REVIEW: Aarakshan

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The first half of Prakash Jha's Aarakshan is full of promise. It tries to pitch all the voices around the reservation debate putting Amitabh Bachchan's idealistic, uncompromising principal Dr. Prabhakar Anand at the centre of it. When Saif Ali Khan's dalit super-achiever hero Deepak Kumar (inspired casting) asks Dr. Anand which side of the reservation debate he stands on, the old man is speechless—not because he's stumped by the question, but because he feels humiliated being asked it in the first place.

He's the kind who runs extra coaching classes in his backyard free of cost so that weaker students can catch up instead of being left behind. The one who signs off his house to the family of an ailing friend because they are in dire need. He wards off powerful ministers and holds his ground against a roomful of trustees determined to loosen his hold over the institution. That Deepak is provoked to question his commitment towards the backward sections of society is a source of tremendous dejection to him.

Jha wants us to believe that such a man has managed to hold on to his position as the head of a prestigious educational institution for several decades without being brushed aside by vested interests. And we want to believe it too, because where else can we look for inspirational figures but in fiction? Here is a filmmaker with a sharp political vision—a refreshing change from the airheads of Hindi cinema—but his pursuit of commercial success has blunted his edges significantly over the years.

Yet, Aarakshan carries more weight than his last hit Rajneeti as it tries to tackle two very important ideological debates, even though it doesn't take either to its logical end. Perhaps because there isn't a viable solution to either, he takes recourse to idealism to plug the gaps. 

The first half is replete with fiery speeches delivered in the kind of chaste Hindi unheard of in mainstream cinema. Both sides of the reservation debate get equal opportunity to present their version of the truth—the upper caste students who are denied admissions to colleges and courses of their choice because of the state's reservation policy, and the dalits, who are struggling to rise above the innumerable roadblocks cast in their way and earn their rightful place in society through education. 

It is distressing to watch Deepak, an exceptionally bright student who has flourished in Dr. Anand's benevolent presence and inspite of his impoverished background, stand up so vehemently for his lot. He has no choice, he says, for the burden of history weighs far too heavy. Prateik (he needs to work harder, particularly on his dialogue delivery), as Sushant, his ideological adversary is equally compelled to speak out against reservation, having lost a seat he so coveted.

Standing on the sidelines are opportunists like Mithilesh Singh (Manoj Bajpai—what a marvellous actor he is, and how unfortunate that we see so little of him), who runs a coaching class business on the side while teaching at the same college and has no real ideology except that of money. But he's clever enough to understand when to fan a fire and his rivalry with Dr Anand finds a perfect vehicle, eventually leading to the latter's exit from the college.

And here's where the film inexplicably changes tracks. It's not that the commercialistion of education isn't a worthy subject—why, it deserves it's own exclusive film! But Jha was tackling reservation in this one, he named it Aarakshan and marketed it as a story about the divide between two Indias. The entire controversy around the film and the objections to it, are centred around this issue, and not that of coaching class rackets and capitation fees which automatically make education unaffordable for the poor.  

Still Dr Anand's idealist zeal somehow takes the film through. And Bachchan shines in a part redemptive as much for the film as for the star himself. In the face of adversity, there are moments when you see the old spark of anger, but that he holds on to his Gandhian principles in the worst of moments, is heartening. Deepak's volatility is a foil to the old man's unwavering resolve. But Deepika Padukone's Poorbi (Anand's daughter) isn't properly fleshed out and given the actress' limited skills, the character simply falls flat. Casting a much younger Tanvi Azmi as Anand's wife is problemmatic too—poor woman has to crinkle up her forehead in every scene to look the part.

Jha has now resorted to a lowly marketing gimmick twice in a row. In Rajneeti, he deliberately styled Katrina Kaif's character after Sonia Gandhi—but neglected to mention that we see her in that avatar for precisely two minutes. In Aarakshan he's claimed to tackle the reservation debate, but either under political pressure, or because of his own inability to weave a complete narrative around it, he's copped out. If nothing else, such misleading propaganda is likely to dent his credibility, which is such a shame, because he is still a filmmaker who's holding on to his conscience, if only by a thread.