Nobody asked for my review- Sthanarthi Sreekuttan

Life imitates art far more than art imitates life. 

This quote from an essay by Oscar Wilde went through my mind when I saw an article in the newspaper (mentioned below) after watching the movie Sthanarthi Sreekuttan. 
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Sthanaarthi Sreekuttan is a Malayalam movie directed by Vinesh Viswanath in his debut, starring Aju Varghese, Saiju Kurup, Kannan Nayar, Anand Manmadhan, and Johny Antony, among others.

The film follows the story of 7th-grade students at K.R. Narayanan U.P. School in Kerala. Sreekuttan (our hero), along with his best friends Sharat, Anoop, and Anas, are the backbenchers of the class; they don't like to study (like every other kid), and would rather be out playing cricket or pulling pranks and inevitably getting into trouble.
There is a constant struggle between this group and the good kids in the class, with whom they are always compared by the teachers. The most studious one, Ambadi, is their direct competition. 

The main villain of the movie is Aju Varghese, who plays the teacher, Mr. Chakrapani (or just C.P., as he's not-so-lovingly called). The change of Aju Varghese from a sidekick comedy guy I have always seen him as, to playing the villain in this movie was quite shocking for me, which, of course, is a testament to the range Aju Varghese has as an actor. He embodies the evil teacher that we all had in our school with such perfection that even I was a little scared, and it took me back to my school years. The strict, no-nonsense teacher (and a math teacher!), Aju Varghese hates the backbenchers, with some special hatred for Sreekuttan. 

Tensions escalate when Sreekuttan nominates himself for the post of Class Monitor, a position that used to go to Ambadi unanimously every year. Hence, Sthanarthi Sreekuttan (Candidate Sreekuttan, geddit?) 

The hard work Sreekuttan has to do and the hoops he has to jump through to win these elections form the rest of the story. The cameo by Saiju Kurup, the fights with the Bhasma gang, and the Illuminati story are such fun additions to the story. 

The movie takes you back to your school days: friends who would always be there for every idiotic thing you undertook, who would give you the courage to talk to your crushes (and even talk for you!), who fought for you. And about the teachers? Well, the teachers who used to start talking about their childhood during chapters, teachers who would make classrooms fun by cracking bad jokes, were my favorite kind of teachers. Johny Antony plays a character of a teacher like that, and he's genuinely so good!

The actors were so good in each frame they occupied. The child actors were even better and had such an engaging screen presence. My favorite, though, has to be child actor Kartik, who plays Prithviraj. An absolute riot on camera, I know he will go a looong way! 

Sthanaarthi Sreekuttan is a really sweet film and is funny while addressing a lot of issues. It ends with a message so brilliant that it reportedly changed how Kerala viewed its education system, even leading to changes in its classroom seating pattern. That is a win for the film! 

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Read the article - here

Image credits to the respective owners.