Aarakshan
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Prakash Jha
Screenplay by	Anjum Rajabali Prakash Jha
Produced by	Prakash Jha Firoz A. Nadiadwala
Starring	Amitabh Bachchan Saif Ali Khan Manoj Bajpayee Deepika Padukone Prateik Babbar
Cinematography	Sachin Krishn
Edited by	Santosh Mandal
Music by	Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Production company	Prakash Jha Productions
Distributed by	Base Industries Groups
Release date	August 12, 2011 (2011-08-12)
Running time	164 minutes[1]
Country	Template:Film India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹42 crore (US$5.0 million)[2]
Box office	₹58.5 crore (US$7.0 million)[3] (worldwide)

Aarakshan (Hindi: आरक्षण, translation: Reservation) is a 2011 Hindi film starring Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone. Directed by Prakash Jha, the film is a socio-political drama based on the controversial policy of caste based reservations in government jobs and educational institutions. Like the majority of Jha's films, it has a simplistic take on complex social and economic issues. The film also stars Prateik Babbar and Manoj Bajpayee and was released on August 12, 2011.

Prof. Prabhakar Anand (Amitabh Bachchan) is the principal of a college and is very idealistic. He has a soft corner for the financially weak students including the Dalits. He runs special coaching classes at his house free of cost for the needy students. He has a strong liking for Deepak Kumar (Saif Ali Khan), his student, who soon starts teaching in his college as a stop-gap arrangement before he goes away to America. Deepak and Poorbi (Deepika Padukone), daughter of Anand, are in love with each other. Sushant Seth (Prateek Babbar), who belongs to the high caste and rich class, is also a student of the college.

One day, soon after the Supreme Court has upheld the quota system of the government, there is tension in the college between students of the economically backward classes, who stand to gain because of the quota policy, and of the affluent class, who now have to contend with the reservation policy in spite of otherwise being comparatively more merit-worthy. This prompts vice principal Mithilesh Singh (Manoj Bajpai) to call the police to control the situation, something that doesn’t go down well with Anand who pulls up Mithilesh for his hasty act of summoning the police on the college premises. Close on the heels of this incident, there is a war of words between Mithilesh, Deepak and Sushant. Anand suspends Sushant and also asks Deepak to leave when Deepak refuses to calm down and instead, emotionally hurt as he is a Dalit, speaks rather rudely to Anand, even accusing him of casteist behaviour.

The face-off between Anand and Deepak leads to a breakup between Deepak and Poorbi who asks him to apologise to her father or forget her forever. Meanwhile, the trustees of the college, in cahoots with Mithilesh, manipulate things in such a way that Anand is asked to step down from the principal’s post when he questions Mithilesh about the private coaching classes he runs as his side business in spite of the college rules not allowing him to do so. What’s worse, Mithilesh teaches in his coaching classes during the time he ought to be in college. Once Anand is thrown out, Mithilesh is promoted as the new principal.

Further humiliation awaits Anand. A house he owned and had, on humanitarian grounds, allowed his friend’s two sons to use to run computer classes, is given on rent by the two sons to Mithilesh to run his coaching class. Anand is now angry with Mithilesh for having played dirty politics with him. Homeless now as the accommodation provided by the college has had to be vacated by him, Anand is at his wits’ end.

He soon starts coaching students for free in a cow shed which is bang opposite his own house (occupied by Mithilesh for running his coaching class). Deepak returns from America on learning about Anand’s state. Sushant, too, comes to support Anand when he realises that Anand is indeed a genuine man.

In the end, Anand's free coaching classes attract students from various backgrounds, resulting in an exodus from Mithilesh's coaching classes, as Anand's unique style of teaching has impressed upon students and led them to succeed in board exams. Threatened by Anand's success, Mithilesh utilizes his political and police connections to destroy the cow shed on the grounds of illegal usage of government property. While the bulldozers are on the march to destroy the cow shed, Anand gives an emphatic, emotional filled speech, aiming to alert the general public of individuals like Mithilesh who aim to exploit the differences of individuals based on their economic standing and educational opportunities. In the end, Mrs. Shakuntala Thakral (Hema Malini) returns from her retirement place in Rishikesh and stops the activities of Mithilesh by placing a call to the state Chief Minister. She is impressed by the effort of Anand and commends him for his leadership in face of adversity. She urges him to enter a new phase of life, by becoming in charge of a new remedial center that will be financed by her trust fund and will aim to provide free tuition courses to those who desire a bias-free education. The film ends with the inauguration of the "Shakuntala Thakral Remedial Center".

