Official Trailer:

In Hidden Figures we follow the story of Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Gobels, and Mary Jackson, part of group of African-American female mathematicians, dubbed as human computers, who rose the ranks of NASA, crossed gender, race, and professional lines against the odds with their brilliance and desire to dream big. I hit upon this hidden gem of a movie on Netflix. Missed it when it was released in 2016. Glad I caught it now. A thoroughly engaging movie from the start to finish with its story line, screen play, inspiring characters, and excellent performances. Gives a good perspective of how far we have progressed just in the last 50 to 60 years. We still have gender/race/color/religion/caste discrimination in our society and have a long way to go but looking back at history, what we have overcome is phenomenal. It does give us hope that progress will continue (albeit slower than what we would like it to be).

For its content, movie doesn’t come across as preachy with lectures or in your face dialogues. It is multi-layered with well written and staged scenes. We all think we don’t discriminate and treat everyone equal or as Dorothy says to Vivian that is we probably believe. Movie highlights beautifully how the ingrained beliefs are hard to overcome even if you yourself face discrimination. Jim Johnson as an African–American must be facing discrimination but he has preconceived notions about women and professions. Vivian faces discrimination as a woman but she discriminates against African-American women. We all live in hierarchical decks with people above and below us, with sub-layers within a deck. It is a pleasant surprise that even given the strong content there are no racial epithets or swear words. Director conveys the impact visually and with powerful dialogues. We get to see Katherine’s struggles with running half a mile to use the restroom (even restrooms were segregated in 60s US) multiple times a day, separate coffee pot (untouchability isn’t unique to Indian society), Dorothy not able to move up as a supervisor even though she is doing the job of one, Mary’s struggles to get admission to White’s only engineering college, over few scenes. As the struggles gets ingrained in our neurons, we hit a real high with the payoff scenes. Whistle worthy goosebumps moments.

Along with their rise within NASA, movie gives us a glimpse of the society they lived in and a peek into their family lives. Segregated seats in the bus, separate library for colored people with less books (that is the way it is), Katherine balancing between work and a widowed mother of 3 girls, Mary’s differences of opinion with tactics of civil rights movements. While these scenes do give details of the time they lived in, I liked the way movie immerses us within the NASA premises, white color themes, Harrison’s spacious office, office departments, separate offices for whites and colored, separate bathrooms for whites (bright, clean, fully equipped) and colored (I am sure you can guess), and IBM 370 mainframe. IBM mainframe made me nostalgic, took me to my college days when I used punch cards to run programs on IBM 370!! IIRC, I may have written 3-4 programs in the whole year, what with typing mistakes and multiple trips to computer center to get the program right and pick up the printout to check the output 😀

Harrison is a good example of how a coach and mentor should be. The way he does the role modeling before he advises Paul. Paul Stafford is a fictional character – his character is written as a representation of multiple white co-workers. This is a good decision else director would have to add multiple scenes to show Katherine facing discrimination from her co-workers. Just the all-white office environment, Paul Stafford, and the coffee pot helps us to imagine how it must have been.

Octavia Spencer, Taraji Henson, Janelle Monae, and Kevin Costner are pitch perfect in their roles and have given their best performances. A big applause to the writers, dialogues elevate actors’ performances by multiple notches and delivers the oomph. Out of many, one moment resonated the most for me, when Vivian says to Dorothy, Despite what you think, I don’t have anything against y’all. This is a classic cognitive dissonance, inconsistency between what people believe and how they behave. We hear many saying We don’t differentiate based on gender, color, caste, or religion. Cognitive dissonance allows people to say this while supporting discriminatory policies. Dorothy replies with one of the best thought-provoking lines: I know you probably believe that.

Skirts below knee level and high heels requirement reminded me of Karnataka’s hijab controversy. Illogical barriers in the path of girls getting an education. Patriarchy, ideological government, and institutions are more worried about what girls should wear or not wear than the individual rights of children and their education. You want to be a superpower, send an Indian to the moon, be a seven trillion-dollar economy by 2030 and this is what you are worried about? Head scarf, what people eat, whom they love and marry. When will we realize we are squandering human potential. And that these discriminatory obstacles are holding us back? Hidden figures is not just about women it is also about extra decimals of accuracy needed in space travel calculations. Hidden figures forces to think about what if scenarios. What if these barriers have been removed few decades earlier? What if these barriers continued to exist? Yes, there are no ifs and buts in history, but looking back in history gives the answers to the problems we face now.

Few of my favourite quotes from the movie:

            Mary Jackson: Every time we get a chance to get ahead, they move the finish line. Every time

            Dorothy Vaughan: Separate and equal are two different things. Just ’cause it’s the way, doesn’t make it right, understand?

            Mary Jackson: We go from being our father’s daughters, to our husband’s wives to our babies’ mothers…

            Al Harrison: You know what your job is, Paul? Find the genius among those geniuses. Pull us all up. We get to the peak together, or we don’t get there at all