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.
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