Just not what the doctor ordered!

Summer 2007
Director: Sunil Tatari
Cast: Sikandar Kher, Gul Panag, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: *

Meet the Academy of Inane, Irritatingly Miscast Class of Students (AIIMS). These are the cool, carefree, "we don't want politics", PSP brand of yuppies.

Never mind that none of the actors can actually pull off the above given attributes. Never mind that they look old enough to be actually playing teachers and not the students they are supposed to be.

Never mind that they belong to the first of its kind medical college where students spend more time in canteens than classrooms, pranks related to dead bodies is just a way to have fun, where examinations are unheard of, where students are so stupid that you wonder how they got admission in the first place and where they actually get to 'choose' when they want to go on an internship (rural training in this case), even if its in the middle of a term. How cool is that!

Yeah, yeah. I know. I have no regards for the 'anything goes' kind of filmmaking. I do not hold convenient screenplay very high in regard. How dare I look for logic! If the film fails to strike a hint of a chord, what's wrong with that?

The film has a cause, that of farmer suicides, at its premise after all! No matter that the handling of an issue dealing with the death of 1,50,000 farmers is immature, no matter that it looks forced and just a tool to further the story towards an illogical finale. How dare I not like it! It's meaningful cinema after all!

It's wrong of me to expect the film to be even mildly entertaining in the first half and a sensitive reflection of the times in the second. It's wrong that I don't find done-to-death jokes about a 'despo' losing his virginity funny. Why should I think that it's so not 'cool' to be using words like babes and bastard. Isn't that what all youngsters do?

Who cares about good writing? How dare I feel that it's a waste of energy to get into the intricate technical aspects of the film? I owe an apology to the makers. I should not think that the film doesn't deserve the time, money and sensibilities of an Indian viewer?

So what if all it ends up looking like is a wannabe 'Rang De Basanti'? It's stupid of me to think that there won't be people belonging to the 'Gen-X' crowd out there who could actually be adventurous enough to go watch this summer- monsoon-whatever flick a go.

Only tip: Fix an appointment with the shrink before hand.

g_aniruddha@dnaindia.net