I liked the film and I’m not apologetic about it.
Student of the Year gave me more that I expected. Infact I did not expect anything and I came out of movie theater happy and thoroughly entertained.
I’m not a huge fan of Karan Johar style of film making and disliked a lot of his earlier stuff. But this film worked for me. The best thing about the film is that it’s honest. It doesn’t claim to be an intelligent film in promos or songs or online publicity. It’s not dishonest like Jodha Akbar where you have king Akbar showing his six packs and Jodha gushing over her oh so handsome husband. That was supposed to be a period film. I hate it when directors do this to me. In Student of the Year, you sense it from the beginning that the director is banking upon the sex appeal of the star cast heavily and once you give him green signal for that, rest of the film is very enjoyable.
It’s a feel good film with some great looking new actors and good song and music to support it.
The story line is simple and formula based. Also what really worked form me is the fact that the film is not about “Who gets the girl” and thank god it’s not even a “Coming of age” film. How many commercial Hindi films can boast about touching a topic like “A super competitive father who doesn’t like his son to be successful. If the son is successful doing his own thing it will make him look bad”
All new leading starcast (Aliya Bhatt, Siddharth and Varun Dhawan) are very pretty. Though I’m totally biased towards Varun Dhawan. Director David Dhawan’s son has all the qualities of becoming the next Bollywood superstar. He looks great, dance very well. He can act with oodles of confidence and looks like a versatile actor in making. He overshadowed his costars without even trying. I Look forward to watching him again in some good movies. Siddharth is very cute and can do great in rom-coms. Aliya Bhatt’s not very impressive. Though chances of watching her in a lot many Hindi films are not very slim considering the lineage.
Supporting star cast has some big names from film and TV industry. A very fat Ram Kapoor was alright as a father who’s never happy with his son no matter how hard the son tries. Gautami Kapoor was completely wasted as the doting mother. Rishi Kapoor’s pansy gay character wasn’t impressive at all. Ronit Roy was alright. He didn’t get a lot of dialogues but still manage to make his presence felt. From the youngsters who played the friends of the main three characters, nobody was very impressive.
It’s a big screen film. Watch it with friends, a lot of pop corn and soda. Laugh your guts out. I can’t resist giving a little spoiler – This time Karan Johar has gone out of his way to add Gay stuff in the film. Every other scene in first half has some Gay angle to it. You may get a little embarrassed if you are watching it with your folks.
Not recommended for everybody. This film gives you a break from Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan, SRK genre of no brainers. It’s a different No Brainer film that is visually very appealing.
Watch it for Varun Dhawan. Watch it for very melodious “Ishq wala love”.
Image copyrights belong to the producers - Dharma Productions
Well analysed and sincere review – sans all jargon. A pleasant reading.