Ultimately it's a consummate Vidya Balan who rises above everything else and, thankfully, makes Mission Mangal all about a good-hearted matriarch instead of a patronising patriarch.

The human interactions are the best part of the film. The downer comes from the science bits, clearly crafted for dummies.

Jagan Shakti's exhilaratingly schmaltzy fact-based drama about India's epochal launch of a Mars-bound satellite is a rousing crowd-pleaser.

Mission Mangal is watchable, if not always exhilarating, if you can get over its excesses.