• Amitabh Bachchan as Prabhakar Anand
• Saif Ali Khan as Deepak Kumar
• Deepika Padukone as Poorbi Anand
• Manoj Bajpayee as Mithilesh Singh
• Prateik Babbar as Sushant Seth
• Tanvi Azmi as Mrs. Prabhakar Anand
• Hema Malini as Shakuntala Thakral (Tai)-guest appearance
• Chetan Pandit
• Mukesh Tiwari as Inspector
• Yashpal Sharma as Shambhu Kaka
• Darshan Jariwala as College Trustee
• Saurabh Shukla as Education Minister
• Vinay Apte
• Anita Kanwar
• S. M. Zaheer
• Aanchal Munjal
• Rahul Daksh

Shooting began on 15 January 2011. Director Prakash Jha finished casting but the male lead was not finalized. Ajay Devgan was first considered for the role, however Ajay had many other projects in hand, including Golmaal 3 and Singham. So Jha decided to cast Saif Ali Khan.^[4] Khan found it very hard to juggle between two films at once because he had to learn Sanskrit for his role in the film. Most of the shooting took place in Minal Residency, Oriental College, Upper Lake in Bhopal.^[5] The shooting finished in early March 2011.

Aarakshan mostly garnered mixed reviews. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama rated it with 4 stars and said - "On the whole, Aarakshan communicates an engaging story with very relatable characters. It's a movie that is truly inspiring and thought-provoking, but at the same time, its running time [almost 2.45 hours] is a deterrent.(...) Aarakshan not only works as a film, but also as a tool to drive home a forceful message. It's a daring, heroic, commanding and an engaging film that shouldn't be missed!". He also praised the performance of of the leads.^[6] Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India gave it 3 stars and said - "Sad. Because as a film on the issue of reservation, Aarakshan was rocking till the first half. But as an omnibus on the travails of India's education system, it flounders into no-man's land. Watch it for the intermittent high drama and the gritty performances, scattered as they are."^[7] Soumil Shukla of FilmiTadka gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote in his review - "Screenplay and direction are two branches which are the main weak points of this self proclaimed ‘socio-political drama’. The characters and situations are surprisingly underdeveloped and half baked, a far cry from some of Anjum Rajabali’s or Prakash Jha’s previous work."^[8] Dainik Bhaskar awarded three stars in their review and wrote - "Watch it for the conflicts between the characters and an outstanding performance by Amitabh Bachchan. On the flipside, if you expect drama and finesse that you witnessed in Prakash Jha’s last release ‘Rajneeti’, you will be disappointed."^[9] Vandana Krishnan from Behindwoods rated it 1.5/5 and said that the film represents "Great bottle bad wine" further citing "Overall, the film falls short of the expectations the trailer, start cast and story had created."^[10] Saibal Chatterjee from NDTV gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars and said: "Given all the pre-release brouhaha over its emotive subject matter (leading to several states banning its public screening), Aarakshan is quite a copout. It ends up being more about the depredations of the nation’s education mafia than the vexed question of job and college quotas for backward caste candidates and its fallout.The basic premise is rooted in the real world all right and the film might touch some raw nerves. But the dramatization of the conflict over the quota raj that divides India down the middle tends to border on the excessively shrill, if not completely shallow." ^[11] Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairman Leela Samson said that Aarakshan was a good film about education but "unfortunately hit troubled political situations'.^[12]

Sukanya Venkatraghavan of Filmfare gave it 2 stars out of 5, stating "The problem with Aarakshan is its meandering graph. It starts off solidly enough, keeping up a pace that will engross you until interval time except for two totally unnecessary songs. From there on, the film sheds it’s theme of ideals and becomes a one on one contest that, to put it really tritely, is a tug of war between two coaching classes. The dialogue is strong and opinionated and actors like Saif Ali Khan and Manoj Bajpai do everything to get you to like the film (...)Aarakshan has all the right intentions but it is a tad confusing in its stance. Of course ultimately it shows the triumph of selfless dedication to the cause of education and there is no faulting that. One does walk away with some reservations though."^[13] Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave it 2 out of 5 stars, calling it "a deathly boring slog" and adding: "With so much to say, the movie drags on endlessly, with over-written scenes, over-the-top emotions and dialogues that are so heavy, they end up being inaccessible. Of the performances, every actor seems to go through the motions and only Manoj Bajpai inserts some spark onto the screen. 'Aarakshan' is well-intentioned, but you can't shake off the feeling that you're trapped by a three-hour-long tirade. I'm going with a generous two out of five for Prakash Jha's 'Aarakshan'. If you don't want to be lectured, stay at home."^[14]

