‘Why Cheat India’ review: Good film but wonder why ‘why’ was added to the title? 

Amid a spate of so called patriotic films on the occasion of the Republic Day, comes a film which projects the real picture of the present day Indian youth.

It’s a great feeling to see a person who gained popularity as a serial kisser evolve into a serious actor. I must confess, earlier I had a strong dislike for Emraan Hashmi, but over the years, this dislike has turned into an admiration for the way he has grown as an actor.

But first thing first. It's not easy to make a meaningful film about our education film, ridden with flaws and corruption. The director Soumik Sen deserves praise and hats off to the scriptwriter( Soumik Sen happens to be the scriptwriter too) who handled such a complex and delicate issue with such deftness.

It's still easy to make films with a positive comment like Three Idiots and Taare Zameen Paron the method of education, which of course is faulty. But it's very difficult to comment on present education system which poses serious survival challenges to the students, since the entire system is so muddled up that quality and talent have drowned in the burden of degrees and the ‘official proofs of your capabilities’ rather than the capabilities themselves.

The good thing about the film is that it does not pass judgment, (in fact, at times it seems to justify the cheating network) it rather presents multiple aspects of a situation.

Emraan Hashmi has been playing grey characters for long and in this film he comes across as a seasoned one. The characterisation of the main characters is excellent: the anti hero, the corrupt politicians, the honest government officials, the corrupt officials, the middle class fathers who change their opinions about their sons and daughters according to their material and professional 'success’, the talented and ambitious lower middle class youths and the stooges of our corrupt anti hero--all are projected in undertones, in a life-like manner where not much is spoken, but a lot is understood or perceived in the silence between words.

The dialogues like ‘ladka aur kuch nahi karega to pakaude to bech hi lega’ , ‘Kya neta chunne ka entrance hota hai’, and many others are bound to strike a chord with the teenagers who are burdened with so many upcoming entrance exams.

It was a pleasure to hear the lead singer of Agnee after a long time. The song 'aajkal ke bachche…tayari kar rhe hain..’ is melodious and haunting.

On the flip side, the film may be criticised for creating a kind of sympathy for a scamster, who creates an intelligently woven network for cheating in the entrance exams. You tend to sympathise with this corrupt though intelligent racketeer because he himself is a product of our education system and the yardsticks of success that our middle class has come to imbibe as a result of this system.

But well, it apparently doesn't justify cheating instead the entire environment of the film presents a sad state of our youngsters.

Though not a masterpiece, the film is interesting and daring. Go, watch it, you will like it.