The trailer of the much-awaited film Student of the Year 2 just dropped and my, oh my, it was all worth the wait. Starring Tiger Shroff, Ananya Panday, and Tara Sutaria the film is a sequel to the hugely successful Karan Johar directorial Student of the Year that launched today’s young superstars Sidharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan way back in 2012. Coming after a long gap of seven years, SOTY 2 is equally ostentatious, opulent and magnificent keeping in line with a Dharma Productions film.
Although SOTY 2 is also based in the fictional Saint Teresa Academy it is different than what we saw in SOTY. Here are a few salient features that we noticed in the trailer as compared to the first part.
The competition- Student of the Year (in SOTY) vs Dignity Trophy (in SOTY 2)
The sequel has gone one step ahead from its prequel. Alia, Varun and Sidharth starrer SOTY was an intra-college competition but in SOTY 2 the competition is inter-collegiate with different colleges competing against each other on different parameters.
Bollywood Debuts
SOTY had an all-new star cast with the three lead actors making their Bollywood debut whereas in SOTY 2 we have Tara and Ananya making their first onscreen appearance because Tiger is already a bonafide new-age superstar. In fact, the makers revealed that taking Tiger was a conscious decision as they felt that to essay the main lead’s character he will be perfect with his youthful looks, martial arts skills, and athletic abilities.
A highlight on sports
SOTY’s premise was a competition that judged the best student on parameters such as dance and sports. So we had Varun and Sidharth battle it out on the athletics field, proving their supremacy in cycling and running. However, in the SOTY2 trailer, we get to see Tiger bringing the indigenous sport of Kabaddi to the fore. He is agile, supple and brings his martial arts skills perfectly to the sport.
Glamour and Bling
SOTY was extremely glamorous for the year and time it released in. It showed a school that was different than all the schools combined and had opulence and richness dripping out of every nook and corner. However, in SOTY 2 the glamour and bling have been taken one notch higher.
Plot
SOTY was mainly based on an intra-school competition to find out the best student of the year from one batch of students. However, in SOTY 2 we see Tiger as a student who has earned the admission to the school through scholarship like Sidharth in the prequel but soon gets rusticated for some reason. He is seen openly challenging Aditya Seal in the trailer and eventually gets back at the school and Aditya through the inter-collegiate competition. SOTY 2 will remind you of Aamir Khan’s Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander because in SOTY 2 also a not-so-elite college and not so rich student will eventually clinch the trophy.
Songs
The common factor and the high point of both films are its music. SOTY had amazing music which is still popular today and SOTY 2 also seems to be bang on point as well. In fact, both films have a retro-remix song. The first installment had Disco Deewane whereas the sequel has Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.
The love-triangle and story continuation
Both films have a love triangle at its center. However, in the prequel, we had two-guys-and-a-girl the sequel has two-girls-and-a-guy. The chemistry between the protagonists is crackling and they look great together on screen. The story also has maintained its trajectory from an intra-college competition to an inter-collegiate competition.
Karan Johar’s idea of romance
Hate him or love him, Karan Johar has moulded an entire generation’s perception of love right from his debut film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai to now Student of the Year 2. The love triangle in the film also seems to be interesting.
The student has become the teacher
Karan directed Student of the Year and now he has passed the baton to his student Punit Malhotra. From what we can deduce from the trailer Punit has done a commendable job with Student of the Year 2 and the student-director has finally graduated and become a full-fledged principal of the school in his own right.
Student of the Year 2 releases on May 10, 2019.