Making a comeback after a long gap of 8 years (post WE ARE FAMILY in 2010) director Siddharth Malhotra brings yet another official adaptation (of Brad Cohen’s autobiographical book FRONT OF THE CLASS: How Tourette Syndrome Made Me the Teacher I Never Had, also adapted as a TV film with the same title) and delivers a much better film addressing the younger audience in particular. Based on the life experiences of a character suffering from a neurological condition called Tourette Syndrome, in which a person unintentionally keeps making weird sounds or body movements, HICHKI has a breezing first half and a moving second resulting in a really good watch.
Sharing the plusses, where the initial hour of the film wins over the viewer with its fresh and unpredictable subject, the final hour easily connects through emotions despite becoming predictable and formulaic in terms of story progression. Particularly the childhood and school sequences are a treat to watch with an excellent choice of the child artist and then we have Rani Mukerji taking it over as a complete pro. Rani delivers another natural, career best performance returning to the screen and you never find her putting a conscious effort or over doing the weird mannerisms, for which both the actor and her director deserve an equal praise.
The well-chosen supporting cast adds to the overall impact beautifully, including Neeraj Kabi (as the opposing teacher), Shivkumar Subramaniam (the Principal), Supriya Pilgaonkar (mother), Sachin (father), Hussain Dalal (Brother) and all actors playing the young students. Would specifically like to mention the scenes between the special daughter and her father accepting his failure after years. Both the cinematography and background score add to the overall feel of the film, but the few songs (as usual) remains average in spite of having some catchy grooves.
Coming to the downers, the desired impact of the rare medical condition gets severely diluted as the writer-director incorporates two inspired subjects in the same film bowing down to the commercial needs. At one end it has the theme of Tourette Syndrome, officially adapted from Brad Cohen’s autobiographical book (mentioned in the beginning). And on the other, forcibly brings in a routine plot of rebellion students strongly reminding you of a similar FREEDOM WRITERS (2007), which interestingly was also based on a book written by a teacher titled THE FREEDOM WRITERS DIARY based on real life events. In addition it also makes you recall the classic TO SIR, WITH LOVE (1967) having an identical theme.
As a result HICHKI turns out to more than good, emotional watch, but far away from a realistic film talking about a rare syndrome and the protagonist’s struggles to overcome it with courage. Especially the climax could have been a lot better avoiding the sudden jump turning it into a forced biographical project.
Having said that, the film still is a winner because of its several heart-warming moments and all fabulous performances led by Rani Mukerji. Besides it successfully delivers the message that, ‘There are no bad students, only bad teachers’ and can easily be shown to all kids in their educational institutes as a positive, motivational film for sure.
Also it scores some extra brownie points as we don’t have many Hindi films with a female lead character, made on the subject of school students, teachers and their relationship without going into the typical romantic zone as usual. Plus it indeed shows a great amount of thought put in while working out the detailing, specifically in the timing of making those unusual sounds and actions in between the given dialogues. And these two exclusive features of the film are nothing short of a worth appreciating achievement in the present scenario of Hindi Cinema in my personal opinion.
So do for it and have a good emotional time with the entire family.
Rating : 3.5 / 5 (with an additional 0.5 for not forcing any romance into it.)
