The material is slender and too stretched over two hours, as it goes from engineering-medicine into management, the holy grail.

The eternally amoral Emraan Hashmi plays a man helping students cheat in a film that never finds momentum.

Why Cheat India can’t decide if Rocky is a hero or villain. I don’t have a problem with that. What’s harder to take is the inconsistent tonality and the convoluted second act. Every time you think the film has reached a climax, Soumik tacks on another end. Because Why Cheat India wants to both celebrate and punish Rocky. But that, like the hybrid of fact and fiction, needed far more imagination and audacity.

The producers, clearly have a knack of picking on interesting and intriguing subjects –their last venture Neerja and Tumhari Sulu were outstanding films but this one- alas, just about makes the grade.

However, because the film’s heart is in the right place and its observations astute, Why Cheat India is worth a watch.

A jumbo mess of warped notions and random ambition, Why Cheat India trivialises education and shows sympathy for deceit

An entertaining but flawed look at the mafia that promotes cheating during college exams.

“Why Cheat India” might not be the definitive film on the flaws of the Indian education system, but it is effective enough to give audiences a jolt.

This one leaves a bitter aftertaste. 

The film starts off well but loses track before it can reach halftime…

…is informatively entertaining and Emraan Hashmi makes sure to maintain this throughout. Yet another, honest attempt by Emraan to prove why he can do a lot more. Skipping the preachy route, the movie just delves into a fun zone and that’s where it wins some brownie points.

The ‘curse of the second half’ in Hindi pictures is simply so severe, especially when it comes to films with well-known faces, that even as I find myself really enjoying a movie, there’s a radar at the back of the brain constantly cautioning one to only hope that the post-interval portions even live up to the first half — by half. If so, then as an audience, you’re pretty much through.

Emraan Hashmi plays conman with flair but is bogged down by convoluted screenplay

The moral position of the film as well as the central protagonist feels unconvincing in its carefully cultivated ambiguity. Emraan Hashmi’s Rocky is neither a hero nor a villain but a player. Fine! But blaming the system for an individual’s duplicitous ways and then finding a convenient awakening of conscience don’t manage to hold sway. Complex problems need complex cinema. Why Cheat India prefers to stay on the surface than dig deeper.

Why Cheat India ticks off most of the boxes and Emraan Hashmi’s confident performance keeps you entertained. If only Soumik Sen’s writing and direction had a little more sharpness to it!

The movie shifts from one scam to another without much thought and relevance, presumably for shock-value. And it shows in its treatment.