Student Of The Year Review

Rating: 2.5/5 stars (Two-and-a-half stars)

Star Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Rishi Kapoor, Sana Saeed, Ram Kapoor, Kajol (guest appearance).

What’s Good: The performances; the direction; the humour.

What’s Bad: The unbelievable portrayal of students; the hamming; the ridiculous explanations in the climax.

Loo break: None.

Watch or Not?: If you’re a fan of Karan Johar’s fare, you’ll definitely enjoy all the dance-drama. Otherwise it’s just like a re-hashed version of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

User Rating:

Student Of The Year makes no qualms about being an “escapist” movie. One of the characters introduces the school where all the action takes place – St Teresa – as “…not a normal school. A world in its own.”

This is Karan Johar’s fantasy land on his canvas, so you have the rich douchebag Rohan Nanda (Varun Dhawan) who (predictably) has daddy issues. With his father (Ram Kapoor) being one of the donors for the school, he has a posse of guys who hang on to his every word. While his rich, hot and spoilt girlfriend Shanaya (Alia Bhatt) hankers for his attention, he still keeps wandering to the other hottie Tanya (Sana Saeed).

When poor-orphan-with-a-scholarship, Abhimanyu (Sidharth Malhotra) joins the school, he threatens Rohan’s fiefdom. But soon the duo warm up to each other and become good friends. Heck, Abhimanyu even helps Rohan win back Shanaya after she throws a hissy fit, though Abhimanyu loves her!

Then dean Yogendra (Rishi Kapoor) announces the Student Of The Year competition and all hell breaks loose. Friendships are threatened, fistfights follow and there is lots of love lost.

Watch the movie to find out who wins.

Student Of The Year Review: Script Analysis

The story for the movie is very rudimentary: two guys in love with the same girl and the same trophy (note: aforementioned girl and trophy aren’t the same.) Even if you make many exceptions for the story – with all the repeated stereotypes – nothing disappoints you like the pathetic explanations in the end. The outburst at the climax deserved to be much stronger. Maybe St T’s (as we’re supposed to call this institution) is based in some wonderland where everyone comes to school in designer clothes (including Abhimanyu, whom we are led to believe belongs to the lower economic ‘Bata’ club) and Mercedes Benzs to school, but this la-la-land also doesn’t require a minimum age for a driving license or for drinking alcohol in clubs/discos. Then there are the parts which are just for the sake of making you go “Aww…” like Abhimanyu’s grandmother’s illness. But the humour quotient is bang on.

Rensil Dsilva’s screenplay is alright but Niranjan Iyengar’s dialogues are pretty good.

Student Of The Year Review: Star Performances

With three big debutantes in the movie, it is a bit difficult to pick and choose, but my vote goes for Sidharth Malhotra as Abhimanyu. He’s the sweet charming boy who steals your heart with his sighs. Varun Dhawan does very well as the spoilt brat but there are a few places where he needs to buck up. Alia Bhatt ends up with a very dumb-blonde role who has to do standard ramp poses for the camera but she performs ably. Undoubtedly, Varun is the best dancer among all three.

Rishi Kapoor is perfect as the closet-gay dean. Sana Saeed only gets to pout and flaunt her body as Tanya. Ram Kapoor is very good as the latent villain. Kajol’s guest appearance is a pleasant surprise (though I would have loved it if Shah Rukh Khan had a special act as a guest teacher or something).

Student Of The Year Review: Direction, Music & Technical Aspects

Karan Johar’s direction is very good but flounders with the script. Cinematography by Ayananka Bose is sleek. Deepa Bhatia’s editing is very good. The lyrics are pretty lazy; Ishq Wala Love  gives you an idea that there’s not much effort into it. Vishal-Shekhar’s music is very youthful, and sometimes nuanced.

Student Of The Year Review: The Last Word

Student Of The Year has some really earnest performances and entertaining comedy scenes. Other than that it’s a staple Karan Johar affair: ridiculous in parts and dramatic in others.

Student Of The Year Trailer

Student Of The Year released on 19th October, 2012.

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