mOVIE & eNTERTAINMENT

Direction: K. D. Satyam

Cast: Anupam Kher, Ankur Khanna, Ashish Vidyarthi, Rati Agnihotri, Sudesh Berry, Abhishek Sharma, Dushyant Raj Bhardwaj, Ravi Pandey

Music: Amit Trivedi

Synopsis: 3 Idiots, Pathshala and now Admissions Open, nowadays the trend is to make films about the present Indian education system. Taking a hint from the previous two movies, this film also tries to bring out the fact that students or rather the youth should be allowed to pursue their own dreams. Well, the idea was noble but alas what came out was a confused juxtaposition and mixture of sequences which ultimately made Admissions Open a headache for the audience. It makes us wonder what sheer ambition drives directors and producers to make such movies which are expected to flop the moment they release.

Review: From the very first scene of Admissions Open, you feel nothing but sorry for the audience who have paid for the ticket. Mismatching characters, ill knit plot construction, and irrelevant song sequences, you have everything to make it a flop movie. In the first half, the movie at least makes a try to raise some relevant questions about our society and education system but all goes wasted in the next half where we find some aimless youths trying to pursue weird dreams and ambitions.

K. D. Satyam seems to have done a blind man’s job while directing this movie. Neither are there any directorial skills nor some good screenplay or scripting. It just takes you through a confusing journey where you get more perplexed rather than aware of the present day issues.

Let us come to the story now. It’s more or less the same old plot. Prof Tariq Siddiqi (Anupam Kher) does not believe in the conventional education system and wants to start a college where students get the freedom to pursue their ambition. Cut to Arjun (Ankur Khanna), a student who feels his creativity is being suppressed by the stereotype education system and wants to go against it. All is well and he accepts Prof Siddiqi as guru. Together they start a college named SPIRIT (South Pune Institute of Research and Information Technology). Well and what we have there? We see no teachers or professors and Ankur and his men run the college. Together they sing, dance, and take classes on cooking, seduction, politics etc etc. No exams, no reviews, no certificates nothing. It makes you wonder: is this how the education system needs to be changed?

If there is any positive thing in the film, it has to be Anupam Kher’s acting. Although he gets very little chance, he at least tries to prove his skills. Ashish Vidyarthi only wears bright shirts and goes on drinking. Not much acting to talk about.

The music is absolutely letdown. Amit Trivedi who had created such great tracks in Dev D actually does not get a chance to do anything. All that we have are some meaningless tunes punched irrelevantly into the plot.

Lastly it must be said that even if you wish to waste money, there are other ways to do it than watching Admissions Open.