Cast: Irrfan Khan, Saba Qamar, Deepak Dobriyal

Director: Saket Chaudhary

Production: Bhushan Kumar, Krishna Kumar, Dinesh Vijan

Written by: Zeenat Lakhani, Saket Chaudhary
Genre: Drama/Comedy

Duration: 2h 30m

 

For people these days speaking fluently in English is prerequisite for survival. But that’s not the case everywhere in India. It is only necessary for those living in Indian metropolises, particularly in New Delhi, where people associate with you according to the car you are driving in or the brands you carry and wear. 

And it has all started with the slow disintegration of people’s core values, and because of which parents want to send their children to the best schools and best institutes irrespective of whether children need to be sent there or not.
It also goes without saying that parents will do everything they can to do it, making absurd and unexplainable sacrifices along the way.
Raj (Irrfan Khan) and Mita (Saba Qamar) are a couple residing in the most hectic and busy part of the Delhi, Chandni Chowk, and they want to send their daughter to what is considered to be one of the best schools in the city. Irrfan Khan’s performance does not need to be praised because it is remarkable in whatever role he takes on to play, BUT it is Saba Qamar who is the surprise here.
Director Saket Chaudhary’s casting is spot locking.

 The drama unfolds as they start looking for the best schools for their child in Delhi. The couple actually moves out from the low middle class dwellings of Chandni Chowk to South Delhi’s posh area called Vasant Vihar.
Mita, is very determined to get her daughter admitted to the Delhi Grammar School, where the principle Ms. Lodha (Amrita Singh) had maintained the image of a woman who’s a stickler for discipline and she is also known to be a tyrant.

The pressure these days, to survive shoulder to shoulder with an elite society is too real. Raj and Mita try every possible way to get their daughter admitted to the Delhi Grammar School but they fail. Finally they led to posturing as an impoverished couple to get their daughter admitted in the School of their choice, under the ‘Right To Education’ quota that is reserved for marginalized children.
They are not perturbed by the transgression they’ve chosen to take, as they are determined that their child should be sent to the best school in New Delhi.

In the new colony where they have moved, they’re introduced to Shyam Prakash. (Deepak Dobriyal) whose character is built around the idiom, ‘what you see is what you get’. In this film however, he doesn’t get to the level of performance or humor that we expect from him.

 Shyam and his wife help Raj and Mita to deal with their distress especially at the time when they are somehow able to succeed in fooling the interrogation team that comes to their house for due diligence.
Shyam goes to the extent of risking his life and he along with his family do everything within their means to help their new found friends, in getting their daughter admitted to the elite school.

The movie concludes with a powerful climax.

The most under-developed character is that of Amrita Singh who essays the role of a school principle, and who behaves in ways that are unfathomable; despite the fact that the audience is given a detailed lowdown on her character right at the beginning of the film.

The synchrony between both the actors is convincing and their struggle is worth the drama as well as the irony and humor.
Irrfan and Mita live up their characters and make sure that their daughter is given that opportunity which she will need to be able to give flight to her future. The irony in a serious situation like the interview, which parents have to go through for the admission of their children, instead of the children themselves, is an indelible point of the movie.