Aarakshan (2011)

Aarakshan: Directed by Prakash Jha. With Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, Manoj Bajpayee, Deepika Padukone. The decision by India’s supreme court to establish caste-based reservations for jobs in education causes conflict between a teacher and his mentor.

“As an American (now living in America, despite my profile), I occasionally go to Indian movies to sort of clear my head and watch a story told in a completely different way than most American movies. For this purpose, Aarakshan fit the bill just fine. In the controversy over the school entry quota, there was an obvious parallel to the controversy over affirmative action quotas in the U.S.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe story did drag on and on a bit. The bad guys, particularly the vice principal, were a bit too over-the-top evil, and the noble persecuted principal stuck to his guns so firmly that at some point (specifically at the point where he sent the boys away rather than invite them to help him tutor the poor children) he went from principled to sort of stubborn and stupid.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA few other random thoughts that distracted me during the movie: The u0026quot;Americanu0026quot; accent, if thatu0026#39;s what it was supposed to be, of the Cornell professor was truly lamentable. I laughed, I grimaced. It was awful.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn the scene where Sushant orders two coffees, it appears that the waitress delivers two glasses of milk.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe actor who played Prabhakar Anand, the university president, seemed too young for the character he played; the one who played low-caste love interest and firebrand student Deepak Kumar looked decidedly too old, especially when compared with the character of Sushant, who I assume was supposed to be the same age and who looked age-appropriate. I also found that u0026quot;Deepak Kumaru0026quot; looked gym-toned in a way that was attractive, but detracted from the verisimilitude of his character … and a further distraction was that to me he bears a strong resemblance to American comedian Robin Williams! u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWell, I told you these would be random comments. I did more or less enjoy watching the movie as a way to pass the afternoon, but it was no profound experience.”