Student of the Year 2 – Movie Review

“Din Tera Tha, Saal Mera Hoga!” And there’s no denying that Karan Johar’s production house Dharma Productions had an amazing year so far from the underwhelming patriotic snoozefest, Kesari to one of the worst films of the year in Kalank and now with SOTY 2 they keep topping themselves with one garbage movie after another and continue to torment the audience with their happy-go-lucky brash Bollywood drama. Directed by Punit Malhotra, the sequel to the 2012 cringefest, Student of the Year, stars Tiger Shroff in the lead role with newcomers Tara Sutaria and Ananya Panday filling in the roles of girlfriend #1 and girlfriend #2.

The storyline kicks off with Saint Teresa’s wacko version of Bruce Buffer (Oh! I’m sorry, the college dean) announcing the Dignity Cup competition, an inter-college tournament in Dehradun comprising a wide variety of sports fixtures from Javelin throw to Kabaddi. Our high-flying and parkour aficionado, Rohan (Tiger Shroff), who belongs to a lower-tier college in the city trains to win the tournament and subsequently gets admission to get into Saint Teresa which has been his lifelong dream. Transitioning into the new “flamboyant” college, he spends most of his time getting embarrassed by Shreya (Ananya Panday), hooking up with his girlfriend Mia (Tara Sutaria), training hard for the competition and most importantly not giving any importance to education and attending classes. As the tedious narrative moves advances on a snail’s pace, things happen, and our beloved protagonist plays the victim of many and decides to take revenge and teach everyone a lesson.

Before I go off on a deep tangent explaining the negatives and making an effort to recollect whatever positives to appreciate, let’s take a step back and remember that Punit Malhotra directed I Hate Luv Storys and Gori Tere Pyaar Mein in 2010 and 2013 respectively. Like, I at least had the slightest hope that this man will try to redeem himself from the sins he committed in the past. Silly Me!

The storyline of the film, which I’m sure you’ve heard and seen a million times before, is easily predictable. The good guy overcoming all the odds to beat the bad guy was rewritten and told in multiple different iterations before. But, this feel-good story could have been narrated (with a little effort) in an interesting way. However, writer Arshad Sayed takes this conventional storyline and turns into a dreary and unexciting community college play which makes you feel dull and questions the daft choices you’ve made when thinking about watching this immature college-drama. Even the humdrum moronic music, Ananya’s foolish pranks, Tara’s empty gazes nor Tiger’s acrobatic abilities try to make an effort to pick you up from this lifeless mess as you will be left in the dark with no options other than shouting “I Quit!”

And it only gets worse. Yet another major drawback is the film’s confusing screenplay, which doesn’t have a direct route inside and out. It gets muddled with a puzzling love triangle, which for the most part doesn’t do any favors or develops an appealing relationship between person A and B and person C and A. The generic dialogues (which we’ll see those futuristic Chinese robots speak in the upcoming years), monotonous characters and the mind-numbing subplots only buries this film deeper in the sand which made the biggest 10-year old Tiger Shroff fan sitting beside me walk away with dejection after the movie ended. Nevertheless, the performances were barely decent from the entire cast. Debutant actors Tara Sutaria and Ananya Panday were tolerable through and through. Tiger Shroff does the obvious acrobatic feats that he’s good at. Running, jumping, flying, failing at portraying his emotions, making sure his abs always looked good on-camera. Thank U, Next!

Overall, I wonder what kind of ridiculous message this movie is trying to portray to the “younger” demographic cause the narrative is as thick as two short planks. SOTY 2 is an easily forgettable and an equally aggravating movie to watch. Although the movie tried to entice me by depositing The Hookup Song feat. Alia Bhatt during the end credits, I walked past the door to console the little Tiger Shroff fan, but, he is nowhere to be found. Maybe, he’s much better at running just like his idol.