrack by Shankar Ehsaan Loy and the background score add their zing to the mood. 

The Zoya Factor is a fun, frothy film that pits superstitions versus strategy and self-belief versus luck. And delightfully uses India’s cricket craze to deliver a thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining film. 

In-depth Analysis

Our overall critic’s rating is not an average of the sub scores below.

Direction:

3.5/5

Dialogues:

3.5/5

Screenplay:

3.5/5

Music:

3.5/5

Visual appeal:

3.5/5

The Zoya Factor movie review: Dulquer Salmaan hits it out of the park

The Zoya Factor movie cast: Dulquer Salmaan, Sonam Kapoor, Sanjay Kapoor, Manu Rishi, Angad Bedi, Sikander Kher, Koel Purie

The Zoya Factor movie director: Abhishek Sharma
The Zoya Factor movie rating: Two and a half stars

When it came out in 2008, Anuja Chauhan’s The Zoya Factor redefined Indian chick-lit. I’d go further and say that her debut novel was one of a kind. It had the mandatory made-for-each-other girl and guy. It had the meet-cute, bicker-snicker will-she-won’t-she, will-he-won’t-he, till they did, which was fine and dandy all by itself. What Chauhan also did was corral the India it was set in (especially the vagaries of the advertising world) with a precise and wicked eye. The thing between the girl and guy was fresh and zingy, overlaid with just the right degree of sexiness, and the whole was laugh-out-loud funny.

The book was always going to be a movie. No way that Zoya Solanki, the wavy-haired klutzy advertising rookie, and Nikhil Khoda, the tall, dark and handsome cricketer, were not going to be lobbing snappy remarks and sparking on a screen near you.

It’s taken more than ten years, and while Sonam’s Zoya and Dulquer’s Nikhil make a good-looking pair, I wasn’t as blown away by them as I was hoping to: they come together only intermittently, as does the film.

he film’s best bits belong to Dulquer, even though I kept hoping for him to break out a little more. But still, he makes something of his Nikhil, the Indian cricket captain who believes in winning by dint of hard work, and who has to confront a googly in the shape of Zoya, who turns, overnight and fuzzily, into a good luck charm for the team.

Kapoor has had practice in being a delightful ditz, and she aced that act in her Khubsoorat. Here, she yo-yos between being-all-over-the-place-and-nailing-it, and you end up wanting more, for Zoya to have that little special something, especially because she has so much screen time.

Of the supporting cast, Rishi as the dodgy cricketing official stands-out, as well as the girl who plays a catty TV presenter, as do a few members of the cricket team, especially the superstitious bowler and the Jat cricketer with the heaviest Haryanvi accent this side of Sonepat. Except for one crackling sequence, Kapoor as Zoya’s dad, and Kher as her `bhai’, both cricket-mad ‘faujis’, come and go flatly: is there a single scene in which the ‘bhai’ doesn’t call Zoya ‘jhadoo’? Tell me if you come across it.

For a rom-com which needs to be light on its feet, hitting fours and sixes as it goes along, the writing is not as supple as it should have been. Too many slog overs here.

It is Dulquer, sufficiently snarky and gooey-eyed in turns, who takes it away. I’d call it The DQ Factor

I don’t know how many of read the book but this was a complete miscast. Zoya is supposed to be this klutzy cute rolu polu...which angle se Sonam is that. Idk

DS is getting so many gd reviews 

https://twitter.com/TheQuint/status/1174918458590449664?s=20

Originally posted by: columbia

I don’t know how many of read the book but this was a complete miscast. Zoya is supposed to be this klutzy cute rolu polu...which angle se Sonam is that. Idk

Exactly!! Should've been someone like Parineeti or Sonakshi - someone who's had weight issues so we buy that they have a slight complex about it. Sonams a complete miscast. Unfortunately, she's going to do ruin Battle For Bittora too

Looking forward to this one 🥳

“Lucky charm” to ZF team 👍🏼

I wish DQ would stop doing Bollywood. Especially with the likes of Sonam.

I would anyday watch OK Kanmani (Tamil) or Mahanati (Telugu) without understanding a word, just to enjoy his performance. Looking forward to 'Kurupp' in Malayalam. 

Stick to South da. Ye Bollywood tere kaam ki nahi.

Watched the movie. It's a fun, frothy movie...with all the right ingredients. DQ steals the show. Sonam is good in parts, but average in others.