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MUMBAI:
Launching all new faces is a tricky business, especially in an era
when opening day response and the first three day collections determine
the fate of the film. Karan Johar is in a position to launch new
faces but has wisely chosen to do so with a tried and tested formula
instead of experimenting. In that, Student Of The Year, is about
two friends, one rich and the other not so and there is a girl and,
hence, an inevitable 'friends turned foes' angle of interest in
this school campus story.
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Producer:
Hiroo Yash Johar, Gauri Khan.
Director: Karan Johar.
Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt,
Rishi Kapoor, Ram Kapoor, Ronit Roy, Farida Jalal.
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Varun
Dhawan is a rich man's son and as it happens in most such films,
the school is bankrolled by his father, Ram Kapoor who spites his
son because his ambition is to become a musician instead of joining
Kapoor's empire. Dhawan has a steady girlfriend, Alia Bhatt, but
that does not stop him from flirting with other girls. In walks
Sidharth Malhotra, a sports scholarship student, an orphan living
with his uncle, an always ready to insult aunt and a doting grandmother.
Malhotra awes the students with his personality when he enters the
campus. However, he will remain an outsider in a scene dominated
by Dhawan unless he strikes a friendship with him. He makes the
first move during a game of football and both, Dhawan and Malhotra,
become thick friends.
The
idea being to entertain, in-class clichés are spared and
the film deals mainly with campus and sports arena.
Malhotra
notices Bhatt's discomfort when Dhawan cosies up with another girl.
Deciding to help her, he suggests she do exactly what Dhawan is
doing that is to pretend to get close to someone else to make Dhawan
jealous. For Bhatt who better than Malhotra himself since besides
being close at hand, he is the best friend of Dhawan and hence safe
for her! The ploy works and Bhatt gets her man back but the inevitable
has happened; Malhotra has fallen for Bhatt in the process. Bhatt
seems to have discovered new love too but she is not able to decide
who she wants. Dhawan notices her bend towards Malhotra and friendship
changes into enmity.
It
is Student of the Year contest time but such a contest is no fun
without rivalry; and for both the lads, what better opportunity
to outdo other? Since this is cinema, dancing is a part of the contest
(having a partner is must), others being IQ test and a multi event
field contest where swimming, cycling and running follow back to
back. The IQ test is won by the dumbest guy in the class who ticks
each answer after chanting 'Jai Mata Di'. In his sinister way, Dhawan's
father, Ram Kapoor wants Malhotra to win. As for Malhotra himself,
he is on a sportsman's scholarship and, even in this five star school,
athletics can't be won merely because one is rich. The Student of
the Year trophy is in his grasp.
The
film begins in a flashback as an impromptu reunion has happened
of the students after ten years because their dean, Rishi Kapoor,
is breathing his last and the students have come to see him. Malhotra,
the underdog has realized his ambition of making millions and so
has Dhawan by becoming a successful singer. These friends turned
foes get into a fight and while exchanging blows, till they realize
that they were never really enemies.
What
is good about Student Of The Year is that, it introduces three new
faces thus lending the film freshness. Though a single location
film, director Johar has given the film all the gloss and finesse
thus making it visually pleasant. The supporting cast has been selected
very well avoiding stereotypes. Dialogue is simple yet peppered
with ample wit; melodrama or mush of any sort is avoided in dialogue
as well as in the proceedings. Cinematography catches all the gloss
aptly. This is a patent Johar film alright. The film has foot tapping
songs and using remixed old songs goes very well with the viewer.
Radha….., Ratta Maar….., Vele…. all have popular
appeal.
Malhotra
and Dhawan are good at what a film actor would need today, good
physic and competence in dancing besides being confident. Bhatt
is petite and pretty, doll like. Rishi Kapoor as the gay dean of
the school adds some lighter moments to the film. Ram Kapoor and
Ronit Roy are okay. Kajol, Boman Irani, Farha Khan and Vaibhavi
Merchant make flitting appearances.
Student
Of The Year is fun while it lasts and having opened to a favourable
response from the youth, it is a money-maker.
Shudra
-The Rising: A pointless meandering bore
Shudra - The Rising is a film about the class system and attempts
to depict the ill treatment and injustice meted out to the Shudras.
The film chooses an undefined era where there is a settlement of
these underprivileged and a local Thakur. While the film's promotional
material shows a picture of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, the film or whatever
is happening on the screen has no relevance to the great man.
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Producer-Director:
Sanjiv Jaiswal.
Cast: Kirran Sharad, Pravin Baby, Shridhar Dubey, Mahesh
Balraj, Aaref Rajput, Shaji Chaudhary.
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In
this settlement of Shudras, every person looks more than occupied
doing something or the other. Their lot is supposed to wear a bone
to mark them out, a bell to warn the upper cast of their being around,
a utensil (handi) around their neck and tie a broom at the back
to wipe the floor they walk on to remove their footprints. That
having been established (which was depicted earlier more effectively
in Ketan Mehta's 1980 much acclaimed Gujarati film, Bhavni Bhavai)
the film just meanders around the plights of the lot.
Their
problems arise when the local thakur spots a pretty face among the
Shudras and orders her husband to drop her off at his haveli come
evening. One such woman has been picked by the thakur and the film
spends most of its footage in showing helplessness of the woman
and her husband trying to elicit viewer sympathy but managing to
get some yawns instead. Time to deliver the woman and the thakur's
henchmen arrive to collect her. The resisting husband is beaten
up bad to die ultimately.
The
settlement decides to revolt. To avenge the murder of one of them,
they kill the thakur's son. In retaliation, thakur lets his goons
lose on the settlement to burn it down and kill every soul there.
What
kind of rising is this and what is the maker trying to say? Is the
film someone's idea of an intelligent film? Please, not with this
kind of tripe.
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