Cinemaah

Exam Scam

The problem with India’s education system is far deeper that what Why Cheat India can even attempt to get at. The extent of the rot is conveyed through a list of statistics at the end of the film, but the plot itself is merrily cynical, with the attitude that everybody is corrupt if the price is right. Our culture seems to admire the enterprising cheat more that his (or her) victim.

The sad fact also is that with reservations, capitation fee, indifferent teachers, hopelessly outdated rote-leaning methods and other hurdles, any parent with money would hire a conman like Rakesh Singh (Emraan Hashmi) to get their kid into a coveted engineering or medical college by any means; to widen the chances for a bright kid or give a duffer a leg up. Because that seat in a professional institute ensures financial security for the family.

The film, starts in grungy UP towns in the 1990s and comes up to present-day Mumbai, where, Rocky expands his racket to the much-in-demand MBA courses, and meets up again with Sattu’s sister Nupur (Shreya Dhanwanthary), who managed to make to a career in Mumbai on her own, dodging the dowry-trap marriage of the small-town girl. Now independent, she has no qualms about Rocky’s wife back home, a garrulous woman he was forced to marry.

Emraan Hashmi (also co-producer) is right in his comfort zone as the street smart crook; he gives Rocky a lot of swag and just a hint of melancholy to temper the wickedness. The unevenly written and choppily edited film, that actually wants to make a hero out of Rocky, could have done without that phony moralistic high ground; it could have probably been more honest and watchable as a comedy about how to subvert the system.