Student of the Year 2 aims to stop Avengers: Endgame juggernaut, bring audience back for Bollywood

Image: Twitter/@DharmaMovies

It is the Avengers: Endgame wave all over as the Hollywood biggie has turned out to be a global phenomenon within 10 days. So much so that the effect has been felt in India too, where the superhero film is running loose with nothing stopping it.

Well, come this Friday, the juggernaut could possibly be stopped with a Bollywood biggie — Student of the Year 2. The youth flick is a big screen experience, as promised by producer Karan Johar with his director Punit Malhotra pretty much taking the vision forward with second in the franchise.

The first one was a career launching affair as it brought Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt and Sidharth Malhotra on the radar. Now, something similar is expected for Student of the Year 2 too which has Tara Sutaria and Ananya Pandey making their debut.

They also benefit from the star presence of Tiger Shroff. The youngster delivered a blockbuster in the form of Baaghi 2 a little over a year ago and has been quite popular amongst the masses, especially children. With Student of the Year 2, he is returning as a student no less, which is quite a transition when one compares this with his last role as a commando.

As for audiences, they would indeed be looking forward to a quintessential Bollywood entertainer with Student of the Year 2. After all, it has been more than a month since a Bollywood film really made an impression.

It was all going well till the release of Akshay Kumar's Kesari, which turned out to be a Rs 150-crore club success. However, after that big ticket flick, Kalank did not do well and Romeo Akbar Walter too just about covered its costs. The Tashkent Files has surprised but then it is not quite an all-India level money spinner.

With commercial failures like Junglee, Notebook and Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota in the recent times and Blank as well as Setters not quite setting the screens on fire, all eyes are on Student of The Year 2 to make it big. After all, the year started quite well with a flurry of successes and hence it seems rather surprising that the momentum has slipped of late.

Thankfully though, audiences have been receptive to films across various genres. Patriotism (Uri - The Surgical Strike, Manikarnika - The Queen of Jhansi), action drama (Kesari), comedy (Total Dhamaal), musical (Gully Boy), romcom (Luka Chuppi), thriller (Badla) genres have all been lapped up by the target audiences and now that a youth entertainer is coming in the form of Student of the Year 2, one hopes that kids and youth lap it up with glee.

Of course, the fantasy world of Student of the Year 2 has been questioned ever since the promo has arrived.

“Where are such colleges? Who wears such dresses? Are such sports events for real?” are some of the questions been asked. Well, to jog one's memory, similar were the kind of reactions seven years ago when Student of the Year had released. It is just that social media was not as much in vogue as it is today and trolling or memes were still in their infancy. Moreover, the film had been accepted by the audiences and in the process gave birth to a franchise.

No wonder, all associated with Student of the Year 2 would be aiming to take forward the franchise and win over the audience all over. Vishal-Shekhar have continued as the composers for the film and they have done well to ensure that by and large the soundtrack stays peppy. Moreover, director Punit Malhotra has an eye for visuals and that seems apparent here as well.

What we wait to see now is how the content eventually plays in the film. The promotional and marketing drive has been there for the film and the release would be huge as well since there is no other Hindi film arriving alongside. The stage has been set for the film and all it needs to do now is rock-and-roll and bring audiences back in theatres for a Bollywood film.

Come Friday, we will know if that indeed turns out to be the case.

(Joginder Tuteja is a trade expert and film critic, and loves to talk and write about anything that is related to films. Views are personal)