In one of the scenes in Why Cheat India, we see the faces of anxious 18 and 19-year-olds in an examination hall. As their worried parents wait outside, the teenagers place auspicious flowers on their desks before starting to write. In another, a father tells his son to stir the milk well before drinking, so that the nutrition powder is consumed well by his IIT aspirant son. In yet another, a teacher in a coaching class assigns seats to students from the new batches. The top-scorers get the front row; the under-performers are sent to the last. One student, relegated to the backbench, commits suicide.
Why Cheat India is a film that makes an effort to showcase the life of aspiring students of competitive exams (engineering and medical). In the portrayal of most aspects, like the stress and the nerves, the film is bang on. But, the movie, which features Kota (popular city in Rajasthan, the hub of coaching centres) in prominence, is not just about the distraught kids and their parents.
Rakesh Singh (Emraan Hashmi) aka Rocky is a scam artist. As someone who failed three attempts to finish his medical entrance exams, he works around the desperation of the aspirants and their parents. If he makes money through the rich by giving them an opportunity to qualify the entrance exams through fraudulence, he tricks the bright-but-deprived to become part of his racket by luring them with money.
Rocky is a Robin Hood figure for the students. He emphasises that the system is at fault and not him. He has suffered at its hands. He knows it, and so he manipulates. Hashmi, with his smug smile, is a perfect Rocky.
Parallel to this, the film focuses on the story of Satyendra ‘Sattu’ Dubey (Snighdadeep Chatterjee), one of the aspirants studying in Kota. Sattu’s father has taken a loan to coach him for his entrance exam and pins hope entirely on the outcome. The film opens with Sattu’s story as a voiceover, telling us about his daily routine. He studies and he sleeps. Even the toothpaste is brought to him by the housekeeper, as he does not want to waste time going to the market. These arrangements come at a price. Sattu has to pay off the loan for the tuitions, earn enough to pay back his father, and also think about his elder sister’s marriage. If he is studying hard to achieve all of it, Rocky has other plans for him. Sattu’s sister, played by debutante Shreya Dhanwantri, remains a constant in the story.
Greed is good, Rocky emphasises, channeling his inner Gordon Gekko. He expands his fraudulent business to MBAs, as he moves to Mumbai to explore the opportunity. The film raises the question—is he really the hero, or is he a villain trying too hard to become the hero? Somewhere in between, the narrative gets all confused.
From a shy and reticent small-town girl, Shreya soon shifts to a chic avatar. A film featuring Hashmi can’t conclude without a romantic angle, and kissing scenes (oh yes, there is one). But, towards the end, the film falters and becomes headless. It tries to sermonise, in balancing out the tropes of a masala film. The director and co-writer, Soumik Sen, loses the plot somewhere in between, making a good idea a tepidly handled one.
Film: Why Cheat India
Director: Soumik Sen
Starring: Emraan Hashmi, Shreya Dhanwanthari
Rating: 2.5/5
