You ever been to a food court? Yeah and you ever got that feeling, you want to eat everything all at once. You end up ordering a veg. burger from McDonalds, 2 pieces chicken from KFC and pani poori from Bombay Chowpaty. At the end of your meal, you feel like the chicken piece that you’d eaten was a vegetarian who had eaten pani poori just before he was slaughtered. Paatshala is like that feeling. At least after that kind of meal, you get some entertainment playing ‘Guess what did I have for dinner?’ game, every time you burp. With Paatshala, I’m still guessing @#$%$ “What the F@#$ was it all about???”
Seriously, this movie seems to be like a typical house wife’s grocery shopping trip. Milind (Director) says to Hanif (Writer) “Dude, did you try this new education subject. My wife tells me it’s really nice. She saw TZP and 3 idiots really liked them.” Hanif sets out in the supermarket and first gets Education from the subject shelf.
Later in the story maker section, he enters the key word “Education” and clicks on the FIND RELATED THEMES button. He gets a whole lot of results – Children, Teenage romance, crush on teachers, typical accent teachers, school fees rising, profession vs. commercialization debate, talent hunts, reality TV shows for kids and a whole lot of similar stuff. He clicks on buy all for special price…
You have Shahid as a school teacher, Ayesha Takia as another, Nana Patekar as the ethical principal, a whole bunch of child actors – the Fanaa boy, the Cheeni Kum girl, the Balika Vadhu girl and they don’t even have proper characters or roles. The popular Balika Vadhu girl doesn’t even get a single dialogue on screen. Few cute teenagers as well are in there but just like passing sideys, I don’t even remember any of their names in the movie. That’s why I say it is like a housewife’s shopping trip. The director put in everything in the bag not having any proper role for any of them.
And this was just the beginning of clichés; the hero’s name is Rahul, he teaches music, rather holds the guitar as a mannequin and it strums itself, sings songs, makes the entire school happy, girls have a crush on him, teaches cool handshakes to everyone from students to stuck-up geography and hindi teachers… and all this in the first 10 minutes in a happy song. An ugly kid doesn’t have any friends; the PE teacher is always punctual and carries a stop-watch everywhere; the peon is the good old Wagle (Wagle ki duniya), the principal is ethical, the school trustees are money minded, even the school’s name is “Saraswati Vidya Mandir” and what else could be the movie’s name – Paathshala. You see, how original everything is.
And listen to this, the writer forgot to pick a music director from the supermarket so he himself makes up some ordinary songs.
There’s no purpose, there’s no flow in the script and no sense to the whole hullabaloo on screen. And if that’s not enough, the climax is a 5 minute long lecture by the righteous principal about education, commercialization of schools yada yada yada. It’s so bad, you can’t even doze off.
U help us save some bucks Rakesh … thank u 😛
me: I’ve told u so many times, send me some!
i dnt think the movie is such a bad…..its full of senti but ya a real life story as well……n ofcourse no harm in spending just 200 bucks for a gud movie…..
me: well Jagdish, to each his own, I guess…
a real life story!
which part? rofl
I cn buy a gud book with the same 😛
ROFL… the review was damn good
i mean the way u wrote it awesome
but i have a question, WHY DID U SEE THIS MOVIE ANYWAYS???
me: Actually wanted to see Prince to write something funny 😛 But wasn’t playing at the time so saw this one. As you can see, wasn’t disappointed 🙂
Exactly! Why? Just so that you can write a fancy review? 😉
Well in that case, lets have one for Prince as well….
me: he he… My wife refuses to accompany me to see Prince
ha ha ha
yes yes lets have it for prince as well 😉
You know some movies are boring and meaningless – by just hearing the movie-name or the names of the cast, or by one look at the promos …. this is how this one is. Easy to imagine it being boring.
TZP and Three Idiots were good and we need many more education related movies – I guess that is more of Amir Khan’s cup of tea…
me: Yeah but 3 idiots wasn’t really that great a message.
The header looks nice!
me: Did u see the full version? It’s on facebook!
