Crash Course is a drama TV series directed by Vijay Maurya and stars Annu Kapoor, Bhanu Uday, Pranay Pachauri and Udit Arora, alongside other cast members. The series has 10 episodes, each with a runtime of around 50 minutes.
Amazon Prime Video describes the series as:
Crash Course is a drama series that follows the cutthroat rivalry between two giant coaching institutes, and the consequences on the lives of the students who come there to study. On this journey of adulthood, the students find friendship, experience first love, heartbreaks, peer pressure, and lose the innocence of youth.
– Crash Course Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
As if we hadn’t gotten enough shows based in Kota already, Prime Video has brought forth another one based on the lives of the students in its various institutes and the competition among these institutes.
Obviously, the word Kota immediately brings back shows like Kota Factory or Laakhon Mein Ek, and you wouldn’t be wrong to compare them. Crash Course is a mix of these different shows but much lighter and looks at the competition among the owners of the coaching institutions instead of the horrible competition taking place in them.
Crash Course‘s first moving part is R J Jindal, who has big dreams for his institute. As he tries to snuff out his competition, you see the background of Kota’s famed institutes and how to function. Of course. sitting in some other part of India, it’s difficult to know whether this is 100% true, but it does provide a playing field for what to expect and why these institutes records such high student numbers as well as suicide rates.
Jindal and Batra, in a bid to come out as the winner in their fights, make their students lives insufferable and control them. The goal here isn’t to see them actually learn something, but to come out at the top. True for most educational institutes in India, you’d be able to relate with the series on this account – the poster deftly showcases these students lives and what their lives turn into after they get into the institutes.
The politics in the show is much like what we have seen before but still keeps us somewhat occupied. It’s interesting to watch but takes a long time to build up momentum. Till then, you try to find a way to connect with the constant bickering from the adults and their attempts to one-up the other. Sadly, it might just remind you of your own struggles in school or college – a grim reminder that it’s all too common, regardless of where you’re studying.
However, I think the length is somewhat of a problem for the series. That’s something I genuinely feel the series could’ve dealt with better – at 10 50-minute-long episodes, the series is too long and doesn’t have enough momentum to keep everything moving for the most part. Scenes are repeated, and tropes are introduced relentlessly. Unnecessary discussions and over-use of songs pad the runtime for no reason. A crisper storyline would’ve made more sense for a show like this.
Also Read: Cafe Minamdang Episode 12 Recap and Review: Romance and Arson
Now, since they do focus on so many things, you get different flavours from the series. The friendships and dynamics of the students are sweet, and albeit a bit much sometimes (again, the sheer number of songs), they still add some entertainment to their and our lives. These moments make the series feel whole, although it does go against the notion that students constantly study in Kota and do nothing else.
I must give kudos to the fact that not everything and everyone in Kota is study-oriented; people find ways to have fun. That’s true for any and all forms of study. Of course, I don’t know how realistic or true it is, but it definitely adds some form of humanity and relatability to the storyline. As the institutes find more ways to go against each other, the students’ lives are directly affected. These are the stories that will keep you occupied for most of the runtime, as you want to see these kids win in every sphere of their lives.
Crash Course is a rather mellow depiction of Kota. Sure, we’re reminded again and again that lots of people commit suicide thanks to the pressures of getting into IIT. However, we don’t feel those pressures. In spite of the cute relationships, the bickering among the institute heads is rather annoying and counterproductive to the thrill that we seek in the show. That being said, at least the students’ struggles, in the institute, with their studies or with their personal lives, are quite interesting to watch and prove to be the storyline of the institute heads take a lot of time to become mildly interesting, by which time you start to lose hope somewhat.
Also Read: Ricardo Quevedo: Tomorrow Will Be Worse Review: Hilarious Yet Family-Friendly Netflix Stand-Up
The few twists that the series does provide can be made out way in advance. When something innocuous is honed in on for far too long, you know this is going to come into play later on. As the kids get into relationships and we see small snippets of these people’s lives and problems, you care about the students and their struggles, but the end results fall short because the story, in the end, isn’t as tightly bound as you’d like it to be.
The fresh-faced IIT aspirant, personally, gives the emotional connection that we need to stay with this 10-episode-long show. The adults are annoying to watch who bicker like school children and have high and corrupt ambitions. Annu Kapoor is great as Jindal, although my memory of him is forever tainted by Paurashpur (a trauma I will never get over).
The students, comprising Riddhi Kumar, Anushka Kaushik, Hridhu Haroon, Mohit Solanki and Bhavesh Balchandani, alongside others, are very fun to watch as they try to live their lives in high-pressure situations while also balancing their personal lives and testing their limits and living their dreams.
Summing Up: Crash Course
Crash Course is not new or unique, and neither is it very thrilling, but at least we get some realistic situations in the students’ lives to balance it out. The drama shows us what we expect and is lukewarm at best. So, if you’re in the mood for watching some students trying to live their lives in situations that you will see from a mile away, then this is the show for you. However, at almost 10 hours, it’s a bit much.
Crash Course is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Also Read: Hunted Episode 1 Recap and Review: Killing Your Own Son
I will rate 5/5