Shikshanachya Aaicha Gho (2010) User Reviews

Child abuse comedy that lacks focus.

[statmanjeff · 4/10 · 8 February 2019]

SPOILER: Summaries make it sound as if this film is an inditement against modern spirit-crushing public education systems (such as exists in South Korea). Instead it's about an abusive father who puts his large teenage son in a coma then, rather than accept blame for it, scapegoats the incident by publicly ridiculing the existing educational system. The school, in fact, puts no noticeable pressure on anyone; however, everyone - and that is EVERYONE - tells the father he should appreciate the sports-excellent son of average-intelligence that he has rather than the scholarly son he wants. Normally friendly and giving to others, the dad turns evermore and relentlessly nasty towards his son, ending in a violent family argument. As the son never leaves his coma, the father takes him home, wheeling him about in a wheelchair, which gets distracting for several reason: (1) After two months in a coma, the hospital determines that sending the kid home would be better because it's less of a financial burden on the father. All agree to this, even though it would seem a comatose boy would need round-the-clock care, and that moving him about in a wheelchair while always unconscious could cause more physical harm. (2) The kid never eats nor drinks, never pees nor poops, never needs nor gets a sponge bath, never requires a care-giver nor changes condition in any notable way. He's moved around with an I.V. bottle that's never shown how it's attached. (As far as the audience knows, the kid just sits on the other end of the tube.) (3) During the father's public rants, spouting unconfirmed "facts" out of thin air, he stumbles into the awareness of an actual corrupt minister of education (proving the father's diatribes correct - who knew?) and is subsequently beaten by hired thugs for it. This story point then disappears without resolve. (4) A visiting surgeon from the capitalist United States appears and gives the son a free operation. The kid revives, smiles at his father (apparently with no memory of his dad nearly killing him), plays cricket (with muscles that apparently didn't atrophy in six months of inactivity), and continues along an apparent destiny to become India's next cricket superstar amidst a deliriously happy ending enjoyed by all towards a bright and untroubled future - thereby pulling off a pointless story.