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The idea is hype-unlimited. Over the last many months, mediocre stuff from Amazon Prime Video has been continually hyped as “successful” by the platform and their aficionados. The latest in the lot is Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya, after a dubious spread like Stolen, Subedaar, Matka King, Raakh, System and more denote a downward spiral, certainly in quality, even assuming some success was there for one or two of the above.
This latest saga to be touted as victorious with the audience is the story of a Delhi school, located in the downmarket precinct of Tinki Toli. Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya is struggling to find its place with its strange assortment of students (especially in Class 10) and teachers. When the headmaster, Gyaneshwar Tripathy, comes to know that he will be sent abroad with family as a reward if his school gets good results in Standard 10, he gets ambitious. His wife, Sushma (Prachee Shah) has never complained of any shortfall in their life, but he would like to take her for a great holiday like this for the first time in their 25 years of marriage.
But the current situation is grave, and the uphill journey with both the students and school finances full of stumbles. The school, among other things, lacks basic facilities like a water filter and funds for kheer (given during mealtimes to the students) will be curtailed if a filter is purchased! There is a chaotic bunch of students, including a politician Goldy Randhawa (Deven Bhojani)’s brat who makes a teacher follow his commands, as he know his ‘dark’ secret: of an innocuous but embarrassing source of additional income.
Gyaneshwar himself has permanently antagonized his sister-in-law, Urmila (Archana Puran Singh) by refusing her hand in marriage 25 years ago. She still harbors that grudge and becomes a key factor in deciding the future of the school (and therefore of Gyaneshwar) as she is spokesperson and accessory to Goldy.
We have a coterie of students and some even more mercurial set of parents (the neighborhood is lower middle-class), some of whom are so economically constrained that they prefer their children to work and earn, rather than waste time in education! As for the kids, we have Palak (Akshara Padwal), who has issues with her teacher dad Mukul (Naveen Kasturia), Kuttan (Ashwanth Ashokkumar) who is considered a scholar, Purva (Nabiya Ansari), the clever one, and the “khurchan” (that which can be scraped off) or the lowest rung in marks. which mainly comprise of four kids. These kid actors and others all act well, and the actors playing Palak and Kuttan stand out among them.
The teachers are an eclectic lot. Prasanna Bisht is Kanchan, an idealistic girl who thinks that students cannot be discriminated on the basis of their academic records. Annapurna Soni is Sharma ma’am, a lady who is shy (Sharma, get it?) of teaching sex education to the children, who are, as is the case today, quite sexually aware. Abhimanyu Singh is Hansraj, the man who thinks that physical retribution is the only way for recalcitrant or backward students. Then we have the over-eager Shiney-sir (Ajitesh Gupta), who is a dyslexic. The humor about his condition is meant to amuse and create awareness, but fails. Dyslexia needs serious awareness, and must not be employed so frivolously as a fount of humor.
Another area that is dealt with facetiously in the name of humor is sex education. This is one topic that needed sober treatment rather than the way it is depicted here, though what is shown might be happening in real life.
The battle of conscience that Gyaneshwar has when he discriminates between students as a device for his school shining in the results is the sole redeeming point in the series. It showcases how even those good souls among teachers who should know better tend to discriminate between backward and good students.
The director triumphs in casting many a principal actor against type apart from generally extracting good performances from everyone. Kay Kay Menon is superb as Gyaneshwar as the meek and mild headmaster, ditto Abhimanyu Singh as Hansraj, the coconut-like hard-outside- soft-inside teacher. Deven Bhojani scores yet another triumph as the uncouth and uneducated Goldy after his astounding turn in the recent Dhabkaaro in Gujarati cinema. Archana Puran Singh outdoes her own brilliant act in Toaster as the vindictive Urmila. Naveen Kasturia as Mukul Dengla is excellent.
Wish he had better judgment about the script, which is considerably ‘pun’ny but finally mundane with its absurdities and illogic.
Technically alright (the production design by Prashant Ray and Shraddha V. Vasugavade and art direction by Mahek Rastogi specially score), the film’s guitar-based background music by Sunny M.R. is oh-so-stereotypical and often distracts and pulls down from the emotional mood of the proceedings. It is my long-standing lament that the over-use of this instrument has impoverished background scores beyond measure—and possibly redemption. When this happens with light shows like Panchayat, Gullak or Gram Chikitsalay, they achieve a high degree of monontony!
All-in-all, despite good performances, the series fails to reach where it should have with its aim and theme. A potentially social hard-hitter comes across as a tepid and superficial exercise, often descending to a flippant level.
Rating: **1/2 (Just About)
Amazon Prime Video presents Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya Created by: Sameer Saxena & Biswapati Sarkar Produced by: Amit Golani, Saurabh Khanna & Sameer Saxena Directed by: Himank Gaur Written by: Biswapati Sarkar, Akshay Asthana, Nupur Pai, Tatsat Pandey, Sameer Saxena, Meghna Srivastava & Rahul Hemrajani Music: Sunny M.R. Starring: Kay Kay Menon, Archana Puran Singh, Abhimanyu Singh, Prachee Shah, Naveen Kasturia, Deven Bhojani, Prasanna Bisht, Ajitesh Gupta, Annapurna Soni, Akshara Padwal, Aryan Prajapati, Nabiya Ansari & others
