Starring: Siddharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Rishi Kapoor, Ronnit Roy, Ram Kapoor
Directed by: Karan Johar
Music: Vishal-Shekhar
Duration : 2 Hr 26 Min
Rating ***
It is widely seen, that when it comes to making a mega budget cine
cantata, then merchants of showbiz instead of betting on the newcomers,
usually prefer to gamble on the established stars of tinsel town.
But it looks like, K.Jo who usually don't mind breaking away from the
established stereotype, firmly believes that it's actually entertainment
and appealing quotient of the onscreen substance that matters at the
end.
So the newest visual delight, that has come out of Karan's art-lab is
cine flick “Student Of The Year”, which features newcomers Varun
Dhawan, Alia Bhatt and Siddharth Malhotra.
Inspite of the absence of glossy star cast, this cupid love cantata of
K.Jo, shaded with a soothing dose of love, envy, heartbreak and
competitiveness, with its roots embedded in the premises of typical K.Jo
styled fairy land high school opened with an occupancy of around 35-40 %
at multiplexes.
Synopsis:
Student Of The Year, is a pastiche based on the delectable lives of
three high school pupil which is taken over by the circumstances and is
exhibited to envy, betrayal, heart break competitiveness and failure.
Story:
Student Of The Year is the tale about foe turned friends and again
turned foes, Rohan Nanda (Varun Dhawan) and Abhimanyu Singh (Siddharth
Malhotra) who have a rendezvous with competitiveness, and life in their
mini-universe called St. Teresa's High School, Dehradun, where the
notion of Tata Bachche ( children belonging to elite section) and Bata
Bachche ( children from relatively lower societal hierarchy) use to
prevail.
As the story takes off, it showcases Rohan in somewhat a spoilt brat
avatar, who is the son of India's leading business tycoon Ashok Nanda
(Ram Kapoor) and his relationship with Shanaya Singhania (Alia Bhatt)
who too belongs to an elite family.
With moving ahead of frames, steps in Abimanyu Singh, who is an orphan
child belonging a family which relatively low in the social hiearchy.
And with in no time of his joining St Teresa, Abhimanyu starts emerging
as a threat to fiefdom of Rohan, who is otherwise considered as the
Rockstar of the campus. Initially the protagonists clash with each other
in the locker room, football field, but turn into good later on.
But the things get bog down, when Rohan's childhood love interest,
Shanaya enters the equation, towards whom Abhi gets infatuated. Things
get worse when Shanaya's quiet reciprocation causes a rift in the
friendship of Rohan and Abhimanyu, leading to a clash for Student Of The
Year trophy, which turns into a question of life and death for the duo.
Script:
As far as the premise of “Student of The Year” is concerned then High
school or college romance has so far been one of the safest bet for the
cine sorcerers and cine flicks like Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander, Kuch Kuch
Hota Hai, 3 Idiots, Mohabbatein, and Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na are the
conspicuous examples of the same.
So as far as the script of SOTY is concerned, then it won't be wrong to
say that the story seems to be more of a rehashed version of
aforementioned cine flicks. But the thing that deserve accolades in this
is Karan's adroitness in rejuvenating a banal script, with an
entertaining dose of novelity and gen-x factor, which leaves no scope
for monotony and no where allows you to yawn.
Screenplay:
It will not be wrong to say that in SOTY, primarily it's grandiose
screenplay which leaves the audience mesmerised while watching the
movie. Screenplay of the movie gives you a thorough glimpse of K.Jo's
style of movie making with all those fairy world like locations and
beyond perfection cinematographic techniques and camera work.
And as far as flow of the narration is concerned then it can't be better
than it is in the movie. Since frame one, story takes off so
beautifully that you nowhere feels like parting your gaze of the
celluloid. With absolutely no dose of melodrama, Karan has once again
proved he is marvelously good story teller.
Leaving the treasure hunt sequence, which looked somewhat an obtruded
commodity, every thing adds on to the ambiance of the movie. Infact it
won't be wrong to say that, through the flow narration Karan completely
manages to have a control over the flow of the tale and the performances
of the protagonists.
Dialogues:
Besides outstanding screenplay, another component of the movie that
deserves to be bestowed with tons of accolades is Niranjan Iyengar’s
dialogues which very well complemented the soul of the script, and never
gets inflated with those unwanted literary decorations.
Music and Lyrics :
Despite having a bunch of remixed tracks, sound tracks of SOTY are quite
catchy and seemed to be tailored to go with the spirit of the movie in
order to fascinate the youth audience. In the music department Vishal
and Shekhar has contributed exceptionally well, by creating the peppy
sound tracks which are up till an extent are the inseparable part of
K.Jo flicks.
But as far as lyrics domain is concerned, then the original tracks of
SOTY looks quite bland in offering you an aural delight for your soul.
Performances:
Call it the cinematographic dexterity of Karan or something ascribed to
the protagonists, performances of all the three newcomers (who nowhere
looked like newcomers) Varun, Sidharth and Alia will simply leave you
thinking about their newcomer status.
Though after seeing the three budding superstars performing on the
celluloid, it is very difficult to tag one of them as the best
performer. Son of director David Dhawan Varun performs, exceptionally
well and steals the show. Be it dialogue delivery, shaking the legs or
exhibiting the emotions, Varun thoroughly leaves you impressed by his
acting potential.
Besides Varun newcomer Siddharth too deserve accolades, for his well
groomed, lovable charming avatar which very well competes with the
catchy performance of Varun.
Alia has looked pretty through out the movie in designers clothing, at
times her performance reminds you of Poo (Bebo) of Kabhi Khushi Kabhi
Gham, but inspite of story's being knitted around Varun and Siddharth
Alia manages to catch you attention.
But the performer who deserves tons of praises for playing a somewhat gay dean is Rishi Kapoor.
And as far as the supporting cast comprising of Ram Kapoor, Ronnit Roy
et al is concerned then they to succeed in delivering a sinewy
performance to add on to the impact of the movie.
BO Potential
There are no doubts about the fact that SOTY is thoroughly appealing but
as far as its BO Potential is concerned then, it somewhere lacks the
substance to emerge as a commercial blockbuster or to rewrite the
success saga of Karan Johar's previous flicks. In a nut shell SOTY can
be one of the good flick from the cine arsenal of Karan but it is not
the best one.
Verdict:
To sum up inspite of not having a glossy star cast or any novel spell
to charm you, Student Of The Year is appealing and is expected to
please the Gen-X brigade of audience.
