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Release
date:
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May 18, 2018
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Director:
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M. Hajamoinu
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Cast:
Language:
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Bhama Arun, Mamitha
Baiju, Anagha Nair, Diya, Vismaya Vishwanath, Indrans, Balaji, Reena Bashir,
Ashkar Saudan
Malayalam
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In future, when almost
19 minutes of a film have passed and all that has been covered are the acknowledgments
(which are even longer in this case than
in most Mollywood productions) followed by opening credits monotonously playing
out against a pretty green landscape followed by a song introducing the female
leads who dance awkwardly to some very rudimentary choreography in the picturesque
countryside, treat that as a warning that worse is to come.
Writer-director M.
Hajamoinu’s School Diary is the sort
of bad film that critics dream of while praying for small mercies: so bad that
it is entertaining. It would probably have gone unnoticed if an icon had not participated
in it and promoted it. M.G. Sreekumar, two-time National Award winner,
three-time Kerala State Award winner and long-time singing voice of Mohanlal, is
the film’s music director and has a cameo as himself in an extended scene in
which he is honoured by the primary characters. He also released the poster of School Diary.
Chetta, just one question: why?
School Diary revolves around five Class 12 students in a
school in Kerala. They are Aarcha, Indu, Rima, Diya and Yamuna. Aarcha has been
covered in the news media because she wrote a poem called Aksharamaalayil Amma (Mother In The Alphabet), which is being
considered for inclusion in the state’s school syllabus.
These youngsters
are out to make a difference in the world. So they farm vegetables for poor
folk. And Aarcha comes up with the idea of having a diary in which kids in
their school can confide their problems that staff and student leaders then will
try to solve – an idea that is treated by her peers and faculty as worthy of a
Nobel for Novelty.
Along the way the
girls encounter two villains. Never mind what they do. Point is, School Diary is not just a case study in
amateurish filmmaking, it is also a poorly disguised effort to appear
progressive while masking its conservative core.
In one of the
opening scenes, when students and teachers are discussing Aarcha’s new concept
diary, their principal makes an off-hand comment about how cellphones are
spoiling young people. Uff!
In one of the
film’s silliest scenes, pandering no doubt to the prevailing chest-thumping
nationalism dominating the Indian political discourse, a bunch of people in a
cafeteria stand up on hearing the national anthem being sung in a nearby schoolyard,
the camera then intercuts between the school and the café, continuing to do so until the anthem is over! This interlude
plays no part whatsoever in taking the story forward. I repeat, no part.
It was around this
point in School Diary that I started
giggling to myself, in the theatre where I watched it as one of just two audience
members. The silliness continued throughout the film. The halfway mark, for
instance, was announced not with “interval” or “intermission” flashing on
screen, as is the norm, but with the words “tension break”.
Despite positioning
School Diary as a woman-centric affair
in its opening scene, Hajamoinu reveals his true patriarchal colours when he
ultimately places the baton of Protector of Women in the hands of a male
teacher in Aarcha & Co’s school. I laughed out loud in that moment when
this gentleman, who appears ordinary until then, suddenly rips off his shirt to
reveal a bulked-up, muscular torso in a red-bordered black baniyan before proceeding to beat up the bad guy.
A quick Net search reveals
that School Diary’s shirtless wonder
is Anvar Sadath, also its producer. Sadath has generously featured footage of
himself from that body-baring scene for 23 seconds in the film’s 1 minute 35 seconds long trailer, although he only plays a supporting character. He has
also brought out a couple of posters in which he is the dominant visual, not
the five heroines.
Of the young leads,
Bhama Arun playing Aarcha looks like she may be watchable under less tacky
direction. It makes no sense though to critique the lot since I doubt even a
Dadasaheb Phalke Award-worthy veteran’s skills would survive such a misadventure.
The music of School Diary is better than the rest of the film,
but is still not as sophisticated as you might expect, considering the high-voltage stalwart
to whom it is credited.
To be fair to M.G.
Sreekumar, he is not the only respected name associated with School Diary. The Kerala State Award
winning actor Indrans, one of Malayalam cinema’s best, also stars in it. This,
by the way, is not a phenomenon unique to Mollywood. Across Indian film
industries, while successful leading men and women are careful about their
choices, it is not uncommon at all to find top character artistes and singers aboard
cringe-worthy projects usually because their images tend not to take a beating
from such detours, which also usually pay solid financial dividends. Yeah, I
know – it is sad.
On second thoughts,
if Sreekumar had not been part of School
Diary, it may have slipped under the radar, it may not have managed to
travel outside Kerala, and I may not have found myself gigging helplessly over
it in a darkened hall in the National Capital Region in the middle of an
exhausting day. Thank you, universe. Thank you.
Rating
(out of five stars): 0 stars
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CBFC Rating (India):
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U
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Running time:
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108 minutes
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This review has also been published on Firstpost:
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