I was a HUGE fan of the show The O.C. back in the day, not least because of the incredible music on the show. The music supervisor for The O.C. was legendary in finding new cool bands to feature. Thanks to The O.C. I learned about Imogen Heap, Spoon, Phantom Planet, and the list goes on. I bought every one of the six soundtrack Mix albums. But an all-time favorite is Mix #3, the Chrismukkah album.
Chrismukkah is the best holiday ever, and Seth Cohen of The O.C. gave a name to just what we do in my house. My husband is Jewish, and I grew up Christian so we do both. I sent many a Chrismukkah card after The O.C. episode that perfectly described our family’s combo celebration (Oh, Seth Cohen how I miss you!):
While we’ll always have the Wham! original, this is my favorite cover of Last Christmas by Jimmy Eat World:
This is my second favorite song from the Chrismukkah album. Maybe This Christmas by Ron Sexsmith:
And my reaction was just like this one I saw on Tumblr:
“student of the year 2!!!”
“…starring tiger shroff”
I have yet to see a Tiger Shroff movie (and I hear I’m not missing much). But he is a good dancer:
I looked back at my original Student of the Year review, and it’s quite the time capsule. I wasn’t into Indian cinema when it came out in 2012. I saw it in November of 2014, and it was my first introduction to Alia Bhatt, Siddarth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan. (Whatever happened to that Fault In Our Stars remake?)
It was curiosity about Varun Dhawan, who has been cast as a lead in the Bollywood remake of Fault in Our Stars (with Deepika), that led me to check out this Karan Johar film. SOTY is set at a junior college where the gay dean (Rishi Kapoor) has an annual contest for, you guessed it, the Student of the Year to win a scholarship to an international college. And this contest is not just academic, there is a triathlon, a scavenger hunt AND a dance contest. The film begins with the group of former students gathering at the hospital bedside of the dying dean, and then flashes back 10 years in the past.
Evidently, it was quite notable that Karan Johar debuted several young actors and actresses in this film, rather than matching one unknown with an established actor/actress. Of the students, only the college vamp is played by a familiar face, Sana Saeed albeit when she was a child actress in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai as little Anjuli.
This film reminds me of John Hughes films of the 80’s with the rich kids pitted against the scholarship kids from the Indian equivalent to the wrong side of the tracks. Or Gossip Girl or The O.C., etc. Karan Johar is just SO good at setting up melodramatic love triangles. Varun is the rich kid and Sidharth Molhotra the scholarship kid, and Alia Bhatt plays the rich girl that they both love. I had not seen any films with these three young new actors, and while all are good, Sidharth Molhotra’s performance is the standout. (Seems like all the Indian awards agreed, nominating him for best male debut.) Very Ben MacKenzie (a la O.C.) silently pining over the rich girl while trying to act all tough.
Also notable was a supporting role by Kayoze Irani who gets a big “Go to Hell Dean” speech near the end, who it turns out is Boman Irani’s son. Huh, fancy that, a child of a Bollywood star getting a role in a KJo film. 😉 Boman, Kajol and Farah Khan all have cameo appearances.
Fairly predicable plot with the Bollywood emphasis more on the bromance of the two male leads than on the romance of Sidharth and Alia’s characters. Karan Johar is masterful at taking you on that emotional journey, and I tip my hat to him. Very entertaining and enjoyable.
I gave the film three and a half stars back then, out of five.
What’s fascinating to me is how I wasn’t that impressed with Varun and Alia, and they have gone on to mature so much more over the subsequent years in film. Alia blew me away in Highway and in Udta Punjab. Varun just was off the chain in Badlapur and fantastic in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania and Main Tera Hero. We got a hint of Varun’s great dancing in SOTY, but he was so good in ABCD2, and worth watching even if the plot wasn’t. Siddarth tried to do more dramatic work, in Brothers, and Kapoor and Sons, but he just doesn’t seem to have the chops of the other two. But that’s okay – he’s carved out a niche as the strong silent type in romantic movies like Hasee Toh Phasee and the upcoming Baar Baar Dekho.
Thank you Karan, for giving us all three young new stars. And for this. Always for this:
I was a HUGE fan of the show The O.C. back in the day, not least because of the incredible music on the show. The music supervisor for The O.C. was legendary in finding new cool bands to feature. Thanks to The O.C. I learned about Imogen Heap, Spoon, Phantom Planet, and the list goes on. I bought every one of the six soundtrack Mix albums. But an all-time favorite is Mix #3, the Chrismukkah album.
Pardesi Reviews 