Deepa Gahlot
  • Cinemaah
  • Dramaah
    • Preview
    • Review
    • Interview
  • Literataah
  • Feministaah
  • Nostalgiaah
  • Miscellaniaah
  • Contact Me

Deepa Gahlot

  • Cinemaah
  • Dramaah
    • Preview
    • Review
    • Interview
  • Literataah
  • Feministaah
  • Nostalgiaah
  • Miscellaniaah
  • Contact Me
Cinemaah

Super 30 – Movie Review

by Deepa Gahlot July 12, 2019
written by Deepa Gahlot July 12, 2019
Super 30 – Movie Review

Teacher’s Pets:

**1/2

The key line in Super 30, repeated often, is that the time when only a king’s son could become king has passed, now only the deserving gets to be king. Then, Vikas Bahl casts—or rather miscasts—industry kid Hrithik Roshan as Patna’s famous educationist, Anand Kumar. Let’s also remember, that the director caught in a #MeToo storm, was conveniently exonerated just in time for his name to appear in the credits of this film.

What Anand Kumar has achieved is undoubtedly remarkable, and there must have been enough material to make a classic underdog-wins film, so why the embellishments (including a kathak-dancing girlfriend—Mrunal Thakur) that actually detract from the story.

Anand is a brilliant mathematician, who manages to get an invitation to Cambridge, no less, but his poor father, a postman (the excellent Virendra Saxena), cannot raise the required funds. Anand and his brother Pranav (Nandish Sandhu, way more convincing in the role), sell papads their mother (Sadhana Singh) makes to make ends meet. Then, the ambitious Lallan (Aditya Shrivastava) recruits him to teach at his coaching institute for IIT-JEE aspirants. Anand becomes a star teacher, and money follows.

The clownish education minister (Pankaj Tripathi), who is in cahoots with Lallan to make big money out of rich kids, openly calls it the “education mafia” and is miffed when Anand quits to start his own class for underprivileged children, and even more enraged when a fancy-dress journalist (a very hammy Amit Sadh) writes about it.

Anand’s rag-tag bunch of boys and some girls land up– he admits just 30– for his class in a ramshackle building, where they stay and study to prepare for the exams. The kids come from extremely impoverished backgrounds, some from distant villages, where even one square meal a day is not available, but they have the means to complete the mandatory twelfth standard in science to be eligible to appear for the IIT-entrance exam, and have NASA  goals?

The ‘mafia’ tries everything from threats, to a sexual harassment complaint (treated as comedy, meant to mock women who speak up), to actually sending hitmen to shoot Anand. The students use his lessons to fight off a bunch of armed goons.  In reality Anand Kumar coaches paying students and helps the poor kids alongside. He is already a real-life hero, was it necessary to put in so much melodrama?

Bahl shifts from realism in terms of locations, dialect and costumes, to fanciful fictional additions—like that ghastly Basanti No Dance song, meant to make the students get over their inferiority complex.

A film about education, with no mention of caste, reservations, rote learning or even questioning why IIT is seen as the only way to prosperity?  The story is narrated by a former student (Vijay Varma), who stands before an audience of foreigners  (in a scene reminiscent of Padman), and tells them why almost all the heads of major corporations in the world are Indian.

Of course, the film has its moving and inspiring scenes and a powerful one, in which a hospital ward boy mocks a clueless doctor as “donation-wala”  (like the reserved seat students are taunted as quota-walas). But the raja ka beta vs haqdaar question—how many of the thirty young actors– all dark-skinned—will get a second mainstream Bollywood film? Just wondering.

FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
Deepa Gahlot

I listened to film stories as bedtime tales, got a library card as soon as I could read, and was taken to the theatre when I was old enough to stay awake. So, I grew up to love books, movies and plays. I have been writing about them for the better part of a quarter century, won a National Award for film criticism, wrote several books, edited magazines, had writings included in anthologies... work has been fun!

previous post
Kaagdo – Play Review
next post
Victim To Vigilante – Feministaah

You may also like

The White Tiger – Movie Review

January 25, 2021

Ram Prasad Ki Tehrvi – Movie Review

January 11, 2021

Coolie No. 1 – Movie Review

December 27, 2020

Sir – Movie Review

November 26, 2020

Laxmii – Movie Review

November 11, 2020

Ramsingh Charlie – Movie Review

August 30, 2020

Gunjan Saxena – Movie Review

August 13, 2020

Shakuntala Devi– Movie Review

August 2, 2020

Raat Akeli Hai – Movie Review

August 1, 2020

Dil Bechara – Movie Review

July 25, 2020

About Me

About Me

I listened to film stories as bedtime tales, got a library card as soon as I could read, and was taken to the theatre when I was old enough to stay awake. So, I grew up to love books, movies and plays. I have been writing about them for the better part of a quarter century, won a National Award for film criticism, wrote several books, edited magazines, had writings included in anthologies... work has been fun!

Keep in touch

Facebook Twitter Instagram

Recent Posts

  • Skin Deep Beauty – Feministaah

    February 16, 2021
  • Bandish 20-20,000Hz – Play Review

    January 30, 2021
  • Purva Naresh – Theatre Interview

    January 30, 2021
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved by Deepa Gahlot. Designed by FQI


Back To Top