May 24-26, 2019, was a bad weekend for Bollywood films in North America, both in terms of performance and available information. None of the popular resources reported box office data for either De De Pyaar De or Student of the Year 2.
The three Hindi films for which info exists all did poorly. India’s Most Wanted opened in 110 theaters and earned just $98,322 ($894 average), according to Box Office Mojo. The other new release — PM Narendra Modi — earned $52,643 from 49 theaters ($1,074 average), per Bollywood Hungama. And Photograph‘s second-weekend expansion into 123 theaters resulted in $130,750 in earnings ($1,063 average), bringing the drama’s total to $180,560. Definitely a Memorial Day weekend to forget.
With an opening scene that features hundreds of students celebrating the start of an intercollegiate competition by chanting, “Student! Student!”, it’s clear that Student of the Year 2 (“SOTY2” henceforth) is not meant to be intellectually challenging. Nevertheless, the romantic comedy-drama sequel is plenty of fun, with some surprisingly rich character development.
Though not a direct sequel to 2012’s Student of the Year, SOTY2 is made in the same narrative mold as the first: a low-income university student competes against his well-heeled contemporaries for respect and the love of a pretty girl. While the original SOTY launched the careers of three newcomers who would become big stars — Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, and Sidharth Malhotra — SOTY2 is star Tiger Shroff’s sixth leading role.
This time Shroff plays Rohan, a working class student at the underfunded Pishorilal Chamandas College where he excels at the sport kabaddi. His wealthy childhood sweetheart Mridula (Tara Sutaria) attends hoity-toity St. Teresa’s College. Without telling Mridula about his plan, Rohan gets an athletic scholarship and transfers to St. Teresa’s to be closer to her.
Rohan is a fish out of water at his new school, where everyone wears designer clothes and drives sports cars. He’s no longer the best athlete, with that distinction belonging to Manav (Aditya Seal), the reigning intercollegiate Student of the Year titleholder. Rohan makes an enemy of Manav’s snobby, vindictive sister Shreya (Ananya Panday, daughter of actor Chunky Pandey). Even Mridula — who goes by “Mia” on campus — acts less than thrilled to see poor Rohan on her fancy turf.
While Rohan could find a place at St. Teresa’s as one of Manav’s toadies, that won’t impress Mridula. What starts out as a good-natured rivalry between the two campus studs changes when Manav realizes Rohan’s ambitions, and Manav reminds Rohan of the hierarchy in the harshest way possible. But Rohan finds an unexpected ally in Shreya, who’s tired of living in her brother’s shadow. Maybe Rohan’s been trying to impress the wrong woman.
Though Shroff is typically drawn to action movies, he’s more charming in a lighter role like this that requires some self-awareness. Shroff nicely depicts Rohan’s struggle to fit in, as well as his realization that he should’ve been kinder to his peers back when he was Big Man on Campus at his old college.
Shreya’s character development is even more impressive than Rohan’s. She evolves from spoiled and aloof to generous and kind, as Rohan learns more about her troubled home life, while still keeping the core of her character intact. Her instinct to respond to slights with cattiness never changes, but she begins to curb her impulsiveness. One would never guess that this is Panday’s first feature role, she’s that good.
This is also Sutaria’s first feature role, having started her career in television. She doesn’t quite match the charisma of Shroff or Panday, but her character isn’t as deep as either of theirs. Mridula is written as shallow and fickle, which doesn’t leave Sutaria much room to maneuver.
Manav is also one-note — a rich bully from start to finish. Seal has to deliver dopey lines with a straight face, such as the multiple times Manav calls Rohan “loser of the year.” On the positive side, Seal and Sutaria are the best dancers of the lead quartet.
The film’s dance numbers are fun and impressive in scale, although they do have some weird elements. Will Smith strolls across the stage during one song for absolutely no reason. A couple of numbers feature a bunch of white women in cheerleader outfits, which stands out because there aren’t any non-Indian male students at St. Teresa. Also, one of my friends was crushed to discover that “Mumbai Dilli Di Kudiyaan” was just released for promotional purposes and wasn’t actually in the movie.
SOTY2 also has a lot of kabaddi scenes, which are sort of exciting, but I didn’t come out of the film understanding anything more about the rules than I did going in. (Although I was delighted to learn that you’re allowed to kick people in kabaddi.) There are also some unrealistic track and field sequences that have slow-motion shots of Manav turning to stare at Rohan in the middle of a race and looking aghast.
Then again, the whole premise of the Student of the Year competition is ridiculous to begin with. It’s only available to male students, there’s no academic component, and it only features two events — one of which is a team sport. Points are accrued by school, not by individual, yet the final award is given to a single participant. It’s pretty dumb if you think about it, so better to just enjoy Student of the Year 2 for its lavish dance numbers and Ananya Panday’s promising debut.
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I updated my list of Bollywood movies on Netflix with the addition of the 2019 biographical drama Thackeray, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Thackeray is available in both Hindi and Marathi, but there is only one catalog entry for the film, so the language version must be selected under the “Episodes” tag. It’s weird.
Also new this week is the political biopic PM Narendra Modi, opening Friday at the South Barrington 24 and Cantera. It has a listed runtime of 2 hrs. 10 min.
De De Pyaar De carries over for a second week at the Niles 12, MovieMax, South Barrington 24, Cantera, and AMC Rosemont 18 in Rosemont.
I updated my list of Bollywood movies on Netflix with the thrilling new addition of Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota, aka “The Man Who Feels No Pain” (you can find it on the service by searching under either title). This film looks freaking incredible. Check out the trailer:
The romantic comedy De De Pyaar De got off to an okay start in North America. From May 17-19, 2019, it earned $425,934 from 104 theaters ($4,096 average), according to Box Office Mojo.
The weekend also marked the local debut of director Ritesh Batra’s Photograph, which released in India back in March. The drama earned $35,796 from 13 theaters ($2,754 average), though it will likely add theaters and expand to other cities in the coming weeks.
Student of the Year 2 didn’t hold up as well in its second weekend as its predecessor did. Back in 2012, Student of the Year carried over 40% of its opening weekend business into its second weekend, but SOTY2‘s holdover was just 22% — $103,381 from 189 theaters ($547 average). Look for it to lose a lot of theaters going into its third weekend. Its total stands at $724,058.
Other Hindi movies showing in North America:
Kalank: Week 5; $2,536 from six theaters; $423 average; $2,729,336 total
The Tashkent Files: Week 6; $1,411 from three theaters; $470 average; $66,831 total
I updated my list of Bollywood movies on Netflix with the addition of Shah Rukh Khan’s 2018 debacle Zero. Now all of you who decided to skip seeing it in the theater can stream it and feel smart for not having wasted your money on tickets.
I updated my list of Bollywood movies on Amazon Prime with more than a dozen new additions in the last two days, including Akshay Kumar’s March release Kesari, which showed up on the service with no fanfare. The 2019 Telugu film Chitralahari is also available in both standard format and 4K Ultra HD.
Two new Hindi films open in the Chicago area on May 17, 2019. The wider release of the two goes to De De Pyaar De, a romantic comedy in which Ajay Devgn leaves Tabu for a woman half his age (Rakul Preet Singh). It’s written by filmmaker Luv Ranjan, who treated the female characters like garbage in his movie Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2. I’m sitting this one out.
Also new this weekend is Photograph, the latest film from The Lunchbox director Ritesh Batra. The romantic drama stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Sanya Malhotra.
I updated my list of Bollywood movies on Netflix with a nine titles added today, some of which return to the service after an absence. Two 2018 Urdu releases — 7 Din Mohabbat In and Cake — are now available for streaming, as are seven Hindi titles:
Kyaa Super Kool Hain Hum was already on Netflix, so now the whole series is available. Yay? Also, I have no recollection of what happens in EMI, even though I reviewed it when it came out.
