Tushar Hiranandani’s ‘Srikanth’ downplays the struggles of a visually impaired achiever and gives us a relentlessly upbeat, simplistic feel-good tale

The film stars a terrific Rajkummar Rao, along with Jyotika, Alaya F, Sharad Kelkar. The narrative clicks only in the last stretch, when we get to see shades of grey.

In the early 1990s, a boy is born in a village in Andhra Pradesh. The child cannot see. The parents are poor, and the prospect of raising a visually impaired son is terrifying – and relatives and neighbours suggest some sort of mercy killing. The father takes the suggestion seriously, and when his wife protests, he utters one of the best lines of dialogue I have heard at the movies this year. “Abhi isse zyada pyaar nahin hai. Kam taqleef hoga.” Taken literally, he’s saying that it’s better we kill him before we get more attached to him. But consider, also, the desperation in that chilling line. Of course, the father changes his mind, otherwise we would not have this biopic of Srikanth Bolla. But we get another reminder of the difficulties that lie ahead, through the song “Papa kehte hain” from Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. It’s this lyric: “Magar yeh to koi na jaane ke meri manzil hai kaahan!” No one knows what Srikanth’s destination is, what’s going to become of him.

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