Why Cheat India
Is a film about corruption in the entrance examination system. It is a satirical take on the pressure on the students to get into medical / engineering/ business streams and the extent to which parents can go to ensure that their kids get there, most through moral and some through immoral means.
That’s about the only good thing in this film written and directed by Soumik Sen, i.e its theme. The splotchy execution just dilutes the message and it appears Sen was himself unsure what he wants to convey.
The story opens with an introduction to a lower-middle-class family in UP, with a desperate hardworking father who ensures his son studies in the hub of entrance exam preparation, Kota, inspite of a meagre income. When the son Sattu (Snighadeep Chatterjee) cracks the exam with excellent ranking, enters the scene our anti-hero Rakesh Singh( Hashmi) who lures brilliant students like Sattu to appear as proxy for affluent students in return for money.
Rocky runs this industry like a pro with a complete nexus including politicians, coaching institutions, students studying in colleges, police, touts and whatnots. He offers complete end to end solution starting from ensuring admissions, hand-holding through the ragging, helping them with internal examinations and ensuring degree.
While it seems the movie gives us some interesting insights into how the nexus operates, many aspects seem a little far fetched, or so I would like to believe.
Till the intermission, it seemed that the plot was building up ready to take off. But beyond that point, instead of taking off, it actually started going awry. MBA admissions angle made it jumbled and senseless. Rocky ‘s personal life angle worsened it all the more. And towards the end, the way Rocky tries to trash up the entrance examination system and justify what he does, it seems everything has gone haywire.
The patchy and jerky climax was the last nail in the coffin and muddled up any message that could have been possible.
There are two things one realises by the end of the movie- that one can successfully survive even bad movies and secondly Hashmi can successfully sell anything that he stars in.
There’s no doubt Hashmi can play conman characters very smoothly. This time, he balances well between the grey and mild shades of a man with conscience and heart. But the bad writing doesn’t let him get too far.
Hashmi fans can have their heart’s fill seeing him after long. The rest can easily give this one a miss.
Score 5 on 10