Pareeksha Review: This ‘Pareeksha’ doesn’t end with a good result, even though preparation was there.
Prakash Jha’s new film has a strong lead performance by Adil Hussain as the rickshaw driver, but doesn’t have the material to hold that
A university topper in B.Sc and Merit list holder in M.Sc, sitting in a job interview for a Professor’s job in the most expensive institutes of Central India, as told by the recruiter, where children of bureaucrats, politicians and VIPs come to study. So, the candidate is reminded again and again of his status and caste by repeatedly being questioned about his family’s background and ridiculed on its basis.
The candidate is a Dalit, as we get to know later in the film. This is the opening scene from Prakash Jha’s Aarakshan (2011), which tackled reservation issue most prominently apart from touching other issues such as privatization of education, quota system, and effects of caste and background on it.
That film released nine years ago. Jha’s latest film, Pareeksha — The Final Test, although based on issue of education and privatization, is a more personal story but is nowhere close to the filmmaker’s previous works.
The film introduces us to the three main characters in the film. It opens with Buchchi Paswan (Adil Hussain), cycle-rickshaw driver, carrying around 10 children on daily round trips to a private school, Sapphire International, which looks more a lavish hotel than a school (cliche #1).
His son Bulbul (Shubham Jha) is a bright student, which we hear from his father telling one of the teachers at that school but even if we are not sure, we are made to establish the fact, we see him studying even after the class is canceled, in the government school, he studies, whose condition is that pathetic by the standards of the image of government schools we have formed in our minds (cliche #2).
Lastly, we are introduced to Bulbul’s mother, Radhika (Priyanka Bose) works at a stainless steel factory, who has to work for half more day, as there is an order pending on the very day, we are introduced to her and she has to pick his son from the school (cliche #3).
The fact that Bulbul is such a bright student is fed to us again and again, that he teaches few children in his colony, he tops every exam, he answers every question that anyone has asked him, to test his knowledge, which looks more rehearsed than natural.
He studies in a government school, which follows the State Board Curriculum and will study the books of CBSE course as well, which Buchchi brought from the students of Sapphire, for whom these were a waste paper now since exams were over. And, according to him, this syllabus lets the students become successful Doctors, Engineers of the future.
So, he dreams of providing his son the best possible education. And, the dream doesn’t know either any limits of cost which will be incurred even to think, for fulfilling it or the source of the money to fulfill his dream.
Once he finds a Rs. 80,000 cash-filled wallet in his rickshaw (how convenient), which at least enables him to start the preparations for admission. Who keeps 80,000 cash in the wallet, and doesn’t even come back to inquire about it?
This is just one of the many screenplay conveniences. And the problem is, it just starts to increase from here on. Somehow, he gets the admission to the school and we are into the same old cliched mean comments and jibes by the snooty professor, his high-standard living classmates or the parents of those classmates, who remind Buchchi his place in the society when his son sat at the stipulated place of their son on the rickshaw by mistake.
Not just this, the dated notions of Board exam result is everything, only it makes our life are thrown in there, just for the sake of it. As the story isn’t that strong to support that argument for its own merit.
Wisdom doesn’t see your background, and it’s a real challenge to even dream of a good education, fulfilling it is another dream all together. And, money from illegal but simpler sources seems the best option, but we know that doesn’t end very well, more often than not. The same happens to Buchchi too, even if his intentions are not wrong, his way was wrong and has to face consequences for it.
Adil Hussain, with an inconsistent Bihari accent, especially at the start, gets better and better as the story progresses, giving us heart-warming moments and feel for him many times. He makes Buchchi very believable. His umpteen shots and sequences of carrying passengers on his rickshaw feel very real and authentic. Sanjay Suri in a small role as SP Kailash Anand and Priyanka as Buchchi’s wife, provide able support, but the script doesn’t give them room to rise above its mediocrity.
The themes, which the film deals with, have enough in them to be a gritty melodrama. However, it gets too melodramatic for its own good and melodrama doesn’t hold because the dish isn’t baked properly and is served to us, which is a shame, given the calibre of the actors at hand.
Films like Aarakshan, Super 30, have earlier explored themes of corruption in education and how it has become a business for most and deserving are not given an opportunity. But, the redundancy just like our education system in these films, isn’t helping anyone’s cause. Director Prakash Jha’s come back to Direction, although well-intended, stands on the same old arguments and stance, which he took nine years ago. It worked then, however, they don’t now.
Now streaming on Zee5
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