I care: Naina Mathur (played by Rani Mukherjee) makes her dreams come true by becoming a teacher.

Bollywood rarely produces a movie that does not involve a love story and Hichki is one of them.

Hichki is based on a true story based on Brad Cohen’s book, Front of the Class: How Tourette Syndrome Made Me the Teacher I Never Had, which was also made into a Hollywood film.

The film tells the story of Naina Mathur (played by Rani Mukherjee), who has Tourette’s, a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by funny sounds like  “wah wah”  and “chak chak” when  speaking.

Coming from a broken home, she wants to work as a teacher but is turned downed 16 times by different schools. Until one day, she gets a call from her alma mater’s principal (Shivkumar Subramaniam) who offers her a job as a teacher.

What Naina does not realize is that she is being tasked to teach and handle unwanted, rebellious and scorned children whose parents live in a slum. The children are allowed to join the school because of a Right to Education Mandate.

Naina not only has to handle her Tourette’s, but also the kids who play pranks on her so that she will give up and leave the job.

Siddharth P. Malhotra’s direction of the movie is excellent in the sense that he manages to get the sequences right.

The messages conveyed are beautiful even if they are a bit clichéd. No doubt, we have seen many movies about rebellious students and adamant teachers but there are a few scenes that make this movie different. Like when Naina is stunned when none of the parents show up for a parents-teachers meeting.

When her colleague Wadia (played by Neeraj Kabi) sarcastically suggests that she should go to them, she takes up the challenge and goes to the slum to speak to the students’ parents.

During the slum visit scene, however, Malhotra could have done better with more creative cinematography. Most of the shots are mediocre and predictable.

Mukherjee, however, brings life to her character with her acting prowess.

She manages to convincingly portray herself as being afflicted by Tourette’s. Her acting is so convincing that at some point you want to tell her to please stop making those sounds.

The roles of Neeraj Kabi as Naina’s colleague and Sachin Pilgaonkar as her father are clichéd, but good.

Hichki runs on a script that has no surprises and a predictable storyline. The manner in which director Malhotra manages to present the clichés such as the common plot and stereotyped characters is commendable.

He also manages to educate the audience about Tourette’s and makes it look realistic through Naina. The film has borrowed many scenes from the Hollywood version, but Hichki will touch your heart.  

— Photos Courtesy of Yash Raj Films

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HICHKI

(Yash Raj Films, 118 minutes)

Directed by Siddharth P Malhotra

Starring: Rani Mukherjee, Supriya Pilgaonkar, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Shivkumar Subramiam, Neeraj Kabi

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