Movie Review : Student of the Year

Rating : 3.5/5
Genre : Romance
Year : 2012
Running time : 2 hours 26 minutes
Director : Karan Johar
Cast : Siddharta Malhotra, Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Rishi Kapoor, Kayoze Irani, Ronit Roy, Manjot Singh, Ram Kapoor
Kid rating : PG

I’d expected an entertaining film and that’s exactly what I got. A good time was had by all. My kids loved the film, since it was kind of geared towards the younger set. Karan Johar does this genre of cinema very well – glitzy, glam lifestyles of the rich, attitude-wallahs.

Son of rich industrialist Nanda (Ram Kapoor), Rohan Nanda (Varun Dhawan) studies at St. Teresa’s , along with other members of his rich gang. Girlfriend Shanaya (Alia Bhatt) is frustrated with his roving eye. Enter Abhi (Siddharth Malhotra) a middle-class boy on a sports scholarship. At odds with the rich-kid gang at first, Abhi becomes good friends with Rohan. The competition for the “Student of the Year” trophy and Abhi’s growing attraction for Rohan’s girlfriend though, test this friendship.

In case you’ve never watched a Karan Johar movie let me set your expectations right. Realism is not Johar’s forte (although he did dabble in it), so do not expect it here. St. Teresa’s (which the “cool” gang call St. T’s for short) is unlike any other boarding school in India. It has football games with cheerleaders, dance competitions, and treasure hunts like you’ve never seen before. In fact rather than a desi school this seems like an Indianised version of Rydell High. Initially the film also reminds me of Grease – there are songs at the drop of a hat. Remixes of older songs like “Gulabi Aankhein”, “Yeh chand sa roshan chehra” work well in giving this film a peppy, musical start.

Karan Johar knows how to make an entertainer. This one is nicely packaged with good-looking stars, expensive looking sets, melodious songs and romance. It is then superfluous in this bright and beautiful film to even expect character development and deeper context. I have to say I didn’t mind that, and bore even some of the awkwardly scripted, cringe-inducing scenes well. Truth be told, I went along with the flow and enjoyed myself.

There are a bunch of young ones here, the main stars coming from film lineage. Siddharth is Prem Nath’s grandson, Varun looks like his dad David Dhawan, and Alia is quite like mummy Soni Razdan. Varun is a natural at dancing and does fairly well emoting, but doesn’t quite have the personality of a hero – kind of reminds me of Uday Chopra who had the same issue. I’m predicting a low-key career, probably in multi-hero starrers. Siddharth is a model, so he’s got the looks. Unfortunately they are his sole asset, although the swooning masses will probably not care. He is wooden in dialogue delivery and his dance moves look like they’ve come after hard and rigorous practice. He is still a better dancer that Sunny Paji, John Abraham or Ajay Devgan, so that’s some consolation.

Alia looks younger than her 19 years, but fits the bill here – a fresh, pretty face, a little less on the brains and a lot more on the oomph. It has to be said: these kids are easy on the eyes and fit right into Karan Johar’s carefully constructed pseudo-realism. Boman Irani’s son Kayoze is the bespectacled narrator, Manjot Singh is the Coach’s assistant (we also saw him in “Udaan” and “Oye Luck Lucky Oye”). In the older set Rishi Kapoor plays St. Teresa’s principal Dean Vashisht, Farida Jalal is Abhi’s grandmother, Ronit Roy is St. Teresa’s Coach and acting-wise they all do well enough. Ram Kapoor, he of the ever-increasing girth, is believable as Rohan’s nasty dad.

This movie is frothy and peppy and young; candy floss in it’s most alluring avatar. It doesn’t pretend to be anything else; it’s vintage Karan Johar. There is brainless cinema, and then there is Karan Johar’s brand of brainless cinema. I’m averse to the first but OK with the second. Why ? Because he keeps it light, fluffy and clean. There is objectification, and the whole “boys will be boys” thing going on, but his films are generally kid-safe and keep away from vulgarity.

Watch it for total time-pass value!

Kid-wise : No overt vulgarity, but mentions of push-up bras and female anatomy. Skimpy clothing. Also some fawning gay characters and similar humor.