Student of the Year

Let me at the outset clarify for the benefit of the younger generation who will be the key target audience for Student Of The Year. Just because the business tycoon Nanda (Ram Kapoor) decides to wear a striped tie over a striped shirt and a striped jacket with striped trousers – DOES NOT MAKE IT ACCEPTABLE FORMAL DRESSING!!!!! Ram Kapoor could have, with a little bit of common sense, refused to make such a clown of himself in front of a billion Indians. Thankfully, the gaffe is not oft repeated during the extended 3 hours that you have to tolerate SOTY.

If you walk into SOTY expecting the usual cheesy Karan Johar movie which includes any or all of the following, then you would probably leave the cinema hall very satisfied
1. There will always be a super rich boy – Rohan Nanda (Varun Dhawan) and a super rich girl – Shanaya Singhania (Alia Bhatt) who will be either great friends or having an affair. In this case it is the former.
2. There will be a school or a college – in this case school – St. Teresa’s. The school will be situated in an exotic location in India – say Dehradun – but will seem like it is actually in Switzerland and have a Highland Metroploitan Hospital. Metropolitan??? Dehradun???
3. Students of a School are allowed to dress in the fanciest of clothes. Boys in Tight T shirts that show rippling muscles and if not good enough can lose the T Shirt to reconfirm your deepest doubts. Girls will be in various stages of skimpiness but will be the homely “ghar ki bahu” types in behavior when it comes to it.
4. There will be a not so rich academically brilliant boy or girl who will enter the life of the school and will shoot to fame. In this case it is Abhimanyu (Sidharth Malhotra). But even this not so rich boy will come from a household that is an independent villa with 4 parking lots and cutlery at a dining table that is worth killing for – emphasis on killing and not dying.
5. There will be a series of events that will lead to some misunderstanding or a fight between the lead trio – in this case it is a doubtful relationship between Ro (that’s short for Rohan) and Shanaya where Abhi comes in as a prospective option for the woman. And there is of course the annual SOTY contest that has been conducted under the aegis of Dean Yoginder Vashisht (Rishi Kapoor) for over 25 years. The dean has since then retired and stays in his own 23.83 bedroom villa and continues to talk to his bonsai plants. Did I mention he was gay?

So if you expect all of this and the latest in fashion and some gorgeous bodies in various stages of dress and undress then SOTY is just the movie for you. Don’t expect much in terms of dialogues or screenplay or whatever it is that makes movies better than the rest. Definitely expect corny one liners like “Tata ke stocks hila dega aur Bata ke rates badha dega” (He will get the stock market rates of Tata down and the retail rates of Bata up).

You can also expect weird situations like when Abhi threatens his grandmother (Farida Jalal) – “Tumhe kuch ho gaya toh mein tumhare saath baat nahin karunga” (If something were to happen to you, I will not talk to you ever). Dear Abhi – your Dadi was on her death bed. If something untoward were to happen to her then it would only be death. How can you speak to hear after that anyways?

Karan Johar all over from frame 1 to frame 26543 – 3 hours of standard mush. With loads of crappy dialogues and slapstick one liners thrown in. Watch it at your own risk. But if you liked his previous movies then this is a must watch. 3 great looking human specimens on display though. Which Karan Uncle is quick to take the credit for from the first frame itself. All the best if you decide to watch it. 4 on 10.

Oh and one more thing. A couple of great tracks - especially the Radha one. And it is definitely better than Aiyya if you were to ask me.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fivOhPjX9YM

Udaan

I have no clue why I missed this one when it released. And I cant fathom how movies such as Lamhaa, Edge of Darkness, Knight and Day and I Hate Luv Storys would take precedence over screen time over such a powerful movie like Udaan. I can, however understand them giving precedence to Inception which released around the same time but which I am quite sure did not eat away into screen time so much that the movie houses could not have given Udaan more time. Surely there are more takers for quality cinema in India. Guess I am not right on that count.


Rohan Singh (Rajat Barmecha), Maninder Singh (Manjot Singh), Vikram (Raja Hudda) and Benoy (Varun Khettry) are four seventeen year olds who are in the last year in school. Obviously this comes with the excess baggage of a chip on their shoulders and raging hormones. They decide to play truant from the hostel @ Bishop Cotton Shimla and watch a soft porn movie – Kanti Shah Ke Angoor (ROTFL – reminds me of our days in college). As luck would have it, the school warden, Rathod (Sanjay Gandhi) is also in the same show. Our foursome cannot rush back to the hostel faster than Rathod on his moped thanks to one of them spraining his ankle. Since it is the 3rd time that they are in gross violation of school roles, all of them are expelled and now make their way back home.

Rohan’s dad, Bhairav Singh (Ronit Roy) is Hitler personified. In the words of his brother, Jimmy (Ram Kapoor), every dad wants his son to grow up to be like him and no one else. Add to that the frustration of having lost his first wife over 8 years back and a 2nd failed marriage that has left him with another son, a 6 year old - Arjun (Aayan Barodia). He hasn’t made an effort to visit Rohan in school over the past 8 years. And Rohan is blissfully unaware of Arjun’s existence. But after the initial friction, Rohan and Arjun both realize that they are both on the same side. Rohan wants to be a writer / poet but Bhairav will have nothing of it and forces him to work @ his factory in the day and study at the local engineering college in the afternoon. Despite Jimmy’s best efforts, Bhairav doesn’t budge.

Udaan traces the story of how Rohan tries to break free from the shackles of his ruthless father. But one cannot really help but feel sorry for Bhairav and is also compelled to think from his side – not that his actions are justified in any ways – purely with a perspective of intent. Ronit Roy truly deserves the Star Screen Award that he got for his performance in a “Villainous Role” although it would be very harsh to call the role of a Villain. They should be fair and actually give him the best performance for the year is what I say. I don’t think anyone who is nominated for the Best Actor this year in any of the awards has performed as well as Ronit Roy has. Full credit to him and the fact that Vikramaditya Motwane has extracted the performance from him. Motwane joins the list of first time directors this year. But what makes him different is the attention to detail, the ability to hold a story line and the courage to cut the riff raff. Udaan runs for a compact 134 mins with nothing which seems unnecessary and maybe a couple of instances of inconsistency – for instance, how did Rohan get into an Engineering College without passing class 12 (irrespective of the best efforts of his father).

I don’t mean to undermine Rajat Barmecha’s performance – which was quite solid – but it was clearly over shadowed by Ronit Roy. Purely my opinion. Ram Kapoor comes up with yet another super sincere performance – an attribute that one has started associating with him over the years. And a gem of a performance from the kid, Aayan Barodia which got him an award for the Best Child Artiste this year. Truly deserving. It is not for the heck of it that Udaan has received the best movie award @ this year’s Star Screen awards. Its truly a good movie. Was it the best in the year – probably not. Pipped @ the post in my books by Do Dooni Chaar and Tere Bin Laden both of which were super quality cinema. I would nevertheless give Udaan the same rating as these 2 – 7 on 10. Put it to your must watch list folks.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1334248985/