Let me make it clear, Aarakshan is not about reservation or caste feuds but its more about the existence of two coaching centers although based out of different ideologies. The circumstantial controversies were false and farce. Prakash Jha failed to raise the social issues like he did it before in Damul, Mrityudand, Gangajal or Apaharan . The title is misleading and the biggest disappointment. One may feel cheated , expecting the big battle of Indian caste system and reservation of SC/ST/OBC.
One may expect some great screenplay of both sides but the movie and Jha falters completely and is in lack of words when asked whose side the protagonist is? The film opens very poorly in an interview room where the questions are asked about the mother who is maid in a sarcastic way by so called high castes interviewer. It was so unreal that the mood was set to be not in sync with the director's view. The honor was lost with the dialogue of Tehzeeb.
Within the 10 minutes of beginning you were bombarded with two useless songs, defying the mood further. Jha was never good with songs earlier and still he is not. All the characters were introduced slowly without a clear explanation. There were some good exchange of words to arouse the heat but it all fell flat on the ground like a fallen ash. It explains that even a good topic can be worthless without the good narration and script. The Film looses plot of reservation and started churning the illogical fight between two coaching centers. Definitely the second plot was based of Anand's Super-30 which churns IITians from the poorest family of Bihar with 100% success rate. Even Prakash Jha inspired the name of lead protagonist as Prabhakar Anand , played by Amitabh Bachchan. But in real Mr Anand didn't face any competition from any commercial coaching institutes niether from any College nor politicians. The characters were not sketched clearly and lacked commitments.
Saif role was too short for any comment. His UK migration and abrupt end of his Phd was never explained. The mustache looked good on him. Praetik Babbar failed again with his way of mouthing dialogues. He has lost confidence and that shows that why he was not at all liked. Manoj Bajpayi was a caricature with a funny wig. The last 15 minutes of the movie, he literally lost it all. The strong character was turned into a caricature.
Amitabh Bachchan had nothing new to offer, he played the extension of his role from Mohabbatein. His wardrobe was changed with his voluntarily retirement in a drastic manner and his only saving was a house which was given on rent to provide a platform for this circus.
Overall movie has only few scenes which touched the right cord, when a lost daughter comes back to home and hugs her father saying sorry and confessing that she is hungry was brilliant coming out of jha's brilliant past.
The whole plot of STM college and KK coaching centre was so unreal as if only these two sources of education exists in a city like Bhopal. Where you will find and education minister playing all sort of smaller games. The audiences were hoping something big.
The film also lacks historical correctness and chronographical sequences. This issue based movie changed its issue amidst of the movie and became a thudddddd....
http://www.super30.org/Big-B.html
