How do you make an inspirational movie about a not so well known mathematician/teacher for the mainstream audience and also manage to get them to the theaters? The team behind Hrithik Roshan starrer “Super 30” show you how.
With Bollywood heartthrob Roshan making a comeback in cinemas after a gap of two and a half years, his fans and followers see him asserting a character he has never, in his career spanning almost 20 years, impersonated. Roshan plays Anand Kumar (an educationist and a mathematician from Patna, Bihar) in this biopic based on Kumar’s life as a student turned instructor and the first ever batch of economically underprivileged students he began teaching for free at a school which would later be popularly known as “Super 30.”
The plot, which begins in narration, first takes us back to 1996 when Kumar is a student from an economically deprived family. Kumar manages to get an admission at the prestigious University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom but try as they might, his family is unable to raise enough funds for him to travel there. This is followed by a family tragedy and a sequence of events that force him to give up mathematics and sell papads for a living. Fate changes for him one day on a chance meeting with Lallan Singh (Aditya Shrivastava), CEO of Excellence Coaching. His journey then continuous from a desperate papad salesman, to a star tutor at a commercial coaching center and finally to a patron of a group of 30 bright students from the most impoverished families in the state.
“Super 30” is all about the sacrifice and perseverance of Anand Kumar and his family who give up what could have been a wealth and lavish life to teach and raise underprivileged children. The filmmakers have taken a gamble by making an inspirational film on people usually sidelined in mainstream Bollywood and a story that is usually the subject of low-budget independent films or art cinema. Having said that, they sure have taken the liberty of adding far-fetched sequences just to keep the multiplex audience entertained and despite all its subtlety, “Super 30” does have its larger-than-life moments.
Talking about sacrifices, the one that Roshan has made to give life to Anand Kumar’s character, cannot go unnoticed. Roshan, known for his chiseled Greek God-like physique, plays a Bollywood ‘anti-hero’ in the form of Kumar. He has evidently bulked up for the role, shunning his 8-pack abs and diamond-cut face, to look his part of a regular mathematics teacher. And believe it or not, he does not dance at all in the movie. Something surprising for all Roshan fans.
But where Roshan is found wanting is in dialogue delivery. For as much effort as he puts into his physical appearance, Roshan somewhat falls flat when it comes to emulating the iconic “Bihari” tone of speaking. Especially in scenes paired against the talented Pankaj Tripathi (Devraj Jagan Safdurjang, a local minister), Roshan’s Bihari accent sounds painfully assumed and not amusing at all. At a time when Bollywood has seen its fair share of Bihari characters portrayed by the likes of Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Manoj Bajpayee, Roshan’s Anand Kumar, despite all the intensity he brings to the required scenes, is not as assertive.
Who should watch it?
“Super 30” is certainly an inspirational film that makes the audience feel thankful for the privileged lives they have been living. So students, teachers, parents and movie enthusiasts, everyone can enjoy it. Fans of a flexing and grooving Hrithik Roshan might want to give it a miss though, for Roshan does nothing of that sort in “Super 30.”
Genre: Biography/Drama
Director: Vikas Bahl
Run time: 155 minutes
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Pankaj Tripathi, Aditya Shrivastava
Rating: 2.5 stars
