An apple fell on Newton's head, Archimedes stepped inside a bathtub and Vidya Balan fries puris to make an important breakthrough in science. Science is vast and complicated but it's also straightforward and right in front of us. Sometimes simplifying something of significance is the only way to make a layman see what a great man envisions.

Statutory warning: looking for science, logic or facts here would be like searching for the proverbial needle in the haystack. That makes it easy for viewers like yours truly who have anyhow always been challenged when it comes to matters of physics, chemistry, mathematics and statistics.

After sanitation and hygiene (Toilet Ek Prem Katha), women's sanitary health and social enterprise (Padman) superstar Akshay Kumar completes his nation-building film trilogy with a giant leap to Mars in his latest offering Mission Mangal. Mission Mars is a fictionalized version of the events of 2013-14 when India (ISRO) successfully pulled off the Mars Orbit Mission becoming the first country to get a satellite to Mars in its first attempt. And this at a project cost, which was a fraction of what America (NASA) spent on its Maven orbiter to Mars.

This is actually a pretty sweet, syrupy film, in a schmaltzy sort of way, full of Hallmark card type quotable quotes, on success and life, and all that jazz. To a point that you may even forget sometimes that it's entirely a space-mission movie to begin with. And, indeed India's first of its kind.

One Word Review... MissionMangal: BRILLIANT. Clearly, one of the best films of 2019... Each character shines... High-concept film that keeps you hooked all through... Has potential to emerge Akshay Kumar's highest grosser... Winner!

MISSION MANGAL is the incredible true story behind India's mission to Mars. The film begins in 2010. At the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), a space mission under Rakesh Dhawan (Akshay Kumar) fails after Tara Shinde (Vidya Balan) in his team makes an error in judgement. As a punishment posting, he's asked to handle India's Mars program, which is not expected to take off anytime soon. A few days later, Tara while cooking puris in her home has a Eureka moment.

In November 2013, the much-awaited Mangalyaan was launched. Less than a year later, the light-weight satellite carrying five crucial instruments, successfully entered the orbit of Mars, the red planet. And history was made. India became the first country to do this on its first try, at a fraction of the cost of what space pioneers- US, Russia and China- had spent. It was a national triumph, coasting on the amazing innovative spirit of the scientists at ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), Bangalore.

Director Jagan Shakti's Mission Mangal is a fictionalised account of the Indian Space Research Organisation's Mars Orbiter Mission (MoM) aka Mangalyaan launched in November 2013 that got a space probe orbiting Mars by November 2014, and catapulted ISRO into a small, elite club of space agencies worldwide to have reached the Red Planet. It is a saga of Indian enterprise, jugaad and hope.

The film is a fictionalised tribute to the team of ISRO that made mission Mangalyaan a success with limited budget and resources. Akshay Kumar plays the mission director Rakesh Dhawan while Vidya Balan is the project director, Tara Shinde. The film gives a glimpse into the lives of the core women team that made use of their common sense to accomplish such a project. Mangalyaan was a huge success for ISRO after the failure of GSLV.

On November 5, 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched its space probe Mangalyaan which has been orbiting Mars since September 24, 2014. It was India's first interplanetary mission and it made ISRO the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after Roscosmos, NASA, and the European Space Agency. India also became the first Asian nation to reach Martian orbit and the first nation in the world to do so in its maiden attempt.

It's a godawful small affair. Rakesh Dhawan is a mission director at the Indian Space Research Organisation, and after his last mission was a non-starter, he's been given a punishment posting and assigned to a mission nobody really wants: an expedition to Mars. This ambition appears entirely out of reach given ISRO's budgets, and the film Mission Mangal - in an overture to exaggerate this impressive Indian achievement - depicts the Mars exploration department as a rundown room with no people, just a solitary cat.

Based on the 'Mars Orbiter Mission' or Mangalyaan (because, as per this film, ISRO's Director wanted a 'wazandaar/heavy' name to it), the story starts with a failed mission because of which Rakesh Dhawan (Akshay Kumar) gets transferred to Mars' department. There are no people in this department because they think achieving Mars is impossible, hence it's an isolated dusty room with just a Cat in it. Tara joins Rakesh for Mission Mars as she blames herself for the failure of last mission.

A tribute to the team of ISRO that wrote history on space and made India proud with mission Mangalyaan. Rakesh Dhawan (Akshay Kumar) is the mission director while Tara Shinde (Vidya Balan) is the project director. Their core team includes Sonakshi Sinha as Eka Gandhi, Taapsee Pannu as Kritika Aggarwal, Nithya Menen as Varsha Pillai, Kirti Kulhari as Neha Siddiqui and Sharman Joshi as Parmeshwar Naidu. How sheer determination and the will to fulfill their dreams made them achieve this impossible feat fighting family issues at home and lack of support and funds in the department finds the crux of this movie.

After sanitation and sanitary pads, Bollywood's favourite nation-builder Akshay Kumar turns his attention to the Indian space programme. In Mission Mangal, Kumar plays Rakesh, the movie star-handsome Indian Space Research Organisation scientist that you were not told about.

But that is IMPOSSIBLE--- This is a recurring line throughout Mission Mangal, and practically every character says it emphatically with an air of despair. But you forget, when you have Akshay Kumar around with a very fiercely determined Vidya Balan, how is anything impossible? And so, that's what Mission Mangal is all about, achieving the unthinkable. The film tells the inspiring tale of India's first Mars Mission, Mangalyaan, which was launched in 2013.

A dream doesn't become reality through magic, it takes sweat, determination and hard work to make it come true. That's what Indian scientists at ISRO have gone through for the past five decades, leaving behind their personal lives, making their families second priority and propelling themselves into a pursuit of scientific achievement.