Good concept, poorly executed.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

I have a confession to make (actually two!): I am not much of a Bollywood fan but do selectively watch Hindi movies and this one delivered a great storyline. I can safely say I'd only watch a movie with Aamir Khan as actor/director and anything Mr. Jha turns out! Secondly, this is my first review and I felt like writing one as, sadly, the theater was kinda empty. And I hope that ALL of Mr. Jha's movies do well.The movie beautifully integrates the stand of a man of principles, the reservation issue, the thirst for education among the masses across all sections of society and the mess that our education system in India is! Well thought out in terms of the chessboard like moves that the "baddies" would make and the ultimate requirement of galvanizing the public so that the protagonist would have to achieve a breakthrough.Please do find a way to watch this movie despite the ban. Thankfully it wasn't banned in Goa - just got back from watching it! I've seen reviews claiming the run-time of 2:45 mins is a deterrent, but it doesn't slow down anywhere and run off-course so it was fine by me.

Aarakshan is a film revolving around the highly controversial subject of affirmative action in India's higher education system. When the Supreme Court rules that reserved seating for "backward castes" has been increased greatly, along with all of India, the nation's most prestigious university polarizes into two groups, one for the ruling and one against it. This leaves the diplomatic, fair-grounded principal, Amitabh, torn between the two sides.The role of Dr. Prabhakar Anand was tailor-made for Amitabh Bachchan, and he, and only he, could pull it off so naturally and with so much grace. Saif Ali Khan was completely miscast. The role of a poor, struggling, pro-affirmative action, hard-worker could not be well- portrayed by the royal Nawab Pathan. Deepika Padukone acted wonderfully as does her mother in the film. Manoj Bajpai was good as well.What I personally liked the most about the movie is seeing how much India respects and values a good education. Rich, poor, toppers, and "failures" all recognize that one must get the best education possible in order to succeed in life. Amitabh clearly portrayed this feeling in his performance. Though, some parts, especially the final portions, were quite filmi.So, ultimately, who is right? Are the rich hogging all the university seats? Are the poor being discriminated against and not getting a chance to pursue higher studies? Or are low-scorers being given a free ride without having the merit? Then, can the upper caste ever imagine what those in the slums are going through? Is caste identification encouraging the caste system? The film and its protagonist do take a stance on this controversial matter. Everyone has their opinion. Some might even be persuaded one way or the other by the film. I, too, have my views but won't used IMDb as a political outlet. Save that for another blog, I guess.

Idealistic, traditionalistic, wannabe appealing to the urbanized segment of Indian society. Amitabh Bacchan is just the principal that every school would dream of. A perfectly lovely family (wife/ daughter) and home. An extremely caring daughter and wife. To top it all, a fan following in society based on his passion and sincerity for education. But perfect pictures don't remain so and thus the devil plays his role. Lewd, unworthy and unreal talking on part of students, colleagues, politicians etc. Felt a little unreal a God few days back, Amitabh is being cussed, cursed and abused even by his own students. The Knight in shining armor- Saif comes to salvage the situation. There is a lot of crude talking in the movie. I feel the stance of the wife is a little unrealistic- having lost everything because of her husband, she is always beaming, gleaming and peacefully by his side. Thus human emotions have been put aside to build quite the ideal image. As and when a movie does get to be so, I lose interest because it stops feeling like real or something I could relate to. The Plot can be divided in 3 parts: Plot 1: All is well. Hunky dory. Lovely family, lovely house, good relationships, respect and repute Plot 2: All that could possibly go down does go down. But Amitabh with his ideals keeps persisting in life. Never failing to show up Plot 3: Starts to build on his respect and reliability once again. The movie ends not showing that a man could change the world with his ideals. It shows a powerful woman (Hema Malini) pulling a few strings and thus being able to get Amitabh his lost esteem, repute and credibility. So the role of politicians is still shown as being stronger and just by luck if you know the biggest fish, things do tend to go your way. The students didn't feel educated. I liked the general ambiance of their home. I liked the ability to mobilize people. India's strength is it's people. The film quite powerfully shows the strength of people. This movie also is indicative to people movements and how involvement of the common man can steer decision making. People strength and publicity are the only two things Indian politicians fear as on date.

When i went for this movie, i had zero expectations. But i was blown away by the movie. The movie starts with building each character slowly and then the story premise. With time, the movie's momentum builds further and at interval, you have a real cracker of a movie on. Post interval, the movie proceeds on the momentum built before interval giving lots of twists in the story. The Climax is a masterstroke and the movie finally ends on high note. Of all the performance, Amitabh steam rolls and holds the movie completely like a rock. Can't imagine anyone could have done justice to this role. Saif and Deepika also excel in their respective roles. The director's screenplay is another thing that impressed me. He does not over dramatize any scenes but stills keeps the impact strong. I do have to agree with others who say that this movie is less about reservation and more about the commercialization of education in India, but the director beautifully conveys how the reservation(or aarakshan) is resulting in commercialization of education. People who say the trailer of the movie conveys different thing about the movie, they should go and see the trailer correctly once more. The trailer tells exactly the correct preview of the movie, which includes the commercialization of education. This movie tells a story where it tells one the bad result of reservation. Go and see the movie, i can tell you wont be disappointed. Its a gripping story.