Even though it's similar in its premise, Prime Video's Crash Course is not TVF's Kota Factory; It's something else altogether!

Crash Course on Amazon Prime Video is like Euphoria of the world of Kota. Unfortunately, it lacks in being an impactful story.

A couple of students live in hostels, struggle and study in Kota for IIT while facing the politics of the tuition center, and have an exceptionally brilliant and unique Physics teacher. Sounds familiar? Of course, it does! No, I'm not talking about TVF's Kota Factory and Jeetu Bhaiya. Even though it's based on quite a similar premise of the Kota world and its trials and tribulations, Crash Course on Amazon Prime Video explores the darker alleyways of this pressure cooker of a world. Just to mark a reference, it is trying to be like EUPHORIA of Kota, where suicide, drugs, illegal abortions, and bullying is looming large with the pressure of studies and competitive politics of tuition centers to be the first in the race. But in order to be a different and darker take on the life of Kota, the show takes on much more than it can chew. While there is a point that it wants to make, it can't find its heart in the right place, and even though some parts are impactful, the show as a whole isn't.

The plotline is divided into two major segments between the eight students and the adults. The problem starts arising when the two worlds start messing too much with each other since the students are unwillingly pulled into a power battle between coaching institutes and the egoistic ambitions of the adults that start interfering with students' dreams. Spanning ten episodes, it's a fictional account of the capitalization of Kota where studying isn't about gaining knowledge anymore; rather, it's about politics, power, and money at the cost of losing the innocence of youth.

Also Read: Has Amazon Prime Video’s Crash Course passed or failed according to the Janta? Let’s find out!

Given that the show is based in Kota and is similar in premise, the comparison to TVF's Kota Factory is bound to happen. But I completely agree that this show is something else altogether, and it's not fair to compare these shows. There's no doubt that the ease with which Kota Factory flows and keeps its point, isn't something Crash Course is able to do. There's just too much chaos, darkness, and drama that could have been toned down. With too many themes taken upon its shoulders, the show actually struggles to keep up with them all. While some deserve the right attention, others just face ignorance at best. But the problem is that each theme is as sensitive as the next and if not represented well, it takes away from the show rather than adding to it.

The length of the show could have been shortened or well-balanced too. Though I like the intro sequence with Vishal Bhardwaj's voiceover, either the show is too slow-paced, especially at the start, or it starts running too fast to catch up with its own themes. The acting though is the saving grace of the writing which otherwise is faulty. Students played by Mohit Solanki, Hridhu Haroon, Anushka Kaushik, Bhavesh Balchandani, Aryan Singh, Hetal Gada, and Anvesha Vij to the veterans like Annu Kapoor alongside Bhanu Uday, Udit Arora, Pranay Pachauri, and Bidita Bag have given their best. And maybe acting takes the upper hand because the director of the show, Vijay Maurya himself is a talented actor.

While some parts of the show like the last suicide, the struggle of the girl dealing with an unwanted pregnancy, and competitive jealousy amongst friends are quite effective, the show has its very own Jeetu Bhaiya as AK Sir who is quite a popular Physics professor even if he's very different from Jeetu. He is brilliant and experimental, and his teaching methods are different. He's emotional, compassionate, trapped in the system, and real in his own way. But to be fair, each character in this show is the product of the same system one way or another, even the two rival institute owners who cannot be villanized really. So in a sense, this is more of a character-driven show than a plot-driven one as each character responds and reacts to the other.

Suicide looms large throughout the show because each time a student is going through something, you feel like they can take a drastic step like suicide which ends up happening towards the end. But then this keeps the point of the show clearly forward - how rotten the education system is, and Kota which was once a temple of knowledge, has become something completely different now.

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