FILM REVIEW OF PATSHALA

Talking about the Director Milind Ukey who gave us the very lovable animated film ‘Hanuman’ has this time come up with a good topical subject but falters in the script written by producer Ahmed Khan himself. Here the director puts a whole lot of things in one bag without doing any justice to even single. In the film we have - children, Teenage romance, crush on teacher, rising of school fee structure, professionalism, commercialization, talent hunts, reality TV shows. Also the film has a bunch of child actors– the Fanaa Boy, the Cheeni Kum girl, the Balika Vadhu girl, who don’t have proper roles.

Now talking about the lead actor Shahid Kapoor–– after giving big hits like Jab We Met, Vivah, Kaminey the actor is giving duds like Dil Bole Hadippa, Chance Pe Dancee and an equally bad follow up with ‘Paatshaala’.

While the film signifies the problems perfectly, a proper solution is not offered in the end. Also what happens to the school finally is also not made clear.

The storytelling is suffused with sensitive pockets. To cite some examples- in one sequence the veteran sports teacher (played by Sushant Singh) gets together student to climb on one another to make a human pyramid for the sake of media coverage. The callousness of the freelance journalist as he talks into the cellphone while the students sweat it out in the sun, smothers your cynicism about such manipulative drama in the narrative.

In another scene, a little boy is made to stand in the sun for not paying the school fees. And then that decisive moment where a crass ad-maker reduces another little kid to tears, just chokes you.

The music reality show agent, who auditions the school kids as though they are fish to be fried straight from the market, is almost caricatural in the his grotesque commercialism.

The overview of the educational system in ‘Paatshaala’ is macro-cosmic in its own right. In an attempt to showcase how education goes for a toss in private schools as the management aims to earn the extra buck the makers also don’t lose out a chance to make a satire out of the media, shifting focus from his original aim.

Bad dialogues are made only worse by loud acting by most of the cast. Certain emotional scenes leave you either bored or end up making you laugh.

Hanief Shaikh's music also is not much promising. While Basha Lals cinematography is free of poetic flourishes, the ‘Ae khuda’ track just sweeps you off your feet. This is the only number which can is mesmerizing although the song should have been gifted with Aatif Aslam’s beautiful voice.

At the end I want to say that there’s no flow in the script and no sense to the whole hullabaloo on screen.