Golconda High School- Movie Review

Mercifully movies don’t hold as much attraction to me as do books. However, I try to watch good movies whenever I find time or learn about one worth watching. Last Saturday, for the first time in my life, I went to a movie on the first day of its release and saw the second show of the day. It wasn’t an ordinary movie but one that was made out of a friend’s novel. The friend in question is Harimohan Paruvu and the novel in question is his bestselling first book ‘The Men Within’ which was made into a film ‘Golconda High School’ that was released Saturday last. I watched the film at Prasad’s in the afternoon. When I bought the tickets I noticed on the display that the tickets to the movie were easily available and that was when I began doubting. But later the hall filled up.

When Hari told me the actor Sumanth would be playing the lead in GHS I was a bit skeptical. Though I haven’t watched any of Sumanth’s movies I could make out that his films did not do well. One of the reasons could be his acting. I went to GHS expecting the movie to be undone by Sumanth but I was wrong. Actually it was Sumanth who carried the entire movie on his shoulders. I guess it was his finest performances till date and I hope he gets some acclaim for it. For those who do not know, GHS is based on ‘The Men Within’ which is a story of a cricket coach and his team of students of Golconda High School. It is a tale of how the coach transforms the skeptical kids into a team that wins the Inter School trophy.

Comparisons with ‘Chak De’ are inevitable since the theme more or less is the same- that of an inspired coach who puts brings together a bunch of players and transforms them into a winning team and in the process, redeeming himself. But there are a lot of differences between the ‘Chak De’ and ‘Golkonda High School’ worth talking about. First, GHS is about cricket whereas Chak De is about hockey. If it was a team of grown up girls in Chak De then the team in Golconda High School is made up of young school boys. If the goal in ‘Chak De’ is winning the World Cup, then it is the Inter School Cup in Golconda High School. Of course, the big, big difference is that ‘Chak De’ has Shah Rukh Khan whereas it is Sumanth in GHS. I really liked SRK’s performance in Chak De but Sumanth also pulled off an equally laudable performance in Golconda High School. I guess he deserves some kind of recognition for his performance in the movie as the determined coach.

Apart from Sumanth others too have shone in their roles. The actor who played ‘Kirit’ almost matched Sumanth but I cannot say the same about Swati who is not required to act much other than to act coy. The true stars of the movie are some of the kids- the boy who played ‘Siddhant’ had a strong screen presence. The boy who played ‘Mikey’ also acted well. The kid who played ‘Nasir’ had a lot of potential but wasn’t exploited. Ditto with the kid who played ‘Gautam’. There were moments when I had a lump in the throat, especially the scene where the coach asks the hotel guy to forgive Mikey and all the kids realize what the coach is. It was one of the memorable scenes in the movie. Some of the songs in the movie reminded of those in Art Beat Capital’s earlier movie- Ashta Chemma.

The final verdict is that Golconda High School is an interesting and engrossing movie worth watching with your school going kids, if you have any. I have three hopes for the movie- 1) that it will do well 2) that it will win some kind of an award and finally 3) that it will be made compulsory viewing for parents of all those kids forced into ‘coaching centers’ and who don’t think sports help kids in any way.

PS: If you don’t know how Hari looks like maybe you can watch him in the movie bowling to the Golconda High School team.