Aarakshan released in 1085 cinemas across India.^[15] The film saw 50-70% occupancy on its first day of release, while in Delhi, it opened at around 60-70%.^[16] The film's business was affected due to the bans imposed on its screening in Punjab, UP and Andhra. It went on to collect ₹4.47 crore on the first day.^[17] The opening weekend collections of the film have been around ₹ 18.33 crore.^[18] The film collected ₹6.50 crore nett on Monday, which was the holiday of Independence Day, taking it's four day total to ₹25 crore nett.^[19] However, Aarakshan fell badly at the box office in its second weekend. The film grossed has grossed ₹37.53 crore nett on Indian boxoffice in two weeks.^[20]

Moreover, the film fared poorly in the overseas markets. It grossed £76,000 in the United Kingdom, $345,000 in North America, $190,000 in UAE and $82,000 in Australia, taking it's total overseas gross to $900,000 over its first weekend. Box Office India declared it a flop. ^[21]

The soundtrack is composed by Shankar Ehsaan Loy. The album consists of six tracks. The soundtrack features the vocal talents of Mohit Chauhan, Shreya Ghoshal, Mahalakshmi Iyer, Raman Mahadevan, Shankar Mahadevan and classical singer Channulal Mishra. The concept of song "Kaun Si Dor" was of Prasoon Joshi, the songwriter of the album who came up with the first lines of the song. The trio then went on to develop the song and roped in Channulal Mishra who agreed to sing the song as per their request. The soundtrack was released on 11 July 2011.

Upon release, the album received generally mixed reviews from the critics. Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood hungama gave it 2 out of 5 stars and said: "Aarakshan doesn't boast of the kind of score that has in it to make waves commercially since almost all songs mainly have a situational appeal to them. Yes, at least 'Achha Lagta Hai' is good that prevents Aarakshan from becoming totally forgettable. However despite low expectations from the soundtrack here, the end result is far more being satisfactory."^[23] Planet Bollywood felt that Prasoon Joshi - Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy "failed to create the same magic as in Taare Zameen Par."^[24] Sheetal Tiwari of Bollyspice, in her review, described the soundtrack as "brilliant with an astounding lyrical quality." She also praised the composer trio for "their versatility to compose for any subject."^[25]

In early May 2011, civic authorities in Bhopal bulldozed the sets of Aarakshan because it was erected on disputed land.^[26]

Some pro-Dalit groups in Kanpur protested Saif Ali Khan being cast in the role of a Dalit.^[27] They objected to the actor's royal background and saw his role of a so-called Dalit as an insult to the community.^[28]

The film was banned in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh before its theatrical release. The Punjab government banned the film on fears that certain scenes and dialogues in the film may inflame the passion of some communities in Punjab.^[29] Mayawati government banned the film in UP for two months on grounds that it could create law and order problem in the state.^[30]

National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) viewed the movie after getting complaints of its objectionable content. “While the overall theme of the film is not objectionable, it is loaded with anti-Dalit and anti-reservation dialogues,” said NCSC chairman P.L. Punia. However, the Board, which granted the film a U/A certification, said it would defend Jha's right to free expression.^[31] In reply to this, the director decided to remove 'objectionable' scenes from the film in a bid to prevent further backlash.^[32] Prakash Jha and producers of Aarakshan moved the Supreme Court to lift the ban on the film in the three states.^[33] Supreme Court lifted the ban on Aarakshan in Uttar Pradesh later.^[34]

Apart from the aforementioned announced bans, there was an unexpected mid screening ban on the film in the multiplexes of Gurgaon, on the night of its release.^[35]

• Official website
• Aarakshan at IMDb
• Aarakshan at AllMovie
• Aarakshan at Box Office Mojo
• Aarakshan at Rotten Tomatoes
• Aarakshan at Metacritic