Why Cheat India movie review: One is left wondering, why?

Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Snigdhdadeep Chatterjee Director: Soumik Sen Dreams, aspirations, competition, achievements and all that fills the minds of the young in India forms a dangerous concoction that kills creativity, encourages baser instincts to come to the fore, and that snowballs into a major crisis eventually. If you thought that Soumik Sen’s Why Cheat India comes up with an answer, or at least looks at the aforementioned psychological concerns among children and their behavioural issues that often lead to suicides with grave concern, you’d be disappointed. While it does focus on a number of existing malpractices in our country’s education system, or the whole concept of buying one’s way through education, jobs and earnings, it loses track midway, and becomes yet another film where there is a “hero” who may have erred, but still has a heart of gold. As a theme, Why Cheat India picks one of the most pressing stories on the education system of India, with more and more gullible students desperate to please their families’ dream get trapped in the quagmire of cheating, only to procure a seat in their desired college. The overstretched film also makes you wonder why the CBFC insisted on affixing “Why” before the title “Cheat India”, when in reality, the title serves as a homonym: the first meaning eggs you on to go ahead, and deceive and double-cross to one’s detriment or to one’s heart’s content; the other gives the image of the vast country as the one with unscrupulous morality as the basic fibre.