In the last few years, writers and directors in Hindi cinema have thankfully found the courage to go for fresh relevant subjects raising important social issues. But they have sadly always executed them half-heartedly on screen, with a lukewarm approach avoiding playing with fire for the obvious commercial reasons.
WHY CHEAT INDIA is yet again a project practicing the same, missing the bull’s eye, which it easily could have attained, boldly addressing the issue asking the crucial questions. But as usual the film badly falters in its writing, never presents the issue with any clarity and thus simply kills a great opportunity of offering a meaningful, socially relevant film to the viewers.
Directed by Soumik Sen, it tackles a highly relatable and significant subject of ‘arranged cheating in competitive exams’ and ‘papers leaked by the middlemen’ involved in the illegal business. The crime widely happens all over the country and we have repeatedly read about it in the newspapers in the last many years. The questions about such leaks constantly keep arising and the matter easily gets slipped under the carpet moving on to other supposedly more important ‘religious issues’ in the country as an accepted norm. As a result, at present we really cannot say whether the doctor, lawyer, CA or any other professional we are consulting is truly practicing on a legal degree or not.
The confusion is right there all over the society and the same confusion is visibly there in this casually made film too which remains highly dependable on big cinematic liberties and is unable to decide whether to present its leading man Emraan Hashmi as a negative or positive character in front of his fan/audience. So even when we see him doing all the wrong things in the entire film, he still gets to say some well written moral lines in the end standing in the court, sounding like a messiah for the society, satisfying his identity of a filmy hero.
Besides, the writing as well the background score is never interested in presenting the film as any exciting, thrilling ride revolving around a merciless conman. Instead it goes on pretty slowly without creating any kind of tension or urgency in the proceedings and you never feel like watching a film telling the story of a conman smartly and fearlessly playing with the education system. It does gain the much required momentum in its second half but till then the damage is already done putting the viewers off.
Hence, despite having a highly potential plot, WHY CHEAT INDIA fails to pick up anytime in its two hours long duration and marginally manages to cover up in its final moments. Among the merits include the performances of Emraan Hashmi, Snighadeep Chatterjee as Sattu and Shreya Dhanwanthary as Sattu’s sister giving you something to watch. Plus it’s good to see that the makers at least showed the spirit to back a film based on such an off-beat, risky and social subject.
Looking at the positives, the change is right here considering the subjects of our new-age Hindi films chosen with courage or guts, and a few well-made, powerful films are sure to come in the future conceived with the right vision. But till then you can try watching WHY CHEAT INDIA on the online portals soon giving it a fair chance, but a visit to the nearly multiplex is not recommended.
Ironically, just before the release of the film, a WHY was added to its title by the Censors making it WHY CHEAT INDIA, converting it into a moral-theoretical question with no solution as usual!
To be honest, here we don't write much about the noteworthy issues raised by a flop film.
So as WHY CHEAT INDIA doesn’t really work and isn’t going to be any big hit too, hence no write-up, newspaper, website and journalist will care to ask the questions raised by the film, about who is actually responsible for this tragic state of our competitive exams, quota system and employment opportunities in the country since last couple of decades.
In reality, this is where the question needs to be raised in front of the young students of the nation, asking them, “How’s the Josh?”
Give it a thought!
Rating : 2 / 5
