Super 30 Review: Hrithik Roshan Nails His Part In The Film, The Implausibility Of The Treatment Makes It Worth Watching

Film: Super 30

Actors: Hrithik Roshan, Mrunal Thakur, Sadhna Singh, Virendra Saxena, Pankaj Tripathi

My Verdict: An Impractical Inspiration From Real Events Make The Film A Motivating Watch

Rated: 3 Out Of 5 Stars

Super 30 tells the tale of an ordinary Bihar man Anand Kumar who understands mathematics like no other. The film chronicles his journey from being selected in Cambridge to selling Papadums on to the road to becoming a teacher in a reputed coaching centre to starting with his own coaching centre which famously came to be known as the Super 30 program!

The film surely is a piece of work – well, I could have totally said that (in a positive tone) only if I would be completely oblivious to the practicality of things!

Well, here is a Bihar bred man who is a genius, at least when it comes to Mathematics! So much so that he lives, eats, breaths maths! His knowledge and understanding pay off and he gets himself a seat in the prestigious Cambridge University. But due to lack of funds, he is unable to get there. His life changes for the worse and he is reduced to selling papadums on the street. That is when he bumps into the owner of an IIT Entrance coaching institute and his life takes a turn. He is soon dabbling in money and he is now able to make his both ends meet comfortably. But then, he takes this decision to leave this life and give himself unto the cause of downtrodden children who cannot afford the fees for the coaching institutes!

Well, the soul of the film is more than just noble. So much so that, there is ought to be an emotional outburst in the audiences. The performances, the emotions tugged at so on and so forth are all exceptionally done.

But when it comes to the practicality of the way life is, the treatment of the subject in the film looks a little too far-flung! Picture this - students for Kumar’s Super 30 coaching centre are ragpickers, gutter cleaners, domestic help so on and so forth! Now, if all of these students have that kind of background where they haven’t even received the basic education, then my question is how are they able to crack the entrance exam to Anand’s class in the first place and thereafter grasp the IIT mathematics in a jiffy? I mean it is IIT JEE for god’s sake! That is not well-established! Period!

The teaching technique of Anand Kumar in his coaching centre is also a little bent on the ‘Matrix’ side as he relies and wants his students to rely more on their imagination rather than the books! He often tells them., “Aankhen Bandh Karo Aur Socho” (Just close your eyes and imagine). I mean, if only I knew imagination would make floating cubes out of mathematic formulas and those then would help me clear the IIT JEE entrance exams, then nothing like it! I would be the first person to cry out ‘EUREKA’!

In another scene which makes practicality go overboard a lot more, the same thirty teenagers take on a massive troop of goons well-equipped with rifles and all sorts of ammunition - based on all they have learnt so far from their teacher! Having said this, this scene definitely was a high point in the film and perhaps the best conceived as well!

The makers have made it pretty clear; it is not a biopic but is definitely inspired by real events. And the person whose name has been used in the forefront and who forms the crux of the entire story is Anand Kumar, but the dramatization of the sequence of events in his life is huge!

You see, the Super 30 program was an initiative of not just Anand Kumar. He took the gambit along with Abhayanand who is an IPS officer and an educationalist. There was no mention of him in the film. The death of Anand’s father, whether Anand really survived a bullet in the gut or no, the fight that is shown (in the film) between Anand’s students and the goons did actually take place or no are questions that lurk but surely there’s no answer needed though. Now, this is because - I believe, a film is predominantly an art form. And liberties can be taken. If all of these scenes have been written with art kept in mind, so be it! They made it an interesting and gripping watch!

Coming to the performances – Hrithik Roshan becomes Anand Kumar, he is too good in almost every scene. Hrithik is a wonderful actor and he has proved it time and again and with this film too Hrithik Roshan has shut all his critics with his tour de force performance. In the beginning, though, he overdid it just a wee bit but the rest of the film was a cakewalk! The Bihari accent that he put on in the film was a bit rough though. Seeing him do the emotional scenes were an absolute delight. One scene worth mentioning in the context is when his brother (played by Nandish Sandhu) brings to him the news of all his students clearing the IIT JEE entrance. The look on his face, his eyes all welled up, the victorious quiver in his body – Everything was fabulous!

Mrunal Thakur whom we had earlier seen in the impactful film Love Sonia is seen in Super 30 playing Anand’s love interest Ritu. Even though she didn’t have much to do in the film, in whatever scenes she appears, she steals the show. I didn’t know she could dance so well, she looked beautiful with those mudras and those expressions. Pankaj Tripathi played the corrupt education minister to the T. He is a fine actor and, in this film, he has nailed his role. Well, Tripathi hails from Bihar and therefore, getting the accent, body language right came naturally to him. Amit Sadh’s audacious journalist act too was on point. Nandish Sandhu played Pranav, Anand’s brother who stood by him like a rock no matter what, his was a good job done as well. Actress Sadhna Singh deserves a special mention for her role as Anand’s mother in the film and so does actor Virendra Saxena who plays Anand’s father. Sadhna who will be seen after a long time on the silver screen does a fabulous job, she is so believable, I wonder who else could have fitted into Anand’s mother’s shoes like her especially with the kind of sweetness she exudes. Virendra Saxena too has done a swell job as an encouraging father who is not bothered about the circumstances his family is in and wants his son to reach the pinnacle of success. Sadhna and Virendra increased the likeable factor in the film manifold!          

The film has its high points. The death scene of Anand’s father is extremely moving, the way it is shot, the mood of the scene, the look on the distraught mother’s face and the play of fate, all of it was orchestrated  and it is perhaps one of the most impactful death scenes I have seen after Shah Rukh Khan’s Baazigar. I mentioned that film because this scene had an uncanny resemblance with the death scene of the SRK starrer. When Ajay’s (Shah Rukh Khan) father played by Anant Mahadevan, steps out in the torrential downpour and has a heart attack, he is then put up on a hand cart and a distraught wife (Rakhi) pulls it until the body falls on to the ground with a dull thud. In Super 30, the father suffers an attack and the desperate son tries to take him to the hospital in the torrential downpour and then the bicycle chain breaks. You have to see the film to feel the impact of the scene. Another rousing scene was when the 30 students take on a platoon of goons based on the ideas of their master.

The music by Ajay -Atul was expressive at times and at times it felt a bit overdone. The cinematography by Anay Goswami was a good job done. When making a film on someone’s life, there are many things that are to be kept in mind but at the same time, the editor also has to be careful of not making the film lengthy, in this case, editor Sreekar too has done a decent job. It didn’t feel long or boring at all, but at times, the backstory seemed lacking.

All in all, Super 30 is an inspirational film that deserves to be watched.