Hichki: 5 Things Rani Mukerji's Comeback Movie Did Right in Winning Us Over

After a gap of four years since we last saw her in Mardaani, Rani Mukerji returns to the big screen with another another-backed role in Hichki. Produced by Yash Raj Films, Hichki is directed by Siddharth P Malhotra, who earlier made We Are Family with Kajol, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Arjun Rampal.  Hichki is inspired by a 2008 Hollywood movie based on the life of Brad Cohen, a teacher who suffers from Tourette's Syndrome and yet managed to make a successful career out of teaching.

So Rani Mukerji plays Naina Mathur, who has teaching ambitions but the involuntary vocal tics she gets thanks to Tourette's Syndrome prevents her from getting a job. Finally, after 18 rejections, she cracks a job at her alma mater, only to learn that she was the last choice available to teach a class of rowdy slum kids. Will Naina manage to overcome her odds to be the brilliant teacher she yearns to be is what the rest of the movie is all about.

Hichki has several hiccups as a movie, be it its stubborn resolve to not tread from the tried-n-tested path, predictability and lack of development for the secondary characters. Not to forget the cliche galore. But there are some things that the movies does right, which make you feel warm inside after the screening of Hichki is over. Here are five such things Hichki did so right!

Rani Mukerji

The role of Naina Mathur is tailor-made for the ever-adorable Rani Mukerji who delivers one of her finest performances in the movie. Without making a mockery of the condition, Rani lends enough credibility to her performance to cheer for her right from scene one till the end. We sure hope that she doesn't wait another four years to do another movie.

Not depending too much on Tourette's Syndrome

It is great that the movie highlights the condition called Tourette's Syndrome and how the people afflicted with it get through their daily lives through much public scrutiny and mockery. However, thankfully, while the movie delves on Naina's condition and the problems she faces due to it, Hichki doesn't depend too much time in making us sympathise for the protagonist. Instead it wants us to accept her challenges and relish her victories and that's one of Hichki's biggest strengths.

The kids are all right!

Despite their sketchily-written parts, casting director Shanoo Sharma has found the right mix of kids to play Naina's students. Each kid is equally brilliant and talented, and leading them is I am Kalam's gifted Harsh Mayar. They are as strong protagonists as Rani Mukerji in the movie.

The tale of the underdog

Be it whichever country you are in, the tales of the underdog often are the one closest to us. Hichki joins many movies like Chak De India, Taare Zameen Par etc in showing the victory of underdogs, in this case both the teacher and the students, againsts ever odd conceivable.

Some insightful conversations on learning

Hichki may not lack a memorable strong scene like we had in Taare Zameen Par. However, there are some wonderful dialogues that make you re-evaluate the way you look at the processes of teaching and learning. Naina tells her bossy snooty colleague (Neeraj Kabi) that there are no bad teachers but bad students. In a sequence in the climax, a teacher admits that learning is a difficult job than teaching, because in the latter, you can get away with anything. But in learning, you can't really do so.

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(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 23, 2018 07:04 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).