Helming the second in the franchise that catapulted the careers of Alia Bhatt, Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan, would surely come with great responsibility. But Malhotra plays it on the back-foot, hoping to crack it with a formulaic plot and clichéd characters that barely go beyond the call of duty. Perhaps, it’s time for the makers to return to film school?

Tiger Shroff leads a fresh bunch of students in film so last decade in its thinking and packaging that sitting through it is like straying into a Bollywood time warp.

The dialogues sound like group chats where everyone tries to be the smartest. The songs and dances are unbearably campy. The retro number Yeh jawani hai deewani is the perfect anthem for a film dedicated to the “josh and junoon” of the young.

Sadly not this one. Not this car wreck of a movie.

The problem with the film is that it seems confused – should it be a candyfloss campus flick with hot chicks and hunky dudes or should it be a candyfloss campus flick with sports and tense moments? It ends up being neither. What remains is the candyfloss. Which, in retrospect, isn’t such a bad thing as you go for the movies to have a good time and be entertained. Student of the Year entertains but is too vanilla to have any lingering taste. In Hindi film parlance, I’d say, it’s a decent timepass film worth the popcorn. But frankly, it’s time for the students to graduate.

Tiger’s acting or plot clichés — what’s the worst part of this film?

Student of the Year 2 is all in all a light-hearted rom-com mingled with retro mixes, making the film a one-time watch.

Unless you are an ardent admirer of Tiger Shroff’s flying kicks, stay away from Student Of The Year 2

Stupidity of the year!…’Student of the Year 2 has no spunk, no plot and zero charisma

Apart from Will Smith’s miss-if-you-blink appearance, watch SOTY (2) for Tiger.  Even when things around him are caving in, his ballerina grace is intact. 

With his dancing skills and ripped body, Shroff is perfectly suited to the role of Rohan, but there is nothing in this film that we haven’t seen him do before. A stony-faced Tara Sutaria comes off as too self-conscious in her attempt to play Mia. It is Ananya Pandey who stands out among what is otherwise a mediocre cast. As Shreya, she displays some spunk and life, and is the best thing about this film. 

To be fair SOTY2 tries to be a little different, by adding a little Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar to K2H2. The poor “Pishorilal ka fukra” gets pitched against the “St Teresa dude” in the game of kabaddi, in much the same way as Model had a face off with Rajput in a cycle race in JJWS. But caught between two cult films, SOTY2 isn’t able to acquire a personality of its own.

The Karan Johar produced film is silly and formulaic with stock characters who are just pretty to ogle.

The running time is too long for what is, essentially, yet-another-buffed-up-version of Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander crossed with Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. This class of 2019 has predictable beats, which is to be expected in an underdog story, but that it is so stilted is disappointing.

Tiger Shroff, Ananya Panday and Tara Sutaria star as a new batch of students/professionally bred actors in sequel to Karan Johar’s 2012 film.

SOTY2 can be described as a parody of Main Hoon Na, which itself was a parody of every desi college-campus movie ever made; a parody of a parody is called…reality

About the report card on the film, the SOTY second edition, although it does not pass with flying colours, does make the grade.

Overall, this chapter doesn’t have much of that ishq wala love, but there is ample dosti, kabaddi and cool stuff to keep you going. Think of it as a much snazzier version of ‘Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikander’ minus the realism.