Prakash Jha has made his niche as a film-maker making hard-hitting yet commercially palatable movies like Mrityudand, Gangajal and Apharan , which are steeped in strong North Indian rural ethos and based on burning socio-political ground realities. His last venture Rajneeti was an interesting modern take on the ancient epic Mahabharata and it once again highlighted his ability to handle a complex plot weaving a multitude of sub-plots, full of interesting characters. It also brought to fore his rare talent for picturizing some of the most astonishingly large-scale and realistic mob-scenes ever seen in Hindi cinema. So a buzz was but natural when he decided to make a film on the volatile issue of caste-based reservation in educational institutes and government services and that too, featuring Amitabh Bachchan in the central role.

Under the weight of these expectations, Aarakshan does well in the first half to keep us engrossed in a rapidly moving story, presenting many interesting inter-connected characters with different takes on the central issue of Aarakshan (Reservation). The story centres around an old, upright principal (Amitabh Bachchan) and his prestigious private autonomous university, which he is running with a fine blend of strict discipline and deep love for students. The turmoil begins when Supreme Court decision of backing the Mandal Commission report of caste-based reservation comes out. The decision literally fractures the fabric of friendship, which has so far bound the institute together. Suddenly the high caste students are crying foul for missing out because of unfair ‘reserved quota’ system and the lower caste students are hailing the decision for bringing in social justice, after hundreds of years of oppression. When the principal unwittingly utters his support for the court decision in an interview, he is hounded out by his opposite camp led by the crooked vice-principal (Manoj Bajpai). A chain of unfortunate events then forces the principal to stand alone against the socio-political system, in defence of the principles, which he has held dear all throughout his long, distinguished career. Will he be able to fight this lone battle? Will he be able to bring together the people led astray by politics of suspicion and hatred?

If only Jha had stuck to his main plot, the film could have turned out a really interesting one. But halfway through Jha decides to wrap up the ‘Arakshan’ discussion and then decides to focus entirely on the issue of money-driven coaching classes. So the second half turns out to be just a battle of the deposed principal starting a free coaching class to steal the thunder from the commercial coaching class, across the street!

Saif as the educational achiever championing the cause of the lower castes; Deepika as the principal’s spirited daughter (and Saif’s love-interest); Tanvi Azmi as the principal’s unquestioningly supportive wife; Pratiek Babbar as the happy-go-lucky student, disturbed over the ‘quota’-verdict; Manoj Bajpai as the scheming money-minded casteist educator; Saurabh Shukla as the unscrupulous minister; Vinay Apte as the double-speaking politician and Yashpal Sharma as the principal’s die-hard supporter are all well-played and well-etched characters. But the movie well and truly belongs to Amitabh Bachchan for delivering yet another solid performance. He must have played such characters n number of times but he still makes them believable every time.

If  Jha had called his film ‘Shikshan’ or ‘Shiksha’ (Education), it would have been more appropriate as he has successfully exposed the rapidly deteriorating Indian education system, beset by greedy administrators,  corrupt politicians, unethical teachers, desperate parents and frustrated students. He has also shown how the rut could be halted through the concerted efforts of well-meaning teachers, students, parents and government authorities. But on the titled central issue of ‘Arakshan’, he has just offered us different sides of the issue and left us to decide for ourselves. It is almost as if the title was chosen less to indicate the central theme and more to give a more controversial (read more audience-pulling) name to the movie!