Hrithik Roshan is woefully miscast in Super 30, feels Sukanya Verma.
‘Directed by Vikas Bahl’ announces the opening credits, only to have a big cloud of smoke blot out his name.
Quite evocative of the sexual misconduct charges leading to the once eminent film-maker’s fall from grace.
Super 30, his fourth film (Chillar Party, Queen, Shaandar) is about an underdog fighting all odds to rise above his circumstances and emerge victorious.
Mercifully, it’s not about Bahl, but Anand Kumar, the visionary mathematics teacher from Bihar and free coaching centre Super 30 founder under whose altruistic tutelage many deserving but disadvantageous students have flourished.
Of course, this is a fictional take and liberties are taken to render Kumar’s triumph more cinematic by throwing dramatic bouts of rain, animation-filled classroom sessions, pulsating background score and cheesy lessons in English Vinglish.
Cinema at its most dishonest strives to appear great by telling stories of significance.
A slyly implanted scene, where a lady shows up to falsely accuse the protagonist of molestation is mocking of the aforementioned events and telling of Bahl’s guile.
Even though the prism of objectivity, Super 30 can never shrug off its cosmetic depiction of a man’s success against a system corrupted by politics of class, caste and economics.
Part of that problem is at the centre of its storytelling — a woefully miscast Hrithik Roshan.
He doesn’t look the part.
He doesn’t sound the part.
But he is an intrinsically solid actor and his natural intensity and intelligence fight visibly hard to make the earnestness work despite the excessive tan and heavy-handed accent.
Also, for a movie whose focus are the kids — it is even narrated by an ex-student (Vijay Varma) — Super 30‘s refusal to bring them out of the sidelines is as problematic as the hierarchy it means to challenge.
Simplistic and lopsided, Super 30 is too fixated on its master to mahatma narrative to graduate beyond so so.
Do come back for the complete review in just a few moments!
KhabriBaba Rating:
