Pareeksha
On: Zee5
Dir: Prakash Jha
Cast: Adil Hussain, Priyanka Bose, Shubham
Rating: 

Of course you know this already — this is a Prakash Jha film. Only reiterating, for you to see it through that lens, foremost; and place it within his body of work first. Only then will the film — shorn of dramatic highs and lows, and yet stuffed with several over-the-top and obvious moments — will keep you patiently engaged, rather than turning into a pareeksha (test) of patience, instead.

That Jha, 68, has been merging political/social commentary with mainstream entertainment, starring the likes of the hardcore action-hero Ajay Devgn in the lead (GangaaJal, 2003), from a time when there was barely such a thing as an urban-multiplex culture, let alone a Netflix/OTT film, is a feat, I suspect, one doesn't acknowledge enough.

Pareeksha, as the title suggests, or Agony Pareeksha, as it should've been called, is about education for kids in a country where the gulf between private and government school makes all the difference between a future, and the lack thereof. Surely you've seen, say, most recently Saket Chaudhary's Hindi Medium (2017), on the same subject. Also, that education in India is essentially an examination system cannot be over-stated. And it isn't here either.