Just a couple of days ago, I read a news where a boy committed suicide because his father couldn’t afford to buy him an iPad for his online studies. The boy had scored 75 plus in his board exam but unfortunately had to take his life. The reason I am sharing this is that this and many other such stories tell a lot about the flaws in our nation. The gap between the rich and poor is increasing day by day and in the film Pareeksha, it has been explored perfectly by Prakash Jha.
There have been many Bollywood films which talked about the flawed education system of our country be it films like Hindi Medium, Cheat India, Super 30 and many more. No doubt these films were on point but their storytelling was a bit glamorous exploring the comic theme in the story. But Prakash Jha’s recent release Pareeksha is close to reality and will give a proper take on the flaws of our system and the problems faced by the economically backward classes of the society.
The film follows the story of a Buchi (Adil Hussain), a rickshaw puller in the countryside of Ranchi, and his struggles in giving his only son the best possible education. Buchi and his wife Radhika (Priyanka Bose) work quite hard to give their best to provide their son Bulbul (Shubham Jha), the best possible lifestyle. Their only dream is that their son should not end up like them struggling all over his life. The story takes a complicated turn when Buchi wants his son to get his son admitted to an elite institution and circumstances lead us to a deep journey in what goes on for the economically backward to achieve good and quality education in the nation.
There’s one such Marathi film with a similar premise, it is called Taani. But Jha’s Pareeksha is not an inspiration for this film, it is his perspective which he has experienced himself. The film marks the best performance by the whole cast, especially Adil Hussain. The film is on point and does justice to its subject. We, as an audience, must definitely support such good cinema and content. Do watch Pareeksha, streaming on Zee5.
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