Why Cheat India Review: A Bland Film; A Boring Script And A Shoddy Treatment

Film: Why Cheat India

Starring: Emraan Hashmi, Shreya Dhanwantary

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

My Verdict: A shoddy treatment mars the heaviness of content in this Emraan Hashmi starrer

To begin with, I was wondering whether the title Why Cheat India has lost out on a Question mark! - Cheating in exams - carrying chits inside the halls, whispering answers from one corner of the room to the other is rampant and in fact all pervading in India and across the borders too but the level of cheating that has been shown in this film will make you repel it, like literally! Not that it should be appreciated – but the thing is, we know that it (cheating) happens; and after the school-college phase of life, we remain unfazed about it, but when suddenly it comes up in front of us in this light, we get to know what upheaval the generation is gearing towards!

Good quality education is a must for everyone but the rat race that human beings are running in order to outdo the other has brought about this catastrophe.

Cheat India dabbles in the unfulfilled ambitions of parents to become an engineer or a doctor (Most of the times which is considered to be a mark of prestige in the family) in the hinterlands our country (especially) and their forceful heaving of their incomplete desires on their children. As a consequence, the children don’t have a choice but to become an engineer or a doctor or an MBA for that matter!

Emraan Hashmi is called Rakesh Singh aka Rocky (Not Balboa). So, it is funny how his inception in the film is with a fight scene inside a movie theatre! Having said that, his is good in every scene. He does exactly what is expected from him in the script. He holds on to his character and lives it to the end!

Honestly, there is not much to say about the film. More than the performances, it is the script to blame and the flat and boring treatment is to blame!

Shreya Dhanwantary hasn’t been given screen time at all. She is almost reduced to nothing. Well, the lure of sharing the screen space with Emraan Hashmi was more than enough for her to portray this shoddy role. Not until almost the last frames in the film do, we know whether she has to do anything in the film. Well, at least - she does something instead of occasionally appearing in front of the Camera and casting a lovestruck coy smile! The conclusion of the film too was confusing. Which one would the audiences take? None of it was impactful! The director seemed confounded between serving the hope for a good future and showcasing the reality!

The music in the film wasn’t of any good either, besides the reprise of the Bappi Lahiri hit ‘Dil Mein Ho Tum” Nothing special to be spoken about in the cinematography either! I still remember, it is at the occasion of a wedding in Rakesh’s family that he starts playing the harmonium and sing a song. I was wondering why couldn’t I hear one note of the harmonium as opposed to the other instruments that were audible in the track. – It was too darn funny!! Another scene which gave me a wierd feeling is why would anyone dabbling in such humongous amount of black money, stack it up inside a room like some concrete money wall behind the guard of a merely locked door. DOn't you think, stacking the currency notes inside a dug up wall or somewhere underground is a more plausiible thing to do?! In the film, the policeman knocks open the door to find a stacked mountain of cash inside the room! Slow Claps!!!

The only thing about this film that I perhaps liked was the fact that the intricate details of the exam cheating mafia was brought out in the open and with a lot of integrity! This indeed is a content heavy film but the way the content was served was not interesting at all!