What’s consistent about Johar’s filmmaking is that he scales and balances
weight on his leads and their supporting actors. So, when Fareeda Jalal enters
the movie as Abhi’s grandmother (he lives with his uncle and aunt, after his
parents died), we believe that she’s his emotional center .
This group of friends and lackies are – superficially – your usual fodder.
The slutty cheerleader is Sana Saeed (who played SRK’s daughter in “Kuch Kuch
Hota Hai”). Shanaya’s “bff” is played by Mansi Rachh, a tomboy with a
semi-prominent drive that matures with the film’s duration. The bespectacled
geek is SODO, played by Kayoze Irani (Boman Irani’s son, who may be epitomizing
some of Johar’s personal anguish). And finally there’s Sahil Anand, who plays
Ro’s lackey.
There are no initial sparks between Abhi and Shanaya, but they do get it on
in a Malaysian wedding trip (actually one of the film’s many excuses to undress
the leads, splash them in dripping water for slow-mo beauty shots); And then of
course, the Student of the Year competition is initiated by Dean Yoginder
Vasisht (Rishi Kapoor, effortless and charismatic, innocently pining after
film’s happily-married college coach Ronit Roy) which turns them – and the
film’s supporting cast – into enemies.
The third leading-debut is their mutual love-interest, Shanaya (Alia Bhatt,
once-director, now producer Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter) – a dolled-up rich babe,
who is the desire of every boy and the jealously of every other babe in school
(we don’t get to see that either).
Student of the Year – SOTY – is Johar’s clean-break from his gradually
maturing mindset (re: the warped family break-up drama “Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna”
and the flaky political statement “My Name is Khan”), and boy, is it woozy,
fresh, if somewhat unoriginal. But that doesn’t actually bother Johar – and he
doesn’t let it pester you either.
SOTY’s hardly visible plot, is slickly decorated around big, glossy sets and
an immediately hummable music by Vishal-Shekhar, who meld their style with the
Karan Johar-touch, incorporating “Yeh Chand Sa Roshan Chehra”, “Gulabi Aankhen”
and Nazia Hasan’s “Disco Deewane” with renewed juice (watch out for Rishi
Kapoor doing a “Dafli Walay” routine in “Radha”, one of the star-songs of the
movie; the other star-song is “Ratta Maar”).
SOTY is auteurism at work. There’s a bold, visible sign at the door that
says: “Hassle-free, escapist entertainment. Park your incisive, over-assessing
criticisms at the door, and enjoy that bag of expensive pop-corn you just
bought!”
Shanaya, although is the lead who gets to disco, boogie and twirl in almost
all the film’s musical numbers, her “Ishq Wala Love”, is simply a picturesque
wall-decoration. SOTY is less interested in telling a love story; it instead
tries to win-over a persistent, if-uneasy, bromance fable.
Karan Johar’s new half-sparkly, romantic Bolly-fable about high school love
and antipathy, may be his first directed film that sidelines Shah Rukh Khan in
favor of younger, bare-chested youngsters; and it may (partially) hark back to
his debut “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” (with an overarching shadow of “Jo Jeeta Wohi
Sikandar”); and it may feature SRK’s co-production stamp (the film is
co-produced by SRK’s wife and Johar’s friend Gauri Khan) – but what it doesn’t
do is ramble on pomposity, or worrisome self-consciousness.
Clocking in a typical-Bollywood 146 minutes, SOTY’s screenplay (by Rensil
D’silva and dialogues by Niranjan Iyengar) rakes in character development,
drive, and half-remixed sound-track, into a pitch-perfect starring vehicle for
his debuting trio. Two of whom are Sidharth Malhotra (as Abhimanyu “Abhi”
Singh) and David Dhawan’s son, Varun Dhawan (playing Rohan “Ro” Nanda). These
chiseled-bodied, soft-hearted leads start off as enemies, become friends,
graduate into frenemies over the McGuffin that’s the eponymous, school
competition.
Abhi, the underdog, is a career-oriented youngster who gets into the
upmarket, semi-swanky St. Teresa’s High School on a sports scholarship. Ro is
the son of alumi-turned-tycoon (Ram Kapoor); semi-spoiled, seeking his father’s
adoration (he gets put-down often), he is the black-sheep who dreams of having
a career as a pop/rock artist. Ro’s longtime girlfriend is Shanaya, born to
indifferent, rich parents, who push her to maintain her class-conscious
relationship.
