Aarakshan

Story:

Aarakshan is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language political drama film starring Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, Manoj Bajpayee, Deepika Padukone, and Prateik Babbar. Directed by Prakash Jha, the film is a socio-political drama based on the controversial policy of caste based reservations in Indian government jobs and educational institutions. The film was released on 12 August 2011 to mostly mixed reviews. It was a Below Average grosser at the box office.

PLOT

In 2008, Deepak Kumar (Saif Ali Khan), an MSc topper, is at an interview for the teacher’s post at an affluent school. The interviewers turn him down when they discover his low-caste roots. Deepak relates the incident to his mentor, Dr. Prabhakar Anand (Amitabh Bachchan). Dr. Anand, the legendary principal of renowned STM college, where Deepak studied, offers Deepak an interim job as a teacher at STM. Deepak is comforted by his friend, Sushant (Prateik Babbar), an upper-caste boy, and his girlfriend Poorvi (Deepika Padukone), who is Dr. Anand’s daughter.

The state minister, Baburam, wishes to enroll his no-good nephew at STM. Dr. Anand, however, turns him down. The minister decides to install his own man, Dr. Mithilesh Singh (Manoj Bajpayee), on the STM college board. Cunning and greedy, Mithilesh seeks only to enrich himself. The minister’s ambition is to build a multi-billion educational conglomerate and plans to use Mithilesh’s outside business—a coaching class—for it.

The Supreme Court grants reservations for Other Backward Classes. A large crowd of STM students, boisterously celebrating the ruling, arrive at the gates of STM and create ruckus. Sushant gathers a group of upper-caste boys and tries to drive off the revellers. Dr. Anand hauls Deepak and Sushant, but is shocked to find that Deepak has turned on him. Poorvi later confronts Deepak and asks him to apologise to her father, but he refuses, leading to their break-up.

The backward classes welcome reservations because it provides additional opportunities for education. The upper classes are against reservations because they do not believe in effectiveness of Reservation System. These arguments are played out between Sushant and Deepak. The moderate STM administrators are afraid that college-level reservations may create conflicts between the students. When asked by a reporter, Dr. Anand shares his personal opinion – that some form of reservation, free of politics and economics, is good for society. The next day’s headlines scream that Dr. Anand favours reservations. The STM board is outraged; Dr. Anand is warned that Mithilesh will use this to oust him. Dr. Anand resigns from STM, and Mithilesh is appointed as the new principal. Sushant soon realizes that Dr. Anand’s intention is not bad and that he does not have caste feeling.

Dr. Anand, to his shock, finds that his house is being used for K.K coaching classes, which is linked to Mithilesh. Earlier Dr. Anand had signed as guarantor for the bank loan taken by his friend, and allowing his friend’s sons to stay in that house for 2 years but they use it to earn money by allowing K.K coaching classes inside the house. Dr. Anand’s house lands in civil court case and no lawyer is ready to go against Mithilesh. Meanwhile, Deepak, who is in United States, finds that Dr. Anand has resigned from STM and immediately comes to India. An enraged Deepak goes to that house and takes law into his own hands by trying to evacuate people related to K.K coaching classes. Police arrest Deepak, but later Deepak gets released on bail by Sushant.

Dr. Anand resolves to take out Mithilesh with the only weapon left: teaching. He approaches his friend, Shambhu the cowherd, and takes shelter at the tabela (cowshed). He begins teaching small groups of needy and backward students from the bastee (nearby neighbourhood), at the cowshed. His first success is Muniya (Aanchal Munjal), Shambhu’s daughter who comes in first place in the board exam. Muniya’s principal offers to send more students to Dr. Anand’s tabela school. Deepak and Sushant return to Dr. Anand and join forces, teaching at the tabela school. The tabela students fare much better in exams than their classmates. The tabela school’s reputation grows and begins to draw away students from Mithilesh’s coaching class.

Mithilesh responds by obtaining a legal permit to demolish the cowshed. The situation is diffused by the arrival of Shakuntala Tai, the reclusive magnate who started the STM institutions. She calls the chief minister, who promptly averts the destruction of the cowshed. Mithilesh is dismissed, and Dr. Anand is reinstated as the chief trustee of the STM and lifelong principal of the newly created STM Remedial Center.