Super 30 review! Not So Super! An extremely inspirational story turned into an average, almost masala movie!

The trailer seems almost as magical as the story of real life Anand Kumar and I thought this was one that deserve not to be missed!

As has become the trend nowadays, the story starts with a voice over narrating the life and times of the magician Anand Kumar. The story of the typical brilliant maths wizard, who is unable to afford education in the coveted Cambridge university due to his poor financial background, and is in love with an ultra rich girl. His father dies a sudden death, and things take a further downturn for him. He starts selling papads to earn livelihood. At this point I had some major objections :

1. I believe there was this thing called education loan even in the 1990s.

2. A family member of a government servant gets job on compassionate grounds on his premature death.

3.Also, such a brilliant person couldn\’t figure out that he could give tuitions even after seeing huge billboards all over the town, and with all the government job craze in the depicted area.

Then there\’s this another stone age old dialogue from Hindi movies : \”Behtar Hoga Ki Tum Ghar chale jao, lagta hai Toofan Aane Wala Hai\” ( It would be better if you don\’t venture out and stay indoors as there are chances of a storm approaching). Out of the blue, suddenly the windows and door starts bumping and wind makes a whoosh sound..!! The indigenous generation of electricity and the gloomy faces of the poverty stricken children brought back memories of Swades. Contrast the morale boosting speech of Anand Kumar against the backdrop of Kabir Khan\’s Sattar minute in Chak De India, and you will realise what is missing in this movie… the dialogues, the intensity, the picturization and the unique personalities of each of the students of Super 30.

Although it is a matter of pride that Global Giants like Pepsico, MasterCard, Deustche Bank, Google have CEOs of Indian origin, let\’s not forget the fact that it is not owned by Indians and we are still working for someone else!!! Besides, these people are doing no service to the country that they were born in by enjoying a lavish life in the USA!! Also, almost none of them was born poor, so I don\’t see any reason other than evoking an emotional cord to have these references in the first 10 minutes of the movie.

It would have been great if Hrithik Roshan had tried to tone down his streak of going over the top as far as acting is concerned. Nevertheless, he has managed to enact the anger, anguish, desperation and passion to the core. He has latched onto the \’muh mein tambaku\’ (tobacco in mouth) Bihari accent quite neatly. It\’s pleasing to see CID fame Aditya Srivastava convincingly play the money minded, boot licking CEO of a coaching centre. Mrunal Thakur has limited scope to showcase her acting skills after a brilliant performance in love Sonia. Pankaj Tripathi as always has managed to do justice to the crazy for power education minister character. Vikas Bahl who has given films like Udta Punjab, Queen, No one killed Jessica, NH10 delivers another out of the box movie in terms of the story line, but which wasn\’t handled all that well. Cinematography by Mr Anay Goswamy stands out well only in limited scenes, like where children from different professions are depicted getting enchanted by the free coaching leaflet of Anand Kumar. To me, the music wasn\’t all that great either, going by the high standards that Ajay Atul have set in the past.

All in all, if inspirational story cum masala movie is your cup of tea, go give it a try!!