Crash Course Review: A Bit Of '3 Idiots' And A Whole Lot Of 'Kota Factory' Make This Series Sparingly Engaging (LatestY Exclusive)

Crash Course Review: With Kota Factory, Aspirants and more, TVF has explored the underbelly of what happens at Kota in the name of coaching classes. They delved deeper not just into the corruption behind it all but the struggles of the students as well who just want to score an IIT seat. Crash Course plays in the same domain and that affects it prospects greatly. However, if considered in isolation, Crash Course does have merits. Crash Course Trailer: Annu Kapoor, Bhanu Uday, Pranay Pachauri’s Series Explores the Twists of Student Life; To Stream on Amazon Prime Video From August 5 (Watch Video).

Ratanraj Jindal's (Annu Kapoor) is the big fish in the coaching class nexus aiming to swallow all the smaller ones. His institute RJ and its rival Batra are at loggerheads at having not just more number of students but also garnering more toppers. Batra Institute is run by Arvind Batra's (Siddharth Kak) son Shashank (Bhanu Uday). Arvind is known as the father of education in Kota and is an honest teacher. He, thus, distances himself from Shashank's questionable ways of toppling RJ Institute.

In the midst of all this, Vidhi Gupta (Anushka Kaushik), Sathya Srinivasan (Hridhu Haroon), Anil Baid (Mohit Solanki), Aviral Bharti (Bhavesh Balchandani), Rakesh Gulia (Aryan Singh) and Tejal Patel (Hetal Gada) become collateral damage.

Crash Course borrows a bit from 3 idiots and takes a lot of inspiration from Kota Factory. Now that can't be helped because it talks about IIT aspirants and Kota. But what works is everything is done very subtly without hampering the viewer experience. So there's Sathya who will remind you of Ranchod Das Chanchad, there's a bit of Raju in Anil and Farhan in Rakesh but it's done well. One of the reasons could be because the roles aren't played by 40-year old actors. Trust me, that adds a lot of mannerism changes in a character and all for the good. They are Gen-Z and act as such. The city and the framework of the show will take you back to Jeetu Bhaiya's sessions.

What immensely works in its favour is that Crash Course shifts the focus from the struggle of the students to the nexus. What happens to the students is shown more like the consequences of the actions of the high and mighty rather than being the other way round. That separates it from all the other series in the same space. The one upmanship games between RJ and Shashank Batra arrive at the right moment to keep your interest in the proceedings alive. The way Binny (Udit Arora) switches sides for his own gains is also very aptly written, at least in the first couple of episodes. At times, you wouldn't know which side he is on!

The biggest drawback of Crash Course is it has no novelty factor. TVF has already established their mastery over this section of content that talks about the dream of every Indian or rather Indian parents - IIT. It doesn't really explore any newer side to the entire education scam. It's sincere and earnest but loses out to the first-movers' advantage. The series is also needlessly long. Everything can be wrapped up in six episodes rather than 10.

Furthermore, there are few characters which failed to show their purpose. Bidita Bag's Antara is so loosely handled you have no idea where she fits in the scheme of things. She has her own cafeteria, a tiffin service and also moonlights as a drug peddler. She doesn't really bring anything to the table and sadly reminds you of the many female characters in movies whose sole purpose is to have a thing for the hero. Same is the case with Riddhi Kumar's Shanya Qazi who gets a token role of being outgoing despite a conservative upbringing and ending up pregnant.

But I have a grouse against the way Binny is written. From the first episode, it is implied that there's something in his past which turned him into a facilitator for Shashank and Jindal's crimes. However, the writers forget to explore that. Hence, you can't connect with him when he tries to do good. Is that an oversight?

Watch the trailer of Crash Course

Another thing TVF has ensured over the years of churning amazing content is that it has made good performances mandatory in such web-series. So Crash Course too benefits from it. Annu Kapoor as Jindal is perfect. He is shrewd, unapologetically money-minded and remorseless. Bhanu Uday does the rival act well while it's always nice to see Siddharth Kak on screen (It's a 90s thing, you won't get it!). All the young actors have done a fine job with special mention for Mohit Solanki and Anushka Kaushik. Annu Kapoor Reacts to His Daughter Quitting College; Read to Know the Real Reason!.

Yay!

-the politics

-performances

Nay!

-no novelty

-some poor character graph

-needlessly long

Final Thoughts

Crash Course has nothing new to offer to the entire coaching centre nexus in Kota. But it does have its moments which are worth a watch. Crash Course streams on Amazon Prime.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 05, 2022 12:05 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).