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
