'Student of the Year 2' has all the trappings of a Karan Johar cliche

Seven years ago, Karan Johar’s Student of the Year (SOTY) was the launch pad for the careers of Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. Now, Student of the Year 2, directed by Punit Malhotra and written by Arshad Sayed, hopes to propel the careers of Ananya Pandey and Tara Sutaria similarly. In a nutshell, if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen the other — and perhaps even future editions. But Johar takes 146 minutes to present another fanciful story of saccharine young love and school rivalry.

Rohan Sachdev (essayed by a chiselled Tiger Shroff) is a small-town boy who has been in love with Mridula Chawla (Tara Sutaria) for 12 years. As high school ends, the childhood sweethearts are forced to take different paths. While Chawla makes her way to the unbelievably pompous Saint Teresa College in Mussoorie, Sachdev is stuck studying at the seemingly downtrodden Pishorilal Chamandas College, in the same town. If there is a stereotype that exists in the world, it’s been found and employed in the film. All Sachdev wants is a seat at Saint Teresa and to be reunited with Chawla. But Mridula, now “Mia”, is only infatuated by her new elite college.

Sachdev as some sort of kabaddi prodigy puts Shroff’s athletic body to good use. This also helps him get a sports scholarship to Saint Teresa. SOTY 2’s filmmakers also seem to have cashed in on this plotline by adding a subtle advertisement for the Pro Kabaddi League. Almost all colleges in Mussoorie (a full fictional eight in the tiny hill station!) are suddenly obsessed with the sport.

Enter Shreya Singh Randhawa (Ananya Pandey), a wealthy, spoilt brat whose father happens to be the trustee of the college. I’m not sure if Johar was making some tongue-in-cheek comment about nepotism here — especially given that both Shroff and Pandey are “star kids”. Meanwhile, Sachdev also befriends Randhawa’s brother, Manav (Aditya Seal), a two-time winner of the Student of the Year trophy. But later, Manav becomes Sachdev’s arch enemy and aspiring Pro Kabaddi League player.

Both Sutaria and Pandey seem to know their craft and exhibit a fair amount of skill for debutants. Shroff continues to prove that his forte is action rather than acting. For a film about an end-of-the-year trophy, it is dominated by action sequences simply to show off Shroff’s prowess on the field. The women, on the other hand, are largely ornamental. The Dignity Cup, an inter-college event, consists of male-dominated sports events, with not a single competing woman in sight, making the Student of the Year trophy a “Who’s the best man?” competition.

In Johar’s universe, anything is possible. Even Will Smith makes a five-second appearance during a dance competition judged by Farah Khan and Vishal-Shekhar. Sachdev, a student with no formal training, spontaneously breaks out into professional-quality kicks, jumps and flips on and off the kabaddi field. Given this imaginative leap, one would expect SOTY 2 to be more creative with its plot and characters. But why bother when the same plot — a love triangle, a cheating incident, a poor boy competing with a rich boy for the love of his life — can simply be recycled to rake in crores?

Johar’s film universe is at least consistent in its glamour quotient and music that makes its way to Indian weddings. There was Bollywood-style hooting for Sutaria and Pandey off the screen, too. The action sequences, though entirely unbelievable, were captured well by Ravi K Chandran, famed for Dil Chahta Hai, Black and Fanaa. And don’t worry, there’s nothing un-sanskari in this cotton-candy love triangle.