The Indian arm of the OTT streaming giant Netflix recently took to Twitter to release the official trailer of its upcoming project ‘Alma Matters: Inside the IIT Dream’.
The post was marked with the words “Sleepless nights, multiple interviews, borrowed suits, and one dream. Are we ready?” While the attached trailer video gave us a sneak peek of the sensitive subject matter it revolves around.
As the name and the trailer suggests, the Netflix film takes us into the quotidian lives and daily struggles of the students studying in the esteemed Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur campus).
The trailer comprises several interviews of IIT students voicing their opinions on sensitive, thought-provoking issues prevalent inside an engineering college campus.
The trailer starts off with a student saying “Sir, our parents took good care of us for 20 years and sent us here. Thinking that their son would come back with a good degree. They could keep me alive for 20 years, but you can’t for 5 years? Is this not the system’s failure as well, sir?”
The opening statement gives us a basic idea regarding the tone and seriousness of the film. The cardinal issues which the film is ostensibly trying to present, centres around subjects such as the gruelling IIT entrance exam, placement predicaments, gender bias, and even students quitting under extreme collegiate pressures.
An IIT entrance exam is considered to be one of the toughest exams for aspiring engineers in India. It is akin to what the formidable UPSC exam means for budding IAS officers.
In fact, for the latter, a profound web series called ‘Aspirants’ is already streaming on YouTube. Taking place in Old Rajinder Nagar area in Delhi, the show beautifully encapsulates the grinding journey that one has to endure, in order to crack the virtually impenetrable UPSC exam.
Regarding the life of an engineering student in India, one film which was able to do justice to some of the aforementioned issues was Rajkumar Hirani’s ‘3 Idiots’.
The film featured Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, and Sharman Joshi as three engineering students facing the pressures of getting through a reputed engineering college. Both ‘Aspirants’ and ‘3 Idiots’ are feel-good dramas besides being a critique of the prevailing educational system.
Coming back to the trailer, we also got to see the IIT Kharagpur alumni and now a celebrated comedian Biswa Kalyan Rath.
‘Alma Matters: Inside the IIT Dream’ is scheduled to release on May 14, 2021, on Netflix.
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