Aarakshan

"There's no business like education."
As I strive to achieve higher learning thru cinema, this Bollywood drama, titled AARAKSHAN, came across my DVD player. If I were to believe the majority of Bollywood pictures, then life in India must ever be rife with vibrant colors and epic song and dance and sweeping, passionate romances. And that's cool. I love that. Once in a while, though, a Hindi filmmaker will wander into more thought-provoking territory. He or she will try to shine a light on this or that relevant social issue. AARAKSHAN has something to say about the state of education in India, and it says it strongly enough that its screening was banned in the states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra. And since I'm one of them lemmings easily led by star power, this movie was savvy to feature India mega-stars Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, and the so very stunning Deepika Padukone.

AARAKSHAN translated means "reservation." And here's a quote off the DVD cover: "Reservation helps the marginalized people to...

Interesting, informative, not very entertaining.
Very interesting information about corruption and politics in India's educational system. Unfortunately it's rarely an involving or entertaining movie; it never goes beyond polemics. Too bad, a good movie about the subject could be amazing.



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