Never Ending Movie Carnival
Never Ending Movie Carnival
Crash Course review: Compelling binge watch on the commercialization of education
What: Crash Course – Amazon Prime Video’s take on the commercialization of education adapts a populist thriller drama approach but it’s a compelling binge watch.
OTT web series Crash Course synopsis
The 10-episode drama traces the journey of IT aspirants Vidhi Gupta (Anushka Kaushik), Sathya Srinivasan (Hridhu Haroon), Anil Baid (Mohit Solanki), Aviral Bharti (Bhavesh Balchandani), Rakesh Gulia (Aryan Singh), Tejal Patel (Hetal Gada), Nikki Kapoor (Anvesha Vij) and a medical student Riddhi Kumar (Shanaya Qazi).
All are friends and except Tejal, all the other IT aspirants are students of the famous top ranked RJ institute owned by Ratanraj Jindal (Annu Kapoor). Tejal is the student of the rival Batra Institute founded by the father of IT education in Kota - Arvind Batra (Siddharth Kak).
Batra Institute is run by his son Shashank Batra (Bhanu Uday).
In spite all efforts, the year’s triple victory march ( hatrick) of RJ Institute students gaining the top no 1 position in the toppers list is stopped by the Batra institute. Students from Batra Institute gain the top 1 and 2 positions, thanks to their physic professor Ashutosh Kumar aka AK (Pranay Pachauri).
Ratanraj Jindal (Annu Kapoor) wants RJ to lead and deliver an IT topper any cost. Dirty games between Jindal and Batra begins, and on the other side the IT gang of Vidhi etc struggle with various pressures to stay in the rank.
The characters find themselves in a thrilling web of love, lust, loyalty, betrayal, jealousy, fear, guilt etc. will morality find any space in this mad game of greed and fame.
TVF ki jai ho.. thoda Kota Factory mangao usmein thoda Aspirant milao, phir student suicide ka sensation ka tadka lagao aur is sab ko college/hostel atmosphere ke chule mein dheemi aach pe pakao – crash course is ready.
The influence is there but creator Manish Hariprasad and director Vijay Maurya give us a compelling binge watch series if we are not having huge expectations like those IT institutes or over ambitious parents of those poor students.
The fictional story set in realistic locations successfully points towards the commercialization of education and also brings forward the horrors of study pressure on students.
The hostel essence is right. The series gives personal attention to all characters especially the student and everyone has a convincing story which connects with the audience.
Everyone - Vidhi Gupta (Anushka Kaushik), Sathya Srinivasan (Hridhu Haroon), Anil Baid (Mohit Solanki), Aviral Bharti (Bhavesh Balchandani), Rakesh Gulia (Aryan Singh), Tejal Patel (Hetal Gada), Nikki Kapoor (Anvesha Vij) and a Riddhi Kumar (Shanaya Qazi) have their story and at times their stories get interconnected that maintains the interest and adds the human side to the whole scenario. That’s the major USP.
However, thankfully there is no to and fro kind of narration, the series moves smoothly.
At times predictable and at times surprising Crash Course is a mix bag of emotions backed by some really superb performances.
Annu Kapoor is perfect. Shashank Batra is okay. Udit Arora excels as Binny. Pranay Pachauri is fantastic.
From the students, Anushka Kaushik leads with a fabulous performance, followed by Hridhu Haroon, Mohit Solanki, Bhavesh Balchandani, Aryan Singh, Hetal Gada, Anvesha Vij and Riddhi Kumar.
Good support comes in from Bidita, Gaurav Sharma, Chirag Vohra, Vasuki and Gaurav Sharma.
It was great to see Siddharth Kak as Arvind Batra
Flaws
Crash Course lacks the overall winning sweep. It touches the issue of morality but fails to dwell deep into. Some things happen as per the writer director’s wish.
Final words
Enjoyed Aspirants, Kota Factory then give Crash Course a try. You won’t be disappointed if you are not expecting too much.
A child born from life & fed by cinema. A filmi keeda from child & a film journalist for the last fifteen years. a father, seeker, foodie who loves crooning bollywood melodies twitter.com/cineblues More By vishal verma