The road from youth to adulthood is paved with myriad emotions and ‘Student Of The Year’ celebrates this colorful coming of age. It is the story of Abhimanyu Singh (Sidharth Malhotra) and Rohan Nanda (Varun Dhawan) who traverse the path of competition, envy, triumph, failure, manipulation and heartbreak in their mini-universe of St. Teresa’s High School, Dehradun.
Abhimanyu Singh A.K.A Abhi comes from a middle-class family and wants to achieve great heights of success and prosperity, the first step to which will be the Student Of The Year trophy while Rohan Nanda A.K.A Ro, is the son of a business tycoon who grapples with a complex relationship with his father and knows that winning the Student Of the Year trophy will bag him the approval that he subconsciously craves for. When the two protagonists with distinct backgrounds and clear goals clash with each other in the locker room, football field and the canteen, there is no question in anyone’s mind that the preset equations of the St. Teresa’s campus were about to change.
When Abhi and Rohan’s rivalry takes an unexpected turn to friendship, neither of them pre-empts the complications that would brew. Things get further knotted up when Shanaya Singhania (Alia Bhatt), the most popular girl on the campus enters the equation. While Shanaya and Rohan are childhood sweethearts, Abhi’s attraction for his best friend’s girlfriend and Shanaya’s quiet reciprocation causes a rift in their friendship that would have a long lasting impact. Looming large over the various friendships in the campus is the Student Of The Year trophy and Dean Yogendra Vasisht’s (Rishi Kapoor) emphasis on success and victory.
Towards the end of the term, the foes-turned-friends-turned foes, Abhi and Rohan, get ready for a face-off and battle lines are drawn through the length and breadth of the campus, with only one goal in everyone’s eyes - Student Of The Year Trophy. As new ambitions are born and old loyalties fall by the wayside, each segment of the Student Of The Year competition manages to tear apart both, the participants and the spectators, to redefine the choices of the three protagonists.
The film is a fresh breath of air for Bollywood cinema as we see the debut of Alia, Varun & Siddharth as a bunch of amazingly talented actors. This was also the last film Karan Johar directed with Dharma Productions. On its second year anniversary, we would like to know how much you liked the film and what are your favorite moments from the movie. Do leave your thoughts about ‘Student Of The Year’ in the comments below.
