‘The Zoya Factor’ Critics Review: Dulquer Shines in This Rom Com

The film released in theatres on 20 September.

Film: The Zoya Factor

Director: Abhishek Sharma

Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Dulquer Salmaan, Angad Bedi

Here’s what critics have to say about The Zoya Factor:

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.

Nandini Ramnath, Scroll

The Zoya Factor by Anuja Chauhan worked because it used a giddy romance and an intentionally over-the-top tale of superstition to place the spotlight on the ridiculousness that is Indian cricket fandom, the latter ultimately becoming a metaphor for so much that is wrong with India as a whole. If you are among those inclined to consider the story improbable and exaggerated, just look around you at the mumbo jumbo pervading our lives and espoused even by public figures, ranging from fear of mirrors breaking and cats crossing our paths to the insistence on entering an important venue with this foot first and not that.The film adds to the nuttiness with an understated layer of dismay at the hyper-deshbhakti now dominating the Indian public discourse that was not yet our reality when the book was released back about a decade back.  

Anna MM Vetticad, Firstpost

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

Shubra Gupta, Indian Express

The Zoya Factor could have been a thoroughly enjoyable comedy. It ends up being a scrappy, erratic knock where a few crisp strokes are hopelessly outnumbered by a host of ungainly heave-hos. The film does not hit the sweet spot often enough to translate into either a truly rousing cricket film or a memorably moving love story.

Saibal Chatterjee, NDTV