When your movie is such that it shows the tale of poor people winning against all odds, when your movie is shown in such a way that people start applauding just before the intermission, then the movie definitely has something different.
Based on the trials and tribulations of mathematician Anand Kumar, ‘Super 30’ is directed by ‘Chillar Party’ and ‘Queen’ fame Vikas Bahl and stars Hrithik Roshan in the lead role, alongside actors like Pankaj Tripathi, Mrunal Thakur, Aditya Srivastava, Virendra Saxena, Nandish Singh, Amit Sadh etc.
The story focuses primarily on Anand Kumar, who is unable to pursue further studies at Cambridge University due to lack of funds and a massive tragedy that befalls his family. He is discovered by an ‘academician’ Lallan Singh, who admits him to his coaching academy, and soon he becomes the star of the academy.
However, Anand is shaken to the core when he sees a poor child’s dedication towards mathematics, and he sets out to educate those poor students, who are unable to pursue expensive IIT coachings. How he admits his batch of ‘Super 30’ to the prestigious IITs and how he successfully wins his battle against the state coaching mafia forms the crux of the film.
Everyone is well aware of the charismatic personality of Anand Kumar, who has ably sent many poor students to the prestigious IITs. The way ‘Super 30’ throws light on the struggles of Anand Kumar and his talented students is without doubt commendable in every aspect.
Super 30 is virtually agenda free and has a healthy narrative in its core. Vikas Bahl has thankfully avoided the route taken by films like ‘Mukkabaaz’, ‘Mulk’, and ‘Article 15’ etc. and has focused only on income inequality, thereby staying from unnecessary controversy.
In terms of acting, the principal actors of Super 30, have done a commendable job. Hrithik Roshan’s Bihari accent might make some people frown, but this cannot refute the fact that he has made an honest effort for getting into the role of Anand Kumar. The way he brought out the trials and tribulations of the real Anand Kumar on silver screen is certainly praiseworthy.
Apart from Hrithik, Virendra Saxena as Anand’s father, Nandish Singh as Anand’s younger brother, Aditya Srivastav as Lallan Singh have done justice to their roles. Even Mrunal Thakur and Amit Sadh, despite getting limited screentime, have made their mark in their respective roles of Ritu and Raghunath Bharat respectively.
However, there are some tiny little glitches too. If you’re presenting Bihar in the early 2000s, you need to be historically accurate as well. But that wasn’t so with Super 30. Apart from that, Mumbai filmmakers have continued with their wrong tradition of misrepresenting Bihar, evident clearly in this movie.
Apart from that and as already explained, Hrithik Roshan’s Bihari accent is a bit off the mark. People tend to confuse Govinda’s Bhojpuri gibberish in his 90s movies as proper Bihari accent which if anything is a caricature of the accent. In a way, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Pankaj Tripathi, one of the antagonists in the movie actually deserved to be in the lead role. Heck! He even looks like Anand Kumar.
However, despite the flaws, Super 30 is an extremely entertaining film, brimming with optimism. One should give this movie a try, which is an honest effort in terms of bringing Anand Kumar’s struggles on to the silver screen. I’d go for 3.5/5 stars for this one.