Why Cheat India is probably the first Bollywood movie that focuses on cheating within India’s education system, and shows how big the business can get. The first half is good and engaging.
It shows the tremendous pressure parents exert on students, who in turn have a lot of guilt as well as fear within. The movie shows how some resort to cheating — plain copying, getting ‘dummies’ to write papers for kids of wealthy parents.
I think the movie should also have focused on other aspects, such as how grants are misused, how scholarship’s do not reach the deserving candidates and so on. Instead, it tries to show Emraan’s relationship with family, a bit of romance (he even sings a Ghazal in between). Also, MBA exams are not just about cracking marks (scoring high marks in the written exam), its also about Group discussions and Personal Interviews.
The second half seems a bit convoluted with the director seeming not so sure how he wants to end the movie (show Emraan as a villain or as a victim). Also, it seems the audience may not support a flawed character like that of Emraan Hashmi in the movie.
I think, the censor board should also be commended for asking to change the name of the movie to “Why Cheat India” from “Cheat India”. With the 12th standard board exams just around the corner, you don’t want students to get the wrong messages.
Reviews by Other Critics
Ratings:2/5 Review By: Rajeev Masand Site: News18
Why Cheat India fast becomes a slog. The themes are relevant, but the writing is flat; the screenplay lacks urgency. The film opens in the 90s and to be honest it feels like it was made then. There is melodrama, dialoguebaazi, and old-school plotting. None of that would’ve been a problem if it wasn’t so darn unremarkable. I was also never fully convinced about the ease with which Rocky repeatedly pulled off these big scams. But I suppose that’s creative liberty. This fim takes a lot of those. I’m going with two out of five for Why Cheat India. If anyone’s having trouble sleeping, we might have found a cure.
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Ratings:2.5/5 Review By: Anupama Chopra Site: Filmcompanion
Why Cheat India can’t decide if Rocky is a hero or villain. I don’t have a problem with that. What’s harder to take is the inconsistent tonality and the convoluted second act. Every time you think the film has reached a climax, Soumik tacks on another end. Because Why Cheat India wants to both celebrate and punish Rocky. But that, like the hybrid of fact and fiction, needed far more imagination and audacity. I’m going with two and a half stars.
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Ratings:1.5/5 Review By: Shubhra Gupta Site: Indian Express
But Why Cheat India is disjointed and disappointing, never quite knowing which side it is on, even as it spends time showing us how good students can be ruined by greed, and how parents can put killing pressure on their children in their struggle to break the vicious gap between present debt and potential income.
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Ratings:2.5/5 Review By: Saibal Site: NDTV
Why Cheat India is a low-key drama that might not meet the expectations of the constituency that swears by a Rohit Shetty. What it does, and does reasonably well, is address a subject that is real in a manner that, despite its adherence to many of the broad rules of popular Hindi cinema, does not stray too far from the tangible.
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Ratings:3/5 Review By: Rachit Gupta Site: Times Of India
The story and concept of Why Cheat India holds a lot of merit, and if the execution was the sharper and steadier, this one had the potential to graduate to another level. Even with the flaws in the story, the film and its various subjects have enough at hand to keep you entertained.
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Ratings:1.5/5 Review By: Raja Sen Site: Hindustan Times
‘Greed is good,’ Hashmi spits the line from Oliver Stone’s classic Wall Street, missing the point of how that film applauded the smoothness of the operator. Why Cheat India moralises without taking a stand. The film has three endings, indecisively shown one after the other — one of which uses a refrain to Hum Honge Kamyaab as an afterthought, pasting it on immediately after another song, diluting any potential impact. This movie doesn’t appreciate trick or trickster. It takes craft to be crafty.
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WHY CHEAT INDIA STORY
Rakesh Singh (Emraan Hashmi) was never good in studies (but his brother was) but he is determined to make big business by exploiting our education system. He takes advantage of the fact that there are very few opportunities and too many aspirants. From rigging examinations to forging certificates, he makes money by exploiting and exposing the issues with the Indian education system.
RELEASE DATE: Jan 18, 2019 ( India)
CAST: Emraan Hashmi, Shreya Dhanwanthary
Director: Soumik Sen
Producer: Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Tanuj Garg, Atul Kasbekar, Parveen Hashmi
Run Time: 2 hour 8 Minutes
