Serious Men review: "Satirical take on the serious subject of class & caste!!!"

Almost 70 years has passed since we have adopted our Constitution which was drawn up by the visionary Dr.B.R Ambedkar. One of the key points mentioned in it is the need for equality & fraternity, and though we have progressed by leaps & bounds as a nation; discrimination based on social hierarchy still continues to be a significant bane. Ironically, both Andhra & Telangana where caste based killings are a routine affair, recently announced about their plan to build statues of Ambedkar. Will it make any change to the life of discriminated individuals? Of course not, after all it is merely vote bank politics. This is the subject that Sudhir Mishra has tackled in his satirical celluloid creation “Serious Men” that released on Netflix last weekend.

Ayyan Mani (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is the PA to Dr. Arvind Acharya (Nassar), one of the prominent astronomers in the nation who was working on ‘alien/space microbes’ & barely displayed an iota of respect to his subordinate. This attitude from his boss ate on Ayyan’s mind as he felt that it was primarily because he wasn’t as educated & also coz he was a Dalit. He believed that the only way that his son could rise up the social strata was to provide him with the best educational opportunities possible. With time, things started to pan out much better than Ayyan had anticipated as his son, Adi (Aakshath Das) was a genius & the cynosure of all eyes. But will Adi be able to cope up with the mounting media attention & the pressure from his father???

It’s been quite a while since I have watched Sudhir Mishra’s movies though most of us would have definitely watched Season 1 of the Hotstar web series “Hostages” which was damn impressive. Based on Manu Joseph’s novel, it is humorous, engaging & yet makes us think at the same time regarding the plight of those people discriminated on the basis of their caste. The extent to which Ayyan plans his moves so that his son is held in high regard by the society was interesting but the manner in which the story concluded was definitely not what I had expected. This does not imply that everything has to be rosy at the end but the message it conveyed surely send out the wrong signals when the whole perspective of the subject is concerned. All the technical aspects, be it Karel Antonin’s music or Alexander Sukala’s visuals were executed aptly.

As expected, Nawazuddin was fantastic as the protagonist who is aware about his situation but still had the belief and the shrewdness as to how he can take his family up the social ladder. Apart from him, both Aakshath & Indira Tiwari essayed their roles really well while Nassar & the rest of the cast did their parts aptly.

Verdict: Caste discrimination is a topic that has been discussed earlier but even then this flick manages to engage us due to the satirical manner in which it is presented. There are many sequences that make us laugh and think, though I felt that the climax was rather underwhelming. However, it is a movie that still deserves to be watched!!!

Rating: 3.25/5

Regards…Ben