User Reviews

When shows like 'Kota Factory', 'Laakhon Mein Ek', and others have already delved into the underbelly of Kota's coaching system and the struggles of students eyeing for an IIT seat, it's fair to compare Vijay Maurya's 'Crash Course' to them because the basic premise isn't novel. But, this 10-part series offers an interesting insight into the cut-throat competition between two major coaching institutes and the impact it has on students' lives. The conflicts between these institutions (often portrayed as villains of the system) are emphasized more in the narrative than the journey of the students, their friendship, peer pressure and much more.

Ratanraj Jindal's (Annu Kapoor) institute is a large shark in the coaching industry, attempting to devour all the smaller ones. RJ's rival Batra institute comes in second, led by Arvind Batra (Siddharth Kak), also known as the "Father of Education in Kota," and his son Shashank (Bhanu Uday). Both competitors share the same goal: to enroll as many students as possible and produce the most top scorers. Arvind opposes this policy and even distances himself from Shashank, who has marketing expertise and is constantly devising dubious strategies to compete with RJ Institute. Amid all this, the students become collateral damage.

Vijay Maurya has expertly captured the flavor of the city by focusing on local streets before moving on to eateries and the mess where students spend most of their time. With the help of close-up shots, he also manages to capture the characters' tense mood. 'Crash Course' is created by Manish Hariprasad, who has also co-written the series with Raina Roy. The drama is certainly intriguing and holds your attention for the most part, but shorter episodes may have made it easier to binge watch. The 50-minute episodes ruin the show's momentum by repeating most of the sequences. Cutting the scenes showcasing the marketing and competitive skills of both institutes, which take up a lot of screentime, would have helped.

Annu Kapoor is outstanding as Jindal, and he truly meant it when he said, "Jindal all the Way," over and over again. He is an openly cunning, money-minded individual, and Kapoor has nailed it. Bhanu Uday is convincing as Jindal's rival. Udit Aora portrays Binny, who swaps sides between the two institutes for his own gain, quite effectively.

These Gen-Z actors, including Vidhi Gupta (Anushka Kaushik), Sathya Srinivasan (Hridhu Haroon), Anil Baid (Mohit Solanki), Aviral Bharti (Bhavesh Balchandani), Rakesh Gulia (Aryan Singh), Nikki (Anvesha Vij), and Tejal Patel (Hetal Gada), are convincing in their respective roles. One can easily relate to everyone's personal and ambitious life. They really shine when it comes to pushing the limits.

But, there are some characters who fail to show their need in the show, for instance, Bidita Bag's Antara. It's challenging to discern where her story is going and how it fits into the drama. Another character is Shanaya, played by Ridhhi Kumar. She is a chirpy, happy-go-