"Starting Line" tells the story of a pair of parents, Raj and Mita, in order to prevent their daughter Pia from losing at the starting line, they tried their best to send her to a famous school, and this so-called famous school is just a kindergarten That's it.
The theme of "Starting Line" is very bold, criticizing the problems of class solidification and education system in India.
class solidification
The first is the issue of class solidification, which reminds me of the science fiction novels "Supporting Humanity" and "Beijing Folding".
In "Beijing Folding", by telling the story of the protagonist Lao Dao crossing the three spaces of the poor, the middle and the rich, the face of the three classes is shown on the side.
In "Starting Line", the Raj family also travels through three classes.
In this film, Indians are divided into three classes: upper, middle and lower classes: the upper class, the middle class, and the lower class.
The problem of class solidification in Indian society is very serious, and the children of the upper class will also be the upper class in the future.
As Mrs Rich put it: "We send them to the top schools in Delhi so they can grow up to make a difference and build their future."
Children in the middle class will also be in the middle class in the future.
As the consultant put it: "If Pia doesn't get into a top kindergarten, then she won't get into any good university in our country, and if she doesn't have a good university on her resume, she can't get into a multinational company."
Children at the bottom of society will also be at the bottom of society in the future.
As a neighbor said: "How to survive in poverty is an art. I have rich experience. My father is poor, my grandfather is poor, my great-grandfather is very poor, anyway, my ancestors are very poor, and I come from a poor family."
In order to integrate into the upper echelons of society, Mitta was determined to send her daughter to the top five schools, because she felt that "the education that we have received cannot be given to her daughter", on the grounds that "the public school cannot learn anything", indicating that people have formed fixed thinking.
The top-ranked Derry Grammar School only accepted students who lived 3 kilometers nearby, so Raj immediately spent a lot of money on school district housing.
But they found themselves totally out of touch with the upper echelons of society, with rich English-speaking kids not playing with Hindi-speaking Piya.
Because English is not only a language in India, but also a class.
In order to get the admission form, ordinary people like Raj need to queue up early in the morning, some come at 5 o'clock, some come at 4 o'clock, and some come at 12 o'clock in the morning. The upper echelons of the relationship can go through the back door.
This series of phenomena shows that the gap between the Raj family and the upper classes of society is not only in wealth, but like an insurmountable gap.
And when they tried to integrate into the bottom of society, they also faced huge difficulties.
Raj risks jail time to find scalpers and help him forge poverty certificates.
In order to cope with the investigation by the school staff, they deliberately moved to the slum, with sewers, garbage, and rats.
Since Raj's hands are very tender and not like the poor at all, the neighbors took Raj to squeeze the bus to work.
To exaggerate, he is going to squeeze the bus with 450 people.
Raj was simply incapable of doing the physical work in the factory, and he could only go to the bathroom twice a day, and he was fined for the third time.
On the other hand, Mita wants to be bullied for fetching water, and wants to please the staff when she buys rice.
It turns out that they can't learn to be rich, and they can't learn to be poor.
Facts have proved that the gap between the bottom, middle and upper classes of society in India is extremely large, and it is not only the gap between the rich and the poor, but also social, status, rights, ways of thinking and other aspects.
What is the way to change class?
Not forcibly integrating into the upper or lower classes of society like Raj, but education.
However, there are too many problems with the education system.
education system
A theory of origin
In the movie, a good school only accepts the upper class as much as possible. If you don’t go to a good school, it will be difficult to become an upper class, but if you don’t become an upper class, it will be difficult to be admitted to a good school... This is completely a strange circle and paradox.
2. The principal treats enrollment as a business
The principal would rather admit the children of the rich than the poor, even if the former is passed by cheating.
The principal's reasoning: If I give this degree to a poor child, how will I benefit from it?
3. Arbitrary charges
Although Derry Grammar is exempt from tuition fees for poor students, it is mandatory to pay 24,000 for extra-curricular activities.
The purpose of this is to make poor students retreat in spite of difficulties, so as to admit more rich children in disguise.
Fourth, the admission threshold is too high
Pia has to study math, swimming, English, etiquette, art, music and many other subjects, and there is no time to eat or sleep.
Aren't these courses supposed to be taught after school, how did they become entrance tests?
5. Are you recruiting students or parents?
In addition to exams for students, schools also conduct interviews with parents.
To this end, Raj and Mita enlisted a consultant to help them.
Raj and Mita also need to be trained to write an all-English admissions application for their daughter, attend school interviews, and dress up as high-class people...
Is this recruiting students or parents?
When Pia lost the election, the problem was not Pia, but Raj and Mitta.
"Your kids are fine," the consultant said. "The school doesn't want to hire the shop owner's kids. The school believes that if the kids' parents aren't well-educated, they won't pay too much attention to their kids' education."
Facts have proved that this is not recruiting students, it is recruiting parents.
Summarize
"Starting Line" is a masterpiece that explores the education system.
Piya squeezed out the place of the neighbor's son, the neighbor saw that Raj was pretending to be poor, and the series of plots such as Raj's awakening were all too coincidental.
Although it is full of routines, the lines are still very touching, thus turning corruption into magic.
For example, the neighbor's line: "Our children have no chance to get an education, you stole that opportunity, why? Because if our children are educated, they can speak English, and no one will serve you. , don't you? Aren't you sympathetic to my child? Why did you deprive him of his rights? Now you are doing charity, we don't want to be handed out, I want my child's rights, his rights were taken away by you, give your daughter."
Raj's public speech at the opening ceremony was also very contagious, criticizing people's thinking, the principal, the school, and the education system.
The fly in the ointment is that the characters in the movie are a bit masked.
The upper class is hypocritical. People are indifferent after listening to Raj's speech, and choose to remain silent even if they are touched; while the poor in the slums are warm-hearted, and their neighbors risk their lives to touch porcelain to help Raj raise money. Such a character setting seems too deliberate and biased.
But if there are good people and bad people at the top of the society in the film, and there are good people and bad people at the bottom of the society, the conflicts and contradictions are not deep enough, and it is difficult for the film to be perfect in all aspects.
In addition, the ending is also controversial.
At the end of the story, Raj leaves here and decides to send his daughter to public school.
This ending is a bit politically correct, but the term "political correctness" here is not a derogatory term.
Many netizens said that "Starting Line" was unfinished in the last ten minutes. My personal understanding is that people are rushing to go to a good school. A good school is no less than a five-star hotel, with air-conditioned classrooms, European-style canteens and heated swimming pools. The resources and facilities of public schools are getting worse and worse, and the gap between the rich and the poor and class solidification will only worsen.
The solution is that more people are willing to go to public schools and are willing to invest more resources in public schools.
Raj sent his daughter to a public school because he thought of a role model, and he hoped that others would follow his lead.
This is like crowding a bus. Everyone feels that it is a disadvantage to queue up, but if you want people to become qualified, there must be the first person in line, and then the second and third people are willing to line up.
If everyone only thinks about themselves, then the quality of people will never improve.
The same goes for school, because everyone in the movie wants to go to a good school, and everyone feels that their children will suffer if they go to public schools, so Raj is willing to be the first person.
Speaking of which, I think of the high school entrance examination.
Compared with India, if we want to enter a domestic university, we must take the college entrance examination, which is relatively fair.
The quality education in advanced countries may not apply to us, otherwise, there may be a serious class solidification and a vicious circle like a movie. Although it is very hard to prepare for the college entrance examination, at least it provides poor children with the opportunity to defeat rich children by virtue of their strength.
Perhaps, we should be thankful that our education system is not as scary as it appears in the movies.
But I still want to say: When will we be able to make such a film about education?
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