Varun Grover who has served as a lyricist and writer in many Bollywood films made his debut as a director with the film All India Rank. Varun Grover fails to crack the entrance exam (his debut as a director) & tumbles down in the exam ranking (film-making) chart.
All India Rank feels like a long boring docu-drama, despite having a runtime of only 100 minutes. The screenplay is very slow and tests your patience to the next level. The slow paced screenplay doesn’t let the film to move forward.
Bodhisattva Sharma plays the lead role in this film. He gives a promising performance and the character of Vivek suits his personality. His expressions and dialogue delivery are upto the mark. Samta Sudiksha plays the role of a career focused girl and Vivek’s love interest. She acts well, but her character did not seem to be effective. Geeta Agarwal is a wonderful actor and has already portrayed such characters in her past. This was a tailor made role for him. Shashi Bhushan is brilliant as Vivek’s father. Sheeba Chadha lights up the environment with her screen presence. She has been given the most important scenes in the film. We all need a teacher like Sheeba in our real life. The remaining cast is good. The casting director has done a wonderful job by bringing such a talented bunch of actors together.
In the film, the main character Vivek’s father forces him to prepare for IIT and it seemed like someone forced Varun Grover to make this dull film. Varun has not made a promising start to his career and should focus only on writing script and lyrics for which he is best known for. His direction lacks intelligence. Varun Grover tried to showcase his brilliant skills in direction, but failed. He was clueless most of the time.
The writing is very bad and dead. The writers have added many unnecessary scenes which were of no use. The whole story of Saadat Khan aka Shawn Michaels which proved a very small thing in the end was terrible. This seemed like a story of a frustrated child rather than being that of a student. There were hardly any moments which looked enjoyable. There was hardly any engaging moment which made the scene look interesting.
The film has 3 to 4 songs which disturb the narrative. Though all the songs are situational, they feel irritating. The music is unnecessarily added just to follow the regular Bollywood pattern.
Adding a love story out of nowhere has become a tradition for Bollywood filmmakers, and AIR makers have done the same thing. Not a single conflict, problem or event looks compatible in the storyline. Each and everything looks scattered.
The dialogues were a mixture of deep and dull thoughts. There are some dialogues which are thought provoking, while the majority of them feel like a long boring philosophical lecture. The classroom scenes including Sheeba Chadha are enjoyable in parts.
Compared to 12th Fail, AIR lacks emotional depth and an inspiring storyline. 12th Fail was not a story of an individual but it talked about each and every student out there. The film 12th Fail was like a mirror to the society where everyone saw their reflection in it. The film was perfect from both the perspective, i.e student as well as his family
Overall All India Rank is that film which doesn’t offer anything to viewers. The film also fails to inspire and looks like a film made without any motive. The film fails to reflect the image of a student and the struggle which they go through. Skip it to save your time, energy and money.
Rating – 2/5*
