A feature film on education is rare in India and one on an educationist even rarer. Movies such as Taare Zameen Par (2007), 3 Idiots (2009) or Stanley Ka Dabba (2011) burst forth every once in a while but a mainstream film devoted entirely to the life and times of a contemporary educationist remains rather uncommon in Bollywood. This is what makes Super 30, a biopic of Anand Kumar, special in the annals of Hindi cinema. The movie opened to a rousing reception on July 12 and minted Rs 115 crore by its third weekend.
Starring Hrithik Roshan, it has proved sceptics wrong who had wondered whether a commercial cinema superstar, otherwise known as the ‘Greek God of Bollywood’ for his good looks, would be able to pull off the character of a teacher from an underprivileged Bihari family with conviction. Anand shot to global renown for setting up a pioneering coaching institute in Patna to help poor students crack the highly competitive entrance examination of the coveted Indian Institute of Technology...