When Ritesh (Jackky Bhagnani) and his gang of ‘party loving’ school kids (??!!) (Pooja Gupta, Angad Bedi, Chandan Sanyal) score poor marks in their exams, they realize that getting admission into any college is impossible. To please their strict parents, the juvenile bunch decide to fake admission into a make-believe college called F.A.L.T.U (an acronym for Fakirchand and Lakirchand Trust University!!). Soon real students descend upon the campus and demand that the fake educational institution be made real, as this is the only place that will open its doors to them.
The film’s naive theme of low scorers who deserve their place in society could have been made believable with clever writing. But sadly F.A.L.T.U (allegedly based on the Hollywood film, Accepted (2006) where the college was called S.H.I.T-South Harmon Institute of Technology) suffers from an immature and silly script. What could have been a decent message for today’s youth, that demands revisions in the education system, becomes an indulgent ode to beer guzzling lazy-bums who lack ambition and idea’s.
Out of the blue one day, Ritesh has a realization that ‘all play and no work’ makes a dull student, and he suddenly attempts to convert the raving collegians, lying about in a drunken stupor, into committed students. Except this time, the kids are encouraged to study only subjects they like. So they choose subjects like fashion designing, DJing, Acting, dancing, etc. Subjects, that are already available as part of many college curriculums, and in any case, which DJ or actor ever really needed a university degree?
Instead of using his students to cleverly earn the change they seek, the director chooses to use cameo’s by established actors to provide lazy solutions.
Google (Arshad Warsi), Ritesh’s ‘Mr-fix-It’ buddy just snaps his fingers like Alladin’s genie to give the kids what they need, including a sprawling campus. Riteish Deshmukh is cast as Baaji Rao a rebellious kindergarten school-teacher who becomes F.A.L.T.U’s principal. When stuck in a mess with the government for running a fake enterprise, it is Baaji Rao and Google, who motivate the kids to stand up and get noticed.
The Maratha warrior trumpet that is heard in the background every time Deshmukh says something ‘funny’ gets irritating after a while. Also, why does Google, who is in a position to give the kids whatever they like, suddenly curse his luck, wishing that he had studied when he was young?
There is too much of an attempt to manipulate the emotions of viewers by choosing plot points that have already scored applause in films like 3 Idiots and Rang De Basanti. The characters come across as caricatures that seem air lifted from some film from the 90’s. The dialogue ‘sorry ka achaar daalu?’ and ‘children are not useless, they are used less’seem forced, and are far from inspiring.
Director Remo D’souza manages to keep the energy in place in his song and dance routines. A climax dance, which features Mithun Chakraborty as a judge, is particularly well choreographed. Akbar Khan, the actor turned director, has a commanding screen presence as the father who is opposed to this college of ‘back-benchers’. But his character suddenly turns good after he hears a painful sermon. Pooja Gupta has close to 10 dialogues in the film, and her vocabulary mostly comprises of words like ‘kya?’ ‘Of course’ and ‘nahi’. Maximum camera attention is showered onJackky Bhagnani, obviously, since he is the son of the producer!
Bhagnani is sincere, but limited in his acting prowess. Instead of playing a character who himself stands for change, as is the message of the film, he plays a character who leans on two competent stars like Warsi Deshmukh hoping to find his success.
RATING-3
RATING-3
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