Aarakshan (2011)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Let me make it clear, Aarakshan is not about reservation or caste feuds but its more about the existence of two coaching centers although based out of different ideologies. The circumstantial controversies were false and farce. Prakash Jha failed to raise the social issues like he did it before in Damul, Mrityudand, Gangajal or Apaharan . The title is misleading and the biggest disappointment. One may feel cheated , expecting the big battle of Indian caste system and reservation of SC/ST/OBC. One may expect some great screenplay of both sides but the movie and Jha falters completely and is in lack of words when asked whose side the protagonist is? The film opens very poorly in an interview room where the questions are asked about the mother who is maid in a sarcastic way by so called high castes interviewer. It was so unreal that the mood was set to be not in sync with the director's view. The honor was lost with the dialog of Tehzeeb. Within the 10 minutes of beginning you were bombarded with two useless songs, defying the mood further. Jha was never good with songs earlier and still he is not. All the characters were introduced slowly without a clear explanation. There were some good exchange of words to arouse the heat but it all fell flat on the ground like a fallen ash. It explains that even a good topic can be worthless without the good narration and script. The Film looses plot of reservation and started churning the illogical fight between two coaching centers. Definitely the second plot was based of Anand's Super-30 which churns IITians from the poorest family of Bihar with 100% success rate. Even Prakash Jha inspired the name of lead protagonist as Prabhakar Anand , played by Amitabh Bachchan. But in real Mr Anand didn't face any competition from any commercial coaching institutes neither from any College nor politicians. The characters were not sketched clearly and lacked commitments.Deepika Padukone was too unreal for city like Bhopal where she was seen moving around with a Dalit Saif, hand in hand wearing designer salwars. Saif role was too short for any comment. His UK migration and abrupt end of his Phd was never explained. The mustache looked good on him. Praetik Babbar failed again with his way of mouthing dialogues. He has lost confidence and that shows that why he was not at all liked. Manoj Bajpayi was a caricature with a funny wig. The last 15 minutes of the movie, he literally lost it all. The strong character was turned into a caricature. Amitabh Bachchan had nothing new to offer, he played the extension of his role from Mohabbatein. His wardrobe was changed with his voluntarily retirement in a drastic manner and his only saving was a house which was given on rent to provide a platform for this circus. Overall movie has only few scenes which touched the right cord, when a lost daughter comes back to home and hugs her father saying sorry and confessing that she is hungry was brilliant coming out of jha's brilliant past. The whole plot of STM college and KK coaching center was so unreal as if only these two sources of education exits in a city like Bhopal. Where you will find and education minister playing all sort of smaller games. The audiences were hoping something big.The film also lacks historical correctness and chronographical sequences. This issue based movie changed its issue amidst of the movie and became a thudddddd....

Prakash Jha had been responsible for hard hitting films that deal with issues involving society and politics, and last year's Raajneeti was one of those ensemble pieces that struck very close to home. This year with Aarakshan he takes on the caste system in India, one in which many would like not to admit exist, but nonetheless taken other forms such as discrimination, charity, and reservation, depending on which side of the equation one is found standing at.At first it may seem somewhat logical, where in the context of an education system that Aarakshan is set in, that seats get put aside for the less privilege so that they would get help in the form of a leg up in the educational circle. After all, education is always considered as one of the prime levelers and route out of the poverty circle. Alas any system created by man is always subjected to abuse, and through the narrative we get to experience the various viewpoints held by those disadvantaged by society, those with the silver spoon in their mouths, and those found sidelined by the conditions put forth, especially when good intentions get misread, misinterpreted and exploited.Aarakshan also touches upon corruption gets set into the education system, where grades do not always matter in admission to a well known institution, but also dependent on how well heeled, or greasy, one's network is. It's rather typical and almost expected that those in power tend to influence and sway opportunities for their friends and family, where nepotism and cronyism rear their ugly heads, and I fear the day should it materialize over here. Already we're seeing reports of how one has to volunteer time and sometimes material in a nice way, in other to secure a passage to good schools, where a parent's celebrity status is notwithstanding nor a guarantee of a shoo-in despite hours put in to perform various chores for the school. It's highly competitive true, but somehow this leaves behind a very bad aftertaste where it's no longer ballot or merit, but what you can do on a consistent basis to warrant a place.Then there's the notion of how tuition centres spring up left, right and centre in order to take advantage, and make a profit from, the entire educational system which is extremely grade dependent, where a single mark would mean to make, or to break. It's always interesting to see how education is treated as a lucrative business, and how this eventually saps all fun out of learning for acquiring knowledge, but to turn it into nothing more than regurgitation for a piece of paper, where teachers find it advantageous and a conflict of interest arising from doing the minimum in school so that students have to seek external help, and lo and behold, the same instructors become available for hire outside of the school system.As always with Prakash Jha assembled an ensemble cast to discuss all these issues in his 164 minute film, where we have Big B Amitabh Bachchan playing Professor Prabhakar Anand, the principal of a famous college who is an idealist, with a good heart toward those who are underprivileged, opening his home for free tuition to needy students. Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone reunite from Love Aaj Kaal to play lovers again, this time the former as Deepak Kumar, the Professor's protégé coming from a lower societal standing, and the latter as the Professor's daughter Poorbi, who is also wooed by Sushant Seth (Prateik Babbar) from the privileged class.Aarakshan cannot be more schizophrenic though with its tale of two halves, the first which tackles all the caste based issues and in depth discussion of the reservation system in education, where Sushant finds himself ousted from a place in the school because of reservation, and an entire tirade takes place between Sushant and Deepak, who also despised it since his view is that there's no need for charity to be given, and prefers a system of merit instead. Things blow out of proportion especially when the entry of a scheming vice principal Mithilesh Singh (Manoj Bajpai) being the villain you'd love to hate, a shady, dubious character who's the puppet of the education minister and his posse hell bent on ousting and destroying Prabhakar Anand, and found a way to do so through the squabbling Sushant and Deepak.The second half is where things get a little bit more personal with the Professor trying to get back at those behind his ousting, and the dealing with more micro issues rather than the broad based ones inserted into the first half. In a way we see how fire got to fight with fire, with a fight back with the community against greedy capitalism, and with something I think most can identify with, where our charity gets taken advantage of by those whom we offer help to. This segment allowed plenty of Amitabh Bachchan to show why he's one of the greatest actors of his generation, where the likes of Saif Ali Khan, Prateik Babbar and even Deepika Padukone getting left in his shadow. It became a little bit predictable and melodramatic toward the finale, at times convenient as well with the last minute introduction of a deus ex machina type character to set everything back on an even keel.While 3 Idiots touched on the education system as well from the students perspective laced with a generous dose of comedy, Aarakshan is the more serious in tone counterpart taking a cold hard look at the system from the educator's point of view with a critique on societal prejudices. It may not be perfect, but it addresses what it set out to and left the door wide open to provoke a response. Recommended!

