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