Prakash Jha’s AARAKSHAN takes one of the most controversial and divisive political and social issues in post-Independence India—the government’s industrial-strength affirmative-action policy of “reserving” a substantial percentage of bureaucratic posts and “seats” in government-sponsored educational institutions for historically disadvantaged groups—and intermarries it with industrial-strength and star-power-driven Bombay melodrama. This is an audacious miscegenation in a cinema that generally avoids even the mention of caste, and though the results are uneven—a predictably emotion-dripping and sometimes saccharine story, enacted amid glossy sets and well-tidied locations (mostly in and around Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, which looks terrific here), with larger-than-life heroes and villains and a much-too-tidy conclusion—the effort is commendable and, in a few standout sequences, the dialog powerfully evokes some of the raw emotions, deep-seated prejudices, and real dilemmas in which the reservation issue is enmeshed. Jha likes to engage with modern Indian life in a semi-realist mode, as he did in his 2010 film RAAJNEETI (“politics”), which grafted the ancient Mahabharata’s tale of sanguine intra-familial rivalry onto the fortunes of a contemporary political dynasty that sometimes deliberately evoked the charismatic and tragic Nehru-Gandhi clan. But that film consisted largely of a succession of grandiose set pieces, with only minimal (and, perhaps because Mahabharata-inspired) rather uniformly distasteful character development. In AARAKSHAN, Jha takes it slower, crafts more complex and sympathetic characters, and allows for some extended and dramatic (if rather declamatory) exchanges.

Amitabh Bachchan plays Dr. Prabhakar Anand, a mathematician and the principal of an illustrious private educational institution, STM college, whose reputation he maintains through high and scrupulously fair standards. He gives employment to his meritorious protégé, a physics teacher named Deepak Kumar (Saif Ali Khan), though other faculty members cruelly imply that Kumar is only there because of the “reservation quota” that favors him as a Dalit (“oppressed,” the term now preferred by many for caste groups formerly labeled “untouchable,” “scheduled caste,” and “Harijan,” as well as by numerous occupational and usually pejorative names). Kumar romances Dr. Anand’s daughter, Poorbi (Deepika Padukone), even as he plans to pursue a Ph.D. degree in the US. A workaholic social servant, Dr. Anand devotes much of his time outside school to offering free tutoring in math to poor children, including Muniya (Aanchal Munja),  the daughter of Shambhu (Yashpal Sharma), a local dairyman of the Yadav caste (a large caste group in northern and central India officially classified among the “OBCs” or “Other Backward Classes” who are also eligible for special affirmative-action initiatives). The harmony of the college is marred by Mithilesh Singh (Manoj Bajpayee; the character’s surname, in this context, suggests feudal landlord caste status), a wavy-haired academic entrepreneur who supplements his teacher’s salary with income from a chain of highly-successful “coaching centers” that charge high fees to prep students for India’s all-decisive exams. In this, he is in league with the sleazy state Education Minister, Baburam (Saurabh Shukla), who seeks to install Singh in Dr. Anand’s position after the latter refuses to bend the rules and grant admission to Baburam’s low-scoring nephew.

Bachchan’s performance, strong overall (it was nominated for a Filmfare “Best Actor” award) is at its most affecting in moments when he is subdued and nearly broken, rather than when he is loudly declaiming about his siddhant (“principles”). Saif Ali Khan, more commonly seen as a hunky heartthrob, does a commendable job as a bookish physics teacher prone to occasional bursts of righteous rage. His eloquent and angry speech in defense of reservations, following the vandalizing of the college cafeteria by a group of low-caste workers, is one of the film’s most powerful moments. His casting was assailed by some Dalit activists, however, since his family background, albeit non-conventional (his father was a Muslim Nawab turned cricket pro, and his mother, actress Sharmila Tagore, hails from the most illustrious Brahman clan in Bengal) places him squarely in two elites. Deepika Padukone looks young enough to be a college student in love with her teacher, and is, as usual, gorgeous.