Paathshaala Movie Review
Choreographer-director-writer Ahmed Khan turns producer with ‘Paathshaala’ where Milind Ukey does a bland helming of a pious subject about pressures on children but the flick in its writing by the producer himself and dubious handling by the director sums up as a non touchy movie which is resolutely devoid of real drama and interesting characters.
The storytelling is suffused with sensitive pockets. To cite some examples - in one sequence the veteran sports teacher (played ably by Sushant Singh) gets together students to climb on one another to make a human pyramid for the sake of media coverage. The callousness of the freelance journalist as he talks into the cellphone while the students sweat it out in the sun, smothers your cynicism about such manipulative drama in the narrative.
Elsewhere, a little boy (Dwij Yadav) is made to stand in the sun for not paying the school fees. And then that decisive moment where a crass ad-maker reduces a little kid (Ali Haji) to tears, just chokes you.
The music reality show agent, who auditions the school kids as though they are fish to be fried straight from the market, is almost caricatural in his grotesque commercialism.
Then you realise that real life has sold out to a kind of vulgar self-gratification that makes it look more like a soap opera than the soaps that we see on television.
There is an inherent wisdom in the homilies that "Paathshaala" serves up so sincerely. The narration is so laidback and detoxicated you often wonder if the director believes that the inherent harmony of real life can only be captured in leisurely grace.
The sole miracles are Shahid and Nana who manage to keep few balls in the air. Other actors just pass musters but the flick comes with rich tech credits.
The storytelling is suffused with sensitive pockets. To cite some examples - in one sequence the veteran sports teacher (played ably by Sushant Singh) gets together students to climb on one another to make a human pyramid for the sake of media coverage. The callousness of the freelance journalist as he talks into the cellphone while the students sweat it out in the sun, smothers your cynicism about such manipulative drama in the narrative.
Elsewhere, a little boy (Dwij Yadav) is made to stand in the sun for not paying the school fees. And then that decisive moment where a crass ad-maker reduces a little kid (Ali Haji) to tears, just chokes you.
The music reality show agent, who auditions the school kids as though they are fish to be fried straight from the market, is almost caricatural in his grotesque commercialism.
Then you realise that real life has sold out to a kind of vulgar self-gratification that makes it look more like a soap opera than the soaps that we see on television.
There is an inherent wisdom in the homilies that "Paathshaala" serves up so sincerely. The narration is so laidback and detoxicated you often wonder if the director believes that the inherent harmony of real life can only be captured in leisurely grace.
The sole miracles are Shahid and Nana who manage to keep few balls in the air. Other actors just pass musters but the flick comes with rich tech credits.