LOL !!! I knew it !!! I knew this movie was going to be a hell to sit through ! Somehow, except Kaminey, none of Shahids movies had excited me to watch in the big screen. Unfortunately, had to watch Dil bole hadippa because of fiance pressure ! 😀 😀
Very well written review. Loved the comparisons to the food court and a house wifes grocery shopping. Though I thought IHM would object to it saying- Shouldnt it be home maker ? Why is it that only wifes are expected to go for grocery shopping, etc.? 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
me: he he! You’re really after IHM after you’ve got married! Kiska gussa kis par 😛
Hey vimmuuu…
Ummm u the doing grocery shopping is it??? 😉 😉 😉 hehehe..
Dil Bole hadippa was torture indeed, esp since i had seen the original english better version few million times!!thanks to Star movies
As the self appointed new Chairperson of the Blogging Controversy Control of India I take note of this comment.
me: Yes IHM, please keep your eyes on Masood and Vimmu – you’re noting book will be full 😛
Shahid, today i watch your paathshala movie first show in theater, its best and your performance is outstanding, it’s my view, but may people hat this movie.
hey
1. welcome back. seems like its been ages since your last post! 🙂
2. cool review.. laughed thru the read.. atleast u saved us some bucks and offered free entertainment…
Yesterday another friend in Dbx saw n said stay away..today warned a friend , but she has gone to movies saying she likes the music!! oh well ..
me: send me some of those bucks!
Oh hey..woww.. u into James Patterson as well!awesome..do let me know how the book is.. not read it yet!! 😀
me: Nope, not really into JP, just picked this one up as it seemed interesting. It is actually very interesting in terms of the way it is written. Not much realistic proof though.
Oops, keep remembering stuff after clicking on Submit!! hehe
Saw this wacko movie called The men who stare at goats… seen it? also saw the mushy run of the mill romantic When in Rome.. and today saw a heart breaking tear jerker adorable Hachiko [dog based]
ok.. think this is it.. toodle dooo 🙂 🙂
me: I haven’t seen either of the three. Was wondering whether this Men who stare at goats would be interesting… Hows it?
Why is everyone bashing Paathshaala? Its one of the better movies since TZP. More here…
http://www.interval.in/videos.php?id=146020
Interval.in | Dekho.in
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Hehe there is a reason for everything….u watched a flop but we got a wonderful review 😀
me: 🙂
Had never planned to watch this movie. Review made for a good reading, though. 🙂
Talking of cliches, your return to blogosphere after so long must be called punarjanm! 😛
me: he he… Yeah punarjanam
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Aarti ♥. Aarti ♥ said: @Avni_Iyer -A friends review on Pathshala – http://bit.ly/ddDCwx […]
Welcome back! If it takes a terrible film to get you to start blogging, I think we shall see many more reviews from you this year…..
Did I mention this was a great review? 🙂
Cheers,
The Quirky Indian
me: somehow, I seem to find such movies even though they last only for a week
Hahahahaha! that was hilarious. Thank you….a much-needed break from my dull-as-dishwater job 🙂
me: I thought, Dishwaters get to taste everything, no? 😛
Yes…mostly muck 😦
seriously i dont know why many people are bashing about this movie. i really enjoyed lead due shahid n ayesha they r very sexy imo 😉
Reading your review is any day more entertaining than watching movies like Paathshaala! Seriously,Rakesh, absolutely loved the read. You cracked me up in the very para. Too good!
Mazaa aa gaya! Paisa wasool..I mean broadband connection ka 😀 😀
me: New profile pic 🙂
badi tez nazar hai!!
Paathshala-such a pathetic, direction less, low grade movie, asking director-Milind Ukey & Producer-Ahmed Khan to give our money (Rs.350)bak
Can any one provide me the email id for both director and producer
Someone please make that Shahid Kapur chapad ganju disappear. Can’t stand his fake antics, fake bums, fake everything.
I think the only message this movie gave was “after seeing Paathshaala you can write zabardasth reviews on your blog”
Thank goodness I opted to watch Johnny Depp instead of this mess of a Shahid!!!
I think this movie was based on a true story right?!?!?
made me cry:[
still true thing going on in india!!!!!
public needs to stop spending money for stupid stuff
they should spend it on poor schools, to have better staff and good education!!!!
this was boring cuz no one cares about poor people and how they are treated!!!
Crappy movie – Shahid acted like a total dope. He’s the biggest fake going in Bollywood
I have seen this movie and it was not a bad one. But i was expecting much more in the storyline than what i have seen. Paathshala was a decent movie. Shahid and Nana Patekar were the ones who kept the movie flowing but the script was too weak.