All India Rank Review

Set in the late 1990s, when India was coming to terms with new ambitions, consumerism and upward mobility, All India Rank (AIR) is a semi-autobiographical story about a 17-year-old boy toiling in a prep school in the coaching hell of Kota, hoping to get into an IIT ("the MIT of India").

The debutante director, Varun Grover, is an IIT-BHU alumnus. He has also already established himself as a poet, a national award-winning lyricist, a scriptwriter, a stand-up comedian, a political satirist and an occasional actor. This is the man who wrote the lyrics of the stunning song "Moh Moh Ke Dhaage", and gave us that unforgettable dialogue "saala yeh dukh kahe khatam nahin hota bey", which has become meme material for a million social media posts. With AIR he makes his film-making debut, and it's even more proof of his talent - and a fitting fruition for all the effort that went into it (the movie was 10 years in the making, and was shelved many times).

The plot is simple and relatable. RK (Shashi Bhushan) believes that an IIT seat is the panacea for all deprivation, and breaks his fixed deposits to sends his son Vivek (Bodhisattva Sharma) from Lucknow to Kota to prepare for the entrance exam. He insists that his son dedicate himself to cracking the exam by studying as much as humanly possible. The son tries, but life and hormones keep getting in the way. Vivek's mother, Manju (Gita Agarwal), is torn in between.

This seemingly simple plot has many sub-plots that enrich the movie - a hostel, the classrooms, an STD booth and more. Each sub-plot is quirky, and has a make-believe appeal to it. The central character, Vivek, metamorphoses through the two-year journey and comes to make peace with life, deciding that it is ultimately more than an exam. From "IIT is everything", he evolves to "Everything is pointless. So, just have fun, and f#ck IIT."

Meanwhile, his parents have their own coming-of-age journey. RK and Manju display a peculiar middle-class mix of hope and helplessness. RK's unhappiness, insecurities at work, and feeling that his existence will be validated by Vivek's performance appear silly, but that is genuinely the world that he lives in. He believes that just because Vivek had topped his village school, he will also succeed in cracking the IIT entrance, and stakes his all on it, putting incredible pressure on the son. Manju has a keener understanding of her son's struggle, but her opinion carries little weight. However, the movie shows how they too come to slowly understand that the canvas of life is vast and that there's much more to life than just cracking an entrance exam. The parallel evolution of Vivek and his parents is the most poignant part of the film.

The idea of a student struggling to pass a notoriously competitive exam has been milked several times earlier, from the landmark series Kota Factory to Crash Course, Aspirants and 12th Fail, but AIR still feels fresh. While it offers a nuanced portrayal of the intense pressures surrounding India's competitive exams, the movie is not preachy about the academic grind, and only paints a relatable picture of the stress, doubt and resilience of confused youths. It is not looking to celebrate or castigate; instead, it entreats the youth that it's okay to be confused, to wander, and even to stay lost, so that eventually they can find the path that connects their hearts to their heads.

While as mentioned earlier the story is not exceptionally new, the screenplay and world-building make it enjoyable. The scenes of Vivek and his friends exploring life from salivation to salvation, riddled with adult magazines, arcade games, pinup posters, Doordarshan references (Flop Show, Discovery of India, etc.), and 90s' romantic movie songs (from Saajan to Rangeela), make the film a great trip into nostalgia for all those active then. The '90s were the years before smartphones and the social media, and the film has Manju running an STD booth, with the conversations between Vivek and her usually ending with her brutally ending the call to stick to the pulse.

Sharma delivers a compelling performance, capturing the emotional turmoil most students of the country face at those junctions in their lives. Shashi Bhushan and Gita Agarwal as parents are natural actors whose characters also have an endearing coming-of-age feel as they start understanding the grind that their son is undergoing.

The soundtrack by Mayukh and Mainak adds depth to the story, with lyrics, written by the director himself, resonating long after the film ends. Here's an example:

Choice hi nahin bhai, choice hi nahin hai
Bolna toh bahut hai, par voice hi nahin hai

The dialogues also transport the viewer to those days. Sample a few:

RK to a fellow passenger: "IITians look civilised even in Bermudas and slippers."

Between Vivek and Manju:

Vivek: "Mummy, I don't want to stay here. This place sucks."
Manju: "You'll get used to it, son. And four minutes on the phone are almost up. Do you want to continue?"
Vivek: "No."

Between Vivek and RK:

RK: "How is your study going?"
Vivek: "I'm studying to my limits."
RK: "That's not enough. You have to study to the human limits."

Vivek to his friend: "No matter what father would say, all I'd hear was, IIT, IIT, IIT, IIT."

All India Rank is made with care, showing genuine understanding of the subject matter. It also offers plenty of 90s' nostalgia. If you relate to that period, this 97-minute movie won't disappoint you.