Film Impressions

REVIEW: Paathshaala

LET'S GIVE THEM DETENTION, SHAHID FANS WALKED OUT!

Salman Khan fans will forgive his at once short, at once long hair. Although Shahid Kapoor tries the same stunt in Pathshala, fans found him wanting. He spread his hands a-la Shah Rukh Khan singing Mitwaa! in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and fans walked out on him.

REVIEW: Paathshaala

BAD EDUCATION

Paathshaala sets out to deliver a laundry-list of ills that plague our education system. But what it best serves is the purpose of highlighting everything that is fundamentally wrong with Hindi cinema. The most obvious malaise, of course, is the lack of a cogent script. In film after film we see insipid, incoherent and utterly illogical narratives, sometimes camouflaged by stars, locations, music and clever packaging, but incontinent nonetheless. Particularly if a film has some social, political, cultural or psychological issue at hand, the treatment is necessarily heavy-handed, the characterisation always lacking in depth and the discourse decidedly didactic. It is, I believe, done with the intention of reaching out to a wider audience base, which, our filmmakers have already presumed, is incapable of digesting complexity of any kind. We make some of the worst films in the world, but our so-called message-driven films are often worse than the brainless entertainers (offensive and rabidly sexist as they are!).

REVIEW: Paathshaala

TO SIR WITH BOREDOM

The country’s education system has become cinema’s new whipping boy—whether it is Taare Zameen Par castigating teachers for not recognizing dyslexia, 3 Idiots asking for a compassionate system, Shikshanachya Aai Cha Gho fulminating against everything.

Milind Ukey’s Paathshaala criticizes the commercialization of a “noble profession,” but does it in such a fake, over-the-top manner, that the film can’t be taken seriously.  However, all of them have another thing in common—teachers are portrayed as total morons – all but the lead actors, that is. If a film that purports to focus on the ills of the education system has no respect for teachers, the whole exercise is futile.

INTERVIEW: Milind Ukey

PAATHSHAALA: NO LONGER CHILD'S PLAY

At a time when the news media are flooded with stories about academic pressure on students comes a film that tries to focus on this issue and ring a note of caution. Milind Ukey's Paathshaala grew out of choreographer Ahmed Khan's own experiences as a parent and is based on a script he has written. "Today academics has taken a backseat and the purpose of education seems to be defeated because of the commercialisation of schools. There's pressure on parents and on students. Our film takes a stand on this Issue highlighting all the problems children today face and that society needs to take note of," says director Milind Ukey, a former assistant of Sanjay Leela Bhansali.