Prakash Jha's 'Aarakshan' offers a rock-solid first hour, but loses pace in it's slightly deary second. This tale on India's socio-political setup, begins very well, but later on, loses focus on the issue, it tries to tackle on.'Aarakshan' is a socio-political drama based on the controversial policy of caste based reservations in government jobs and educational institutions.The Screenplay by Anjum Rajabali & Jha himself, is impressive in the first-hour and offers a punch. However, the second-hour, becomes slightly deary and goes off-track. What starts off as a film on 'Reservation', suddenly becomes this story of this one man's struggle to, basically, win back his house from the devious villain. Even the climax for that matter, isn't as effective, as it ought to have been. Also, the excessive running-time, needed some trimming. Jha's Direction is nice. Cinematography is fair. Editing is alright.Performance-Wise: Amitabh is in form. Saif Ali Khan hardly gets scope. Deepika Padukone delivers a sincere performance. Manoj Bajpai plays the evil part superbly. Prateik has been better, while Tanvi Azmi is perfect. Darshan Jariwala is excellent. Saurabh Shukla, Mukesh Tiwari, Yashpal Sharma, Chetan Pandit & Vinay Apte lend support.On the whole, At best, A Passable Fare, that deserved to be better.

Idealistic, traditionalistic, wannabe appealing to the urbanized segment of Indian society. Amitabh Bacchan is just the principal that every school would dream of. A perfectly lovely family (wife/ daughter) and home. An extremely caring daughter and wife. To top it all, a fan following in society based on his passion and sincerity for education. But perfect pictures don't remain so and thus the devil plays his role. Lewd, unworthy and unreal talking on part of students, colleagues, politicians etc. Felt a little unreal a God few days back, Amitabh is being cussed, cursed and abused even by his own students. The Knight in shining armor- Saif comes to salvage the situation. There is a lot of crude talking in the movie. I feel the stance of the wife is a little unrealistic- having lost everything because of her husband, she is always beaming, gleaming and peacefully by his side. Thus human emotions have been put aside to build quite the ideal image. As and when a movie does get to be so, I lose interest because it stops feeling like real or something I could relate to. The Plot can be divided in 3 parts: Plot 1: All is well. Hunky dory. Lovely family, lovely house, good relationships, respect and repute Plot 2: All that could possibly go down does go down. But Amitabh with his ideals keeps persisting in life. Never failing to show up Plot 3: Starts to build on his respect and reliability once again. The movie ends not showing that a man could change the world with his ideals. It shows a powerful woman (Hema Malini) pulling a few strings and thus being able to get Amitabh his lost esteem, repute and credibility. So the role of politicians is still shown as being stronger and just by luck if you know the biggest fish, things do tend to go your way. The students didn't feel educated. I liked the general ambiance of their home. I liked the ability to mobilize people. India's strength is it's people. The film quite powerfully shows the strength of people. This movie also is indicative to people movements and how involvement of the common man can steer decision making. People strength and publicity are the only two things Indian politicians fear as on date.