What Is the Story About?
School of Lies follows a 12 year old student, Shakti Salgaonkar who suddenly goes missing from a prestigious boarding school River Isaac School of Education. The missing case sparks a domino effect that causes a whole chamber of secrets to unfurl and complicates what seems to be truth to naked eyes.
Performances?
Nimrat Kaur plays School Counsellor Nandita Mehra. The actress who usually sinks her teeth into the roles she takes up seems to have not delivered as much in The School of Lies. It could be partly due to the flawed writing and her character not being fleshed convincingly enough. Aamir Bashir has delivered a decent act as Schoolmaster Samuel “Sam” Singh.
Analysis
School of Lies is a multi genre Indian Hindi-language Disney+Hotstar streaming series created by Avinash Arun & Ishani Banerjee and directed by Avinash Arun. The series tries to blend multiple genres Drama, Mystery and Thriller, but ultimately fails to become great at neither.
School of lies is set in a fictional place called Dalton Town in the Hills and the story unravels in the private boarding school named River Isaac School of Education (RISE). A 12 year old boy named Shakti Salgaonkar goes missing. The missing case slowly opens up a Pandora’s box with several deep lying skeletons popping up.
There are lies, secrets, deceptions and hidden truths in the school and the show takes shape of a mystery thriller. For the most part the show stays in the mystery thriller template that focusses on the what’s than the whys.
Be it the Resident housemaster, or the school gardener Bhola whose son was seen hanging out with Shakti, or Shakti’s mother Trisha or School Counselor Nandita, or two boys Vikram and Tapan who were present when Shakti saw an injured senior at the washroom the previous day, nobody seems to know anything solid if not nothing.
As Nandita decides to dig deeper, she predictably discovers deep wounds and deeper scars of abandonment issues, negligence, infidelity, abuse, trauma dumping and many more sensitive issues that hover children in the School. But it’s almost as if the makers are obsessed with building up the moody mystery atmosphere and not explain the stakes and conditions further despite having a golden goose at hand, i.e audience attention.
School of Lies has a noble intention. It does try to talk a few things out loud. It tries to ask pertaining questions like the need to listen to our children or the impact parents and their relationship can have in the way they grow up or behave. It also exposes the inefficiency of the country’s law and order in supporting children and their emotional and mental needs. But does School of Lies delve deeper into the subject lines it touches? No. The shallow writing treats some of the most bothersome conditions faced by kids today as a mere plot device to push the mystery element and generate wow factors.
In short, School of Lies is predictable from the word go. Despite having a solid starcast, none of them except the boys stand out. The dialogues are too teleprompter-ish and the plot-twists too generic. Nevertheless, the show will catch your attention and it does hit the spot at places.
Other Artists?
The child actors Vir Pachisia, Varun Roopani, and Aryan Singh Ahlawat have churned appreciable performances in the show, while Geetika Vidya Ohlyan made the maximum impact in the screen space she’s given. Shakti Anand and Sonali Kulkarni have also performed decent if not exceptional.
Music and Other Departments?
The intention of the show is good, but the writing department has failed to live up to it’s novel intentions. The screenplay doesn’t touch the whys but is more interested in setting the mystery mood. The cinematography is also really good if dissected from the theme of the show, because the frames and colour tones make lesser sense when seen together with the proceedings of the film. One of the weakest links of the show is its dialogue writing.
Highlights?
Theme
Starcast
Social Messaging
Drawbacks?
Weak Dialogues
Screenplay lacked conviction
Surface level treatment of the themes
Queerbaiting
Did I Enjoy It?
Yes, in parts.
Will You Recommend It?
Yes, but with reservations.
School of Lies Series Review by Binged Bureau
We’re hiring!
We are hiring two full-time junior to mid-level writers with the option to work remotely. You need to work a 5-hour shift and be available to write. Interested candidates should email their sample articles to [email protected]. Applications without a sample article will not be considered.
