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Redundant and unnecessary.

hyped garbage

Highly Overrated But Still Good

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

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 dialog 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 neither from any College nor politicians. The characters were not sketched clearly and lacked commitments.Deepika Padukone was too unreal for city like Bhopal where she was seen moving around with a Dalit Saif, hand in hand wearing designer salwars. 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 center was so unreal as if only these two sources of education exits 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....

Prakash Jha's 'Aarakshan' offers a rock-solid first hour, but loses pace in it's slightly deary second. This tale on India's socio-political setup, begins very well, but later on, loses focus on the issue, it tries to tackle on.'Aarakshan' is a socio-political drama based on the controversial policy of caste based reservations in government jobs and educational institutions.The Screenplay by Anjum Rajabali & Jha himself, is impressive in the first-hour and offers a punch. However, the second-hour, becomes slightly deary and goes off-track. What starts off as a film on 'Reservation', suddenly becomes this story of this one man's struggle to, basically, win back his house from the devious villain. Even the climax for that matter, isn't as effective, as it ought to have been. Also, the excessive running-time, needed some trimming. Jha's Direction is nice. Cinematography is fair. Editing is alright.Performance-Wise: Amitabh is in form. Saif Ali Khan hardly gets scope. Deepika Padukone delivers a sincere performance. Manoj Bajpai plays the evil part superbly. Prateik has been better, while Tanvi Azmi is perfect. Darshan Jariwala is excellent. Saurabh Shukla, Mukesh Tiwari, Yashpal Sharma, Chetan Pandit & Vinay Apte lend support.On the whole, At best, A Passable Fare, that deserved to be better.

Why does a movie literally called "Reservation" degenerate into a fantastical clash between personalised and commercialised education? Because Prakash Jha is a mad genius whose realisation that they are actually the same problem is only one of the brilliant insights that animate this film, which goes from eighties camp to the very heart of the political and ethical mire that is the issue of reservation and comes back, very carefully laying the breadcrumbs behind it: the fairy tale ending is actually lent credence by the (stated) fact that the power of the rich rests on the cooperation of the poor and finally transcends its seeming idiocy to become a version of a model for the future that can be accommodated into the public imagination.

As an American (now living in America, despite my profile), I occasionally go to Indian movies to sort of clear my head and watch a story told in a completely different way than most American movies. For this purpose, Aarakshan fit the bill just fine. In the controversy over the school entry quota, there was an obvious parallel to the controversy over affirmative action quotas in the U.S.The story did drag on and on a bit. The bad guys, particularly the vice principal, were a bit too over-the-top evil, and the noble persecuted principal stuck to his guns so firmly that at some point (specifically at the point where he sent the boys away rather than invite them to help him tutor the poor children) he went from principled to sort of stubborn and stupid.A few other random thoughts that distracted me during the movie: The "American" accent, if that's what it was supposed to be, of the Cornell professor was truly lamentable. I laughed, I grimaced. It was awful.In the scene where Sushant orders two coffees, it appears that the waitress delivers two glasses of milk.The actor who played Prabhakar Anand, the university president, seemed too young for the character he played; the one who played low-caste love interest and firebrand student Deepak Kumar looked decidedly too old, especially when compared with the character of Sushant, who I assume was supposed to be the same age and who looked age-appropriate. I also found that "Deepak Kumar" looked gym-toned in a way that was attractive, but detracted from the verisimilitude of his character ... and a further distraction was that to me he bears a strong resemblance to American comedian Robin Williams! Well, I told you these would be random comments. I did more or less enjoy watching the movie as a way to pass the afternoon, but it was no profound experience.