Objections of a Bihari on 'Super30' Movie

Objections of a Bihari on 'Super30' Movie

Today I went to watch “Super 30” movie. Considering it as a movie from my state of Bihar, I was charged with emotions. The movie is based on the success story of a Bihari (i.e. Mr. Anand Kumar) who struggled and fought not only to be successful but also created a platform which is changing life’s of poor kids, 30 at a time. I thought that this movie will help in improving general perception about Bihar and Biharis, which has been dented by movies like ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ or ‘Ganga jal’ etc. Generally, Biharis don’t have a sense of statehood and pride for Bihar, as prevalent in the people of the forward states such as Maharashtra, Bengal, and Gujarat etc. I was thinking that this movie will help in infusing a sense of pride and bonding among Biharis. However, after watching the movie all my hopes and aspirations got shattered and here I am writing this article. 

My first objection is the fake Bihari accent pulled by Hrithik Roshan throughout the movie. I don’t want to comment on the differences between the persona of Anand kumar and Hrithik Roshan who has portrayed the character of Anand Kumar. But I want to tell that most of us Biharis have experienced and understand when someone tries to mock us due to our accent. The accent pulled by Hrithik Roshan appeared no different and was therefore not only unconvincing but also irritating throughout the movie. 

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My second objection is that even after being based on the backdrop of Bihar, this movie has shredded away the slightest bit of publicity from the ancient city of Patna. When you watch some movie based in a particular city, you are shown the shots of landmark of that city. Such as if the movie is based on London then shots of Big Ben, London Eye etc. are shown; if it is shown based on Delhi then shots of India gate, Rashtrapati Bhawan etc. are shown and similarly shots of Gateway of India, Hotel Taj etc. if the movie is shown based in Mumbai. 

Even when if some movie is based on small cities such as Varanasi, then the shots from the ghats of Ganga are shown. This not only helps the viewer to connect to that place, but also attracts tourist to that place in search of those scenes. Such shots of movies woo the viewers to such an extent that the Indian tourists to Switzerland multiplied tenfold after Yash Chopra brand of movies and have still not decreased ever since. This movie, although is shown based in Patna but not even a single shot has been included in the movie by which somebody can relate and say that it’s Patna. Even the scenes which are shot on the banks of Ganga can be clearly identified as ghats of Kashi and not the ghats of Patna. Please don’t think that I am against showing any other city, but I got disheartened when I found that Patna was stripped-off the possibility of this little fame.

My third objection is that the movie sub-consciously feeds anti-hindu sentiments.  After, the controversial series of Priyanka Chopra i.e. Quantico in which it was shown that Priyanka Chopra identifies the villain as a Hindu nationalist from the Rudraksh around his neck, whole world has come to know that Hindus wear Rudraksh. Now when you watch the movie, just check all the negative characters are shown wearing Rudraksh to feed anti-hindu sentiments. For instance: 

• The first negative character shown in the movie is the librarian, who throws Anand Kumar out of the library (as he was not the student there), is shown wearing Rudraksh above his shirt. In my small life I have never seen someone wearing Rudraksh as a bow tie on top of the shirt as that character of librarian was wearing.
• The second negative character was the Education Minister who was shown perfectly normal in the introductory scenes where he is shown giving award to Anand Kumar for his achievement. But, the scene in which he has been shown under negative light, there again, he is shown wearing Rudraksh in his hand which is in front of the camera. 
• Then third negative character is the post-office master who denies loan to his father. He has been shown as offering aarti before the scene. 
• Finally, at the epitome of anti-hindu sentiment, even character in the movie who has been drawn parallel to Shahabuddin (i.e. the Don threatening Anand kumar from jail) has been shown wearing Rudraksh. 

Also in the movie, when a person tells the father of Anand Kumar that there were a lot of knowledge in our ancient texts (i.e. hindu scriptures) which got lost because others stole it from us. Then his father replies that it didn’t get lost because others stole it, but because we didn’t spread it. As a person from Bihar, where the world’s oldest University i.e. Nalanda University, the centre for spreading knowledge throughout the world, was ruined and all the teachers and student were killed by foreign invaders, I cannot cope up with such a logic. Such instances in the movie cannot be unintentional or unplanned. It appears that the extreme leftist mentality has deepened its roots in “Hindi Film Industry”.

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My fourth objection is that the story does not appear to be true, as nothing is shown regarding Mr. Abhay Anand (D.G.P, Bihar) who was the co-founder of super 30. I think everyone remembers how super30 shot to fame after the duo i.e. Mr Anand Kumar and Mr. Abhay Anand were shown on the television program of ‘Satyamev Jayate’. So, keeping the contribution of Mr. Abhay Anand completely out of the story, makes the movie appear as a propaganda to overdo the achievements of Mr. Anand Kumar by himself. I would suggest if you are interested then you should see the interview of Anand Kumar by Rajeev Masand.

Finally, in the movie it is shown that in his struggle to feed his students, Anand Kumar signed a bet with the owner of competing coaching centre that an exam will be conducted between his student and other coaching centre students. If super30 students score more than the students of competing coaching centre then the owner of competing coaching centre will give him money or else Anand Kumar will shut down super30 and start teaching in that coaching centre. The exam was conducted fairly and super30 students scored less than the competing coaching centre students. Under this circumstance, Anand Kumar didn’t keep his promise and justifies his lack of integrity by saying that he has also seen betrayal. I think such an event may not have happened ever. However, showing this thing in the movie gives a message that betraying and not keeping you words are acceptable if your goal is good, which I think is really unnecessary.