Student of the Year - Exclusive Movie Review by Sree Prasad Nair

 

Student of the Year - Exclusive Movie Review by Sree Prasad Nair

Directed by     Karan Johar
Produced by     Hiroo Yash Johar
Gauri Khan
Starring     Siddharth Malhotra
Alia Bhatt
Varun Dhawan
Music by     Vishal-Shekhar
Cinematography     Ayananka Bose
Studio     Dharma Productions
Red Chillies Entertainment
Distributed by     Dharma Productions
Release date(s)    

    19 October 2012

Running time     146 minutes [1]
Country     India
Language     Hindi

Theater - Abu Dhabi National Cinemas, UAE

18/10/2012 - 11.30 pm

Occupancy - 100% (All the evening shows were housefull) 

Karan Johar is famous for directing Bollywood's highest grossing films especially in overseas. Be it his smashing debut National Award Winning Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, (for wholesome entertainment in 1998) Kabhi Khushi Khabhie Gham, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna or My Name Is Khan, his films always leaves a message. All the above films he worked with his good friend Shahrukh Khan and both share 100% track record(though KANK & MNIK struggle to get the HIT status in India) All of their films worked wonders at the overseas box office. Student Of The Year is Karan Johar’s 5th film as a director and first film without Shahrukh Khan in the lead. This time for a change Shahrukh Khan is co-producing SOTY instead of playing the lead. Will this change really works ? Can Karan Johar make his film a success without Shahrukh Khan’s presence on it? Will his daring attempt to make a movie with newcomers in the lead roles a successful one?

Student Of The Year is about three friends : Rohan played by Varun Dhawan , Abhimanyu played by Siddharth Malhotra and Shanaya played by Alia Bhatt. Rohan is from a rich family but had a bad relationship with his own father. Shanaya is Rohan’s girlfriend since childhood and always worried about

their future just because of his flirting with other girls. Abhimanyu is from a middle class family and super confident about his positive future. He always gives tips to Shanaya to get Rohan back from other girls and somehow finally he develops a hidden crush for her. But one incident made significant changes in their life and destroy their friendship. There onwards their main aim is to get the prestigious Student Of The Year Trophy!

Positives : Director Karan Johan proved that he don’t need Shahrukh Khan’s presence on his film to make it a good watch. 

Without a doubt SOTY is one of the best film released this year. Be it direction, story, performance or music, SOTY is a brilliant film from Mr.Johar. He knows exactly what he gets with his films. Also running time of SOTY is perfect. A good ‘2hr 25min’ Karan Johar movie you rarely see. All his previous films were targeted mainly for families, this time he changed his style and made it an absolute festival film for the youth with a fast paced entertainmentplus good story. Ofcourse you can see bikini scenes and kissing scene in this Karan Johar film. But still you can see SOTY with your family.

Another plus point of the SOTY is it’s brilliant music & choreography of songs. Music by Vishal-Shekhar is brilliant and all the songs are foot tapping numbers. Radha and Ishq Wala Love are already chartbusters. Choreography by Farah Khan & Vaibhavi Merchant are just brilliant. Infact after Munni & Sheila, this will be Farah’s best work! Cinematography by Ayananka Bose is top class. I’m sure many of the one-liners and gay jokes are going to popular. 

It will be very difficult to point out the most brilliant performance from SOTY. Every single actor should be appreciated for their respective roles. David Dhawan’s son Varun Dhawan was an assistant director to his father & also the assistant director of My Name Is Khan. But SOTY proved that he don’t need to assist direction anymore. Varun is charming & confident, got good screen presence and above all an excellent dancer. He made a brilliant entry as an actor. He already won many female fans just with the films trailer and going to win many more hearts with this film. Siddharth Malhotra is not behind either. I would like to repeat the same mentions about Varun for Siddharth too. A real scene stealer and a confident debut. 

Watch out his fantastic entry scene in the film. Alia Bhatt (Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter) surprises everybody. When the first trailer comes out most of the people ‘including this writer’ feels that Alia – A big miscast in SOTY! She may be 19yrs, but her screen presence, dare to bare show & excellent acting made me to reverse my opinion about her. Cute, Bubbly, Sweet & Stunning in bikinis too. A smashing performance. I doubt many of you know that Alia Bhatt is the same cute baby girl acted as baby Preity Zinta in Akshay Kumar’s Sangharsh. 

Sana Saeed, child artist in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Salman Khan’s Har Dil Jo Pyaar Karega is making an entry as an actress with SOTY and she did her jealous role very well. Rest of the new comers did their part well. I would like to add a special mention to Kayoze Irani (son of Boman Irani) His acting is just amazing. I bet you that last 10min dialogues of him to Rishi Kapoor, well U Guys Miss Those Standout Performance At Your Own Risk !!!. Good to see that Bollywood is offering many young talents this year. Arjun Kapoor, Ayushmann Khurrana, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Yami Gautam, Huma Qureshi, Esha Gupta, Ileana, Diana Penty & stars of the SOTY are only strengthening the DEBUT’S Presence in 2012! Tough Year For Jury To Select the New Comers!!! 

Rishi Kapoor as gay principal is very funny yet brilliant especially in the climax. Ronit Roy as College Coach is good. Ditto for Ram Kapoor as Varun’s Dad. It was such a pleasure to see one of my personal

favorite actress Farida Jalal after a long time in a small role with witty one liners. Manjot Singh of Oye Luck Lucky Oye was funny too. Rest of the cast played their roles well. 

I can’t find out any negatives about the film. Two back to back songs are there but good at the situations. Climax may turned out be a bit dragging for few, that’s about it… No harm done.

Overall, Student Of The Year is a well made film coming from Dharma Productions. Among Karan Johar’s best works and better than his previous two films. The film has all going for its favor = love, romance, songs, jealousy, good story and excellent performance plus great direction. It should do well at the box office and I’m sure it will. A 8-10 cr is on the cards with a weekend of 33crs. A Deserving Super Hit, Strongly Recommended !!! 

Verdict : A Brilliant Film For The Youth & Their Beautiful Family 

Rating – 4.5/5 

This Reviewer can be contacted on Twitter : @i_spn : https://twitter.com/i_spn