It takes a lot of time and tricks for a Bollywood underdog to gain a paw-hold. In Super 30, it takes almost three hours of rehearsed torture for the said dog to stand up and be counted.
He is made to salivate at MNC food on an empty stomach, sport a sooty look and stare at the supplies of the rich, sing a Sholay-inspired ‘Basanti, no dance in front of these dogs’ before a crowd of privileged English-speakers... And since it’s Hrithik Roshan who is leading the pack, it requires a generous coating of brown to keep the man in a safe tone zone.
Hrithik makes a lot of efforts to do justice to Anand Kumar — the real-life wizard of Bihar who helps poor students crack the entrance exam to prestigious IITs, 30 at a time. But all that grease does nothing to hide what our hero is known for. However much muck you dump, you still get a Greek god shining beneath the layers with green eyes. And that’s the irony of this well-meaning, feel-good film.
The casting mistake doesn’t seem to bother Hrithik. He moves around with a good spring in his step, whether it’s to sell papads or woo Mrunal Thakur (in a pretty good rich-girl act). And math is the secret of his energy.
The first half has enough stuff to stir one up, but the proceedings turn increasingly childish as the tale progresses. The mentor-student arithmetic goes all wrong when the director decides to make superhumans out of the kids. Suddenly, they seem more comfortable fighting Naxals and hurling bottle bombs than solving problems.
Super 30 is an earnest movie with a message, but the figures don’t add up somehow.