First things first, Aarakshan is not at all about aarakshan (reservation). Prakash Jha's latest directorial venture has managed to create a lot of hullabaloo because of its title and expected storyline. But none of these seem to reflect in the film. Barring a scene or two, the film boldly deals with the commercialization of education and how a principle educationist stands tall with the changing times. The opening half of the film fails to generate any interest and the screenplay very poor. It picks up only at a later stage which gives a feeling that the movie is forcefully dragged for a prolonged duration. The story is of Prabhakar Anand (Amitabh) who is the principal of a private charity institution and how Mithilesh Singh (Manoj), the vice principal neglects college duties because he runs a private coaching class charging a lot of money from the students. The story then takes a typical Bollywood turn with the politicians and police playing dirty and everything turns against Prabhakar. But then he hits upon a plan to give free education to everyone, and becomes a hero again. Talking about performances, the biggest disappointment was Deepika Padukone. Her Hindi still needs a lot of work. Saif Ali Khan was completely wasted in the film, but Prateik's repeated portrayal of a spoilt brat turned good will give the audience something to cheer on. Stalwarts like Amitabh, Manoj and Vinay fit their roles perfectly and do a brilliant justice to the script. After Rajneeti, Manoj seems to have got the cue as to what kind of role suits him most. The dialogues of the film were crisp and interesting, which held the movie together. The editing could have been a lot tighter and the 'Green Screen' was clearly noticeable. The running time of the movie is almost 165 minutes and it fails to hold the audience together. Though the story idea was quite thought provoking and engaging, but the fact is that it could have ended a long way before. Bollywood trio Shankar-Ehsan-Loy also failed to click any popular number in the film. The music was decent. Apart from the individual performances of the characters and their conflicts along with some power hitting dialogues, the film isn't impressive at all. The whole idea of reservation was sidelined and a new dig was taken into the Indian education system. Thus, the title is not at all apt. If you do not get a reservation at your favourite restaurant and have no other place to go, then you should think about going to the theatre and munching pop-corns by watching Aarakshan. Or else, Prakash Jha this much-hyped venture can be surely given a miss.
Review of Aarakshan
