Students of this Year !

Karan Johar is back with his directorial cap for his 5th film as a director. Karan's last films KKHH, K3G, KANK and MNIK proved to be blockbusters (barring KANK) with his trademark "K" and "SRK" factor. This time he jumps out of all his superstitions and his father's wordings - "Whenever you make a film, be sure that SRK is there in it", and directs a bunch of youngsters, newcomers, celeb-kids and his own assistants in a film titled SOTY (Student of the Year) . . . Why not title it as "Person of the Year" (POTY) as the end results would suit the abbreviated title pretty well ! This youth-romcom stars Siddharth Malhotra (Karan's assistant in MNIK), Varun Dhawan (David Dhawan's son and again Karan's assistant in MNIK) and 19-years old Alia Bhatt (Mahesh Bhatt and Soni Razdan's daughter).

Rohan Nanda (Varun Dhawan) is the son of a business tycoon and has a complex relationship with his father, Ashok Nanda (Ram Kapoor). Rohan's only hope is to win the "Student of the Year" (SOTY) trophy, a competition which his college conducts every year, to prove himself to his father. Abhimanyu Singh (Siddharth Malhotra) comes from a middle-class family and wants to achieve great heights in his life and winning the "SOTY" trophy would be his stepping stone. The two comes face to face in every competition and instantly becomes the rivals and the most powerful contenders of the trophy. As both of them has a soft-side their ego-rivalry unexpectedly turns into a great bond of friendship when they discovered the similarities between their lives and start sharing their hearts. Shanaya Singhania (Alia Bhatt), the most famous girl of college is the childhood sweetheart of Rohan but they don;t love each other. Abhimanyu gets attracted towards Shanaya and her reciprocation causes a rift between Abhimanyu and Rohan and they again become rivals of each other. Now the main focus is on the SOTY trophy and the rivals' face off in every competition to prove themselves best. Who will be the "Student of the Year" is the part you'll be thrilled about.

After MNIK, the cliched expectations were a notch higher from Karan Johar. SOTY would easily be a disappointment for KJo's fans. When you watch the promos, you'll be assured to be served the romance like KKHH complimented by the school-life competition just like "Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar" (trademarks). SOTY looks like a film made by one of the assistants of KJo and lacks that intensity which you expect in a KJo film. The direction is good, the screenplay is kept air-tight but the script lacks the potential and the indigestible climax down-slides the film. An imaginary college where a cool professor teaches "love", where curriculum is not important, where homo-sexuality is very common, where everything you imagined about your college rests is a Karan Johar style but this one looks more of a FANTASY film.

The newcomers looks as newcomers and performs averagely good. There's one man you're going to love the most is Rishi Kapoor as Dean Yoginder Vashisht (a gay-dean). A never-seen-before act and Rishi Kapoor is flawless with his performance. All the other actors except the main lead are worth praising, be it Kayoze Irani, the fat guy (Boman Irani's son), Manjot Singh, Ram Kapoor, Ronit Roy, Farida Jalal, Sanyam.

The music suits the fantasy-environment of the film and Vishal-Shekhar have done a fabulous job. "Radha", "Disco Deewane", "Ishq Wala Love" are topping the charts. The film's quite well in technicalities.
It has collected 27 crores in its first weekend. The film is going well with the youth as was targeted. Watch only if you want to relax and relive the memories of your school-life, else it is avoidable.