Brilliant mathematician Anand Kumar helps 30 smart but underprivileged students prepare for entrance exams for the Indian Institutes of Technology.
Director: Vikas Bahl
There is no question that Super 30 is a dramatized, ‘Bollywoodized’ version of a true story, complete with too many songs, caricaturish villains, a deafening background score that cues every emotion, and the kind of rousing dialogue intended to elicit cheers. The film is also a khichdi of sorts, borrowing ideas and treatment from A Beautiful Mind, Good Will Hunting, Aarakshan, and Hichki. To be fair, there are things to admire too. What is especially disappointing is that so little attention is paid to the students at the heart of this drama. The film never allows us to spend enough time getting to know them.Super 30 comes with an important message but the overwrought treatment weighs it down ultimately. I’m going with two-and-a-half out of five.
On the whole, Super 30 is a super hit film, no questions asked. It will reach the Rs. 100-crore mark pretty fast and it has bright chances of touching the Rs. 150-crore mark and even joining the Rs. 200-crore club. It will do the best business in multiplexes and also in good single-screen cinemas of cities. Collections are bound to pick up as the positive word of mouth gains momentum.
Super 30 is the ultimate underdog story. It’s based on the life of Patna mathematician Anand Kumar who transformed the lives of impoverished children with free coaching, which enabled them to get into IIT. The film is about the transformative power of education. There is drama, emotion, tragedy, struggle. I entered ready to see an inspiring ode to the human spirit. I came out unsatisfied and exhausted. Because director Vikas Bahl takes a terrific story and overcooks it. You keep catching glimpses of a strong, soaring fairy tale but it never emerges.
When you exaggerate the extraordinary, it looks ordinary. Mathematics whiz and educator Anand Kumar has led a remarkable life, coaching hundreds of underprivileged children past the rigours of the Indian Institute of Technology entrance exams. His story deserves attention, but director Vikas Bahl confoundingly embellishes it into typical filmi fare in Super 30. For some reason, Kumar’s actual triumph wasn’t enough — therefore the filmmakers added clichéd adversity. The odds may have challenged Kumar, but the Hrithik Roshan version features armed hitmen, evil politicians and moustached villains.
Director of photography Anay Goswami does his best to provide a tinge of tangibility to the ersatz settings. Super 30 has been shot on studio sets rather than on real locations, so do not look for the real sights and smells of Patna. That is one of the key problems with Super 30: it tells a true story but it never rings true. Nothing in the film is less convincing than the lead performance. The idea to bronze up Hrithik Roshan so that he can impersonate Anand Kumar is anything but super: it is a formula that equals zero.
Director: Vikas Bahl
There is no question that Super 30 is a dramatized, ‘Bollywoodized’ version of a true story, complete with too many songs, caricaturish villains, a deafening background score that cues every emotion, and the kind of rousing dialogue intended to elicit cheers. The film is also a khichdi of sorts, borrowing ideas and treatment from A Beautiful Mind, Good Will Hunting, Aarakshan, and Hichki. To be fair, there are things to admire too. What is especially disappointing is that so little attention is paid to the students at the heart of this drama. The film never allows us to spend enough time getting to know them.Super 30 comes with an important message but the overwrought treatment weighs it down ultimately. I’m going with two-and-a-half out of five.
On the whole, Super 30 is a super hit film, no questions asked. It will reach the Rs. 100-crore mark pretty fast and it has bright chances of touching the Rs. 150-crore mark and even joining the Rs. 200-crore club. It will do the best business in multiplexes and also in good single-screen cinemas of cities. Collections are bound to pick up as the positive word of mouth gains momentum.
Super 30 is the ultimate underdog story. It’s based on the life of Patna mathematician Anand Kumar who transformed the lives of impoverished children with free coaching, which enabled them to get into IIT. The film is about the transformative power of education. There is drama, emotion, tragedy, struggle. I entered ready to see an inspiring ode to the human spirit. I came out unsatisfied and exhausted. Because director Vikas Bahl takes a terrific story and overcooks it. You keep catching glimpses of a strong, soaring fairy tale but it never emerges.
When you exaggerate the extraordinary, it looks ordinary. Mathematics whiz and educator Anand Kumar has led a remarkable life, coaching hundreds of underprivileged children past the rigours of the Indian Institute of Technology entrance exams. His story deserves attention, but director Vikas Bahl confoundingly embellishes it into typical filmi fare in Super 30. For some reason, Kumar’s actual triumph wasn’t enough — therefore the filmmakers added clichéd adversity. The odds may have challenged Kumar, but the Hrithik Roshan version features armed hitmen, evil politicians and moustached villains.
Director of photography Anay Goswami does his best to provide a tinge of tangibility to the ersatz settings. Super 30 has been shot on studio sets rather than on real locations, so do not look for the real sights and smells of Patna. That is one of the key problems with Super 30: it tells a true story but it never rings true. Nothing in the film is less convincing than the lead performance. The idea to bronze up Hrithik Roshan so that he can impersonate Anand Kumar is anything but super: it is a formula that equals zero.
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