The school has been a frequent place for movies or serials, but only a few movies have succeeded in capturing the madness and innocence of the place without being preachy. In recent times when the Indians are discussing about the dysfunctional education system of India, here comes the new series from Prime Video, Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya. Humour is the tool of choice for the series that manages to maintain a perfect balance of comedy and drama. Produced by the team at Posham Pa Pictures which comprises of Biswapati Sarkar and Sameer Saxena and directed by Himank Gaur, the Prime Video serial creates the platform for broken system and how government schools function.
What the story is about
This drama series is set in the fictional Tinki Toli in Delhi and revolves around an underperforming government school which ironically is named Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya. The school is full of apathy; its infrastructure is falling apart, the neighboring community hangs out their clothes on its campus, and even the MLA of the area practically treats the school premises like his guesthouse. The students of the school are hilariously detached, with one believing that the term “mass” in physics means South Indian actor Allu Arjun. Amid all of this chaos stands the chilled-out principal Gyanendra Tripathi (Kay Kay Menon), who’d prefer playing cricket with his students rather than disciplining them.
But things start moving ahead in the plot only when the education department holds out a big carrot: If the school manages to perform a miracle by getting into one of the top ten schools in Delhi based on the tenth standard board examinations results, then both the principal and his wife get to go to Cambridge University for an all-expenses paid training course. It is not because of any newly acquired idealism that Gyanendra suddenly gets motivated; it is because of an emotional need to provide his suffering wife, Sushma (Prachee Shah), the opportunity of a foreign visit. For doing the impossible, he needs to motivate a bunch of imperfect, underpaid teachers and deal with the constant interference of a local politician, Goldy (Deven Bhojani), and his vengeful assistant, Urmila (Archana Puran Singh).
Performances
Kay Kay Menon is great as Gyanendra Tripathi and takes a break from being too intense and serious in acting. Playing a bit absent minded but good-natured principal, he comes up with witty and likable mannerisms very easily. Archana Puran Singh is great as Urmila Devi, the principal’s worst enemy. Her comic timing and knack for playing a delightfully vindictive character make Urmila one of the show’s standout personalities.
Prasanna Bisht is excellent as Kanchan, a vibrant maths teacher in the government school. She livens up her character with the problems faced by a government school that is ill-funded and portrays this reality very well. Naveen Kasturia is very good as Mukul Dengla, the school’s counsellor. However, he faces a lot of problems personally despite knowing how to deal with teenagers. Though he understands his work very well professionally, he struggles to understand his own teenage daughter.
The casting of Abhimanyu Singh as Hansraj, the strict Hindi teacher who emphasizes perfect Hindi as per the book, is simply fantastic. Annapurna Soni delivers one of the most impressive performances on the show as Sharma Ma’am. Sharma Ma’am, the biology teacher, feels embarrassed while explaining biology and reproduction chapters to the teenagers. Deven Bhojani is brilliant in his role as Goldy the politician. Perfect comic timing as an idiotic politician who uses illiteracy as a weapon.
What works
Among many other things, the writing is one of the best parts of this show. Without sounding preachy at all, the writing team manages to blend social commentaries with hilarious situations. Be it a hilarious sex education song, an amusing fight about the dish of the mid-day meal kheer or even an innocent mistake where the deserved prize goes to a boy instead of a girl, the humour is always meaningful and relevant.
Director Himank Gaur deserves praises for his work with the young cast. None of the actors comes off as too polished and rehearsed; rather, they come off as regular chaotic kids from school. Their naturalness makes the scenes in the classroom realistic without much effort being put into it.
What doesn’t work
However, after its spectacularly entertaining beginning, the series starts to slow down. Even though the first three episodes are filled with lots of humour and have great pace, some of the next episodes become somewhat boring due to stretching of the central idea, which is the reward in Cambridge. The series tries to tackle several social issues at once. All of these topics are topical, but the inclusion of too many of them at once make some of them less impactful.
Verdict
Even though the series becomes wobbly in the mid-season, Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya is a heart-warming, and humourous series that does not allow the hard facts about the Indian education system to get lost in its avalanche of humour.
