'Srikanth' movie review: A straight biopic marred by melodrama

Directed by Tushar Hiranandani (‘Scam 2003: The Telgi Story’), Srikanth is an adulatory and simplistic biopic of Srikanth Bolla, the first international visually-impaired student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who goes on to be the founder of Bollant Industries, a recycled packaging paper company, with prominent investors like former president APJ Abdul Kalam and Ratan Tata. It’s a great premise, one that required a deeper and nuanced study, but the makers decide to go for a derivative telling, laced with scenes which are desperate for claps and hoots.

It’s also told in a numbing linearity. Srikanth’s father, as mentioned earlier, ultimately doesn’t end up burying him after discovering he is blind. Growing up, the boy shows signs of genius. He can orally solve for X, he submits his answer sheet in an exam before everybody else, he can outsmart even those with sight in a chess game. But when Srikanth is denied the Science stream in Higher Secondary, he decides to sue the Indian education system.

After a courtroom scene that can put ‘Damini’ (1993) to shame, Srikanth wins the case. He also gets selected for the Indian blind cricket team but has to abandon his dream of wearing the blue jersey, to follow the bigger dream of studying at MIT. He finds love, comes back to India, meets an investor, starts Bollant, is labelled ‘God’ by the differently abled, becomes a megalomaniac, realises his follies and ultimately finds his way back home.