No Khaas Aakarshan in Aarakshan...

When I saw the trailers of this movie, I wondered to myself how brave it would be. Reservation is one of the most polarising topics in recent history. This movie could be controversial, yet brave. It could cause a sensation or riots…or both. It could present this difficult topic in a particularly clever way. The scenes in the trailer looked enticing—various stakeholders and their reactions to the reservation rule.

But you know it’s a bad sign when the movie begins (more or less) with a song. However, the action does move along fairly briskly. We get an introduction to each character, and then the SC judgement in favour of reservation creates all kinds of problems all of a sudden. Yay, so far so good…what I’d expected from the movie, it was delivering. In fact, I was tingling to see on which side the movie would lean and how it would present itself without displeasing the people on the other side of the fence.

And yet, a short while later, the movie completely loses its marbles (pun intended). The OBC reservation becomes a backdrop to something else entirely. It becomes a typical Hindi movie, a tale of personal vendetta. Amitabh Bachchan plays the role of a principled educationist hell bent on challenging the system. Manoj Bajpayee is absolutely brilliant in the role of a corrupt opportunist. Easily, the best actor. Saif Ali Khan hammed his way through. Deepika Padukone is pretty. Were we to expect more from her?

Anyway…the plot itself is in shambles. After starting off with the whole reservation fight, the movie veers off into the evils of professional coaching classes. The solution? Free coaching centres, in the guise of “remedial centres”. It’s a ridiculous. The film doesn't tell us how these free remedial centres will sustain themselves. Nor does it really give an answer to the question everyone would have been hoping for—is reservation a good thing?

All in all, this is a movie that just falls flat of all expectations. Even the actors fail to live up to any sort of expectations, with the exception of Amitabh Bachchan, against whom it’s not easy to find fault, and Manoj Bajpayee, who was truly outstanding in every scene he was present in.

Rating: 3/10 – and I normally am very generous with my ratings, if only to acknowledge the effort put in by the film-makers.