Film: Blackboard vs Whiteboard
Cast: Raghubir Yadav, Ashok Samarth, Akhilendra Mishra, Dharmendra Singh, Alismita Goswami
Director: Tarun S Bisht
Rating: * ½
The public education system in rural India comes in for some flack in this unprepossessing social drama meant to posit an inspirational, uplifting story. The film’s intention may be to expose the corruption inherent in the education system but it doesn’t feel like a strong enough indictment of the powers that be. Instead what we see is rather formulaic, unwieldy and loosely structured.
Amit (Dharmendra Singh), a village lad from a north Indian state, finds that having a roadside eatery poses a hurdle in finding himself a suitable bride. So he turns to teaching at a government run school in a remote region and hopes to make a difference not only in his life but also those who learn from him. The local politician Mukhiya Gajraj Singh (Ashok Samarth) and his brother Khemu (Manu Krishna), though, are not very happy with his interference and easily set him up as fall guy. That’s when reporter-lawyer Rashmi (Alismita Goswami) gets to advocate on his behalf and cement their romance with some rather unnecessary song and dance.
The script isn’t developed well enough to score points against the system and neither are the performances any great shakes. The clichés inherent in this telling expose the film as an unoriginal take and make the experience of it rather tedious. This attempt at social commentary literally falls flat on its face because of an inconsistent, self-indulgent agenda.
