I share a first name with Siddharth Malhotra, and perhaps that is why I love Student Of The Year. I mean who wouldn’t? Being a young, hot fresher who just makes heads turn when he steps in? It’s something he and I share in common. If you were to ask me what my guilty pleasure movie is, I’d say SOTY more often than not.
Keep in mind that I say SOTY with pride. Why should a guilty pleasure be shunned?
The phrase “guilty pleasure” assumes a crime, a victim, and a verdict. I have looked for the victim. Nobody was harmed by my seventh viewing of a film about two boys and a trophy (wink wink). The verdict came from a jury I never met, and I would like to appeal it.
Consider what SOTY commits to. St. Teresa’s has a fountain, a dean, and no visible classes. Nobody studies. Nobody submits anything. Every person in the building behaves as if the trophy will decide the rest of their lives, and they do it with total sincerity. Two best friends become rivals, a girl sits between them, and a coach supervises with the patience of a man who has accepted his job description.
Now to economics. I study it, so I believe in revealed preferences: you learn what people value by watching what they choose, repeatedly. I have chosen this film repeatedly. The data is in, and the data says I like it. Apologising for a result I produced myself feels statistically unwise.
So who decided the film should carry shame? We respect movies that are slow, difficult, and sad, and we treat bright ones with suspicion. Somebody made that ranking, and enjoyment ended up at the bottom of it, which is odd, because enjoyment was the reason we bought the ticket. A film’s first job is to give you a good time. SOTY does that job every single time, which is more consistent than most things with a five-star review.
It also knows its audience. Every campus clichĂ© shows up on schedule: the rivalry, the crush, the friend who changes, the person who takes everything slightly too seriously. As a first-year, you watch it and think, this is nothing like my life. A few trimesters later, you look up and realise it’s exactly like your life, minus the lighting and the attendance policy. I have seen people here treat a hostel election with the gravity of the Student Of The Year trophy. I’m not naming anyone.
That is a film doing its homework, and I respect homework.
So when someone asks for my guilty pleasure movie, I say SOTY, and I say it with my chin up, the way one walks in slow motion. Somewhere, a breeze should arrive.
I’ll wait.