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The sad fact also is that with reservations, capitation fee, indifferent teachers, hopelessly outdated rote-leaning methods and other hurdles, any parent with money would hire a conman like Rakesh Singh (Emraan Hashmi) to get their kid into a coveted engineering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.

Manic Mumbai

For a first-time director –Pia Sukanya-- to even attempt a film like Bombairiya is as admirable as it is foolhardy, because a plot in which multiple characters run riot for too small a payoff, is next to impossible to pull off even for experienced filmmakers.

If, after some minutes of random chaos, the audience starts going Huh? What? instead of getting lost in the pandemonium, the film is in trouble. It all starts when a PR girl Meghna (Radhika Apte) has her phone snatched by a man, nicknamed Prem (Siddhanth Kapoor), when the auto she was in collided with his scooter. Not only does the missing phone mess up an assignment involving her client, movie star Karan Kapoor (Ravi Kishan), it also has a steamy video that must not be leaked.

Pintu (Akshay Oberoi), who witness the incident, offers to help and gets caught up in the mess, as Meghna hitches a ride in his car and uses his phone, to try to sort out matters rapidly going out of control. Prem, who was to deliver a package is also in a soup, and believes a killer (Amit Sial) is after him. Orchestrating part of the proceedings from jail cell is a politician (Adil Hussain), who has to stop a mysterious witness from testifying against him.

Involved in the circus are cops, gangsters, parents trying to follow the bizarre goings-on, Karan’s politician wife (Shilpa Shukla) and two fans promised a meeting with the star, who has left his shoot and decamped to an unknown location.

Characters keep running into one another as if Mumbai were a village, they reach distant locations in seemingly record time, never encountering traffic jams, phones are constantly being answered by the wrong person, and after a point, even the actors give-up trying to make sense of the knotty script

There are undoubtedly some moments of humour, and several scenes infused with a manic energy, but not enough to sustain interest for the extended running time, especially since the gags get repetitive.  The editor (Antara Lahiri) must have had a hell of a time putting the film together, so it has some semblance of order.

In the end, Bombairiya makes a case for a strong witness protection programme, but the takeaway from it actually is, don’t get involved in other people’s hassles and never, never lend your phone to a stranger.