Vikas Bahl's Super 30 is the story of Anand Kumar (played by Hrithik Roshan) the mathematical genius who took IIT Classes free of cost for underprivileged kids, thereby earning the wrath of other IIT coaching centers that charge a hefty sum.
The film's early portions are lovable and have a lot of heart. Anand's father is a postman and Anand loves math so much that he writes a love letter to his love interest using binary numbers! And when he gets an admission into Cambridge University by writing a research paper, he is unable to afford the expenses. His father goes the distance by trying to sell whatever he can, but in vain. Still, the effort looks completely real.
The film starts off as a film that calls out casteism. A colleague of Anand's father tells him that a king's son will only become a king, for which he replies, all those times have changed, and Anand will prove that only the talented can become a king. For some reason. Anand's caste is not revealed, in way that it fails to address the elephant in the room. As things progress, the film confuses caste with class and the film deviates from what it intends to do.
Hrithik's performance as the younger Anand looks like an extension of Rohith from Koi Mil Gaya and he exaggerates the innocence a bit too much. The same is the case with the film too. Anand's life is nothing short of inspirational, but in order to commercialize the film, the director ends up going a bit extra. During the climactic portions of the film, thugs attack Anand, and they even end up shooting him, which we've seen in a few commercial films, but the way the end is handled gives us the same feel.
The film is titled Super 30 because Anand Kumar's class has 30 students per year. There are a few rousing moments when the parallel lives of a few students of the batch are shown. The value of education hits us really hard. But the film focusses more on Anand than the children, whereas the onus should have been on the kids. The Bihari accent of most actors, including Hrithik, also looks odd.
Once the second half begins, it transforms from a film about the class to a Good Vs Bad film. At this point, the caste angle gets completely diluted. Hrithik is given a brown coloured makeup, but the reason is not convincing. If he is portraying a character from a lower caste in the society, then the question of "Should all lower caste people be dark in colour?" arises.
The best part about the film is the editing (Sreekar Prasad is the editor). The transitions between scenes look really clever and thought out. The soundtrack and visuals look solid, but not extraordinary. The actors' performances and the plot could have been handled better to make Super 30 actually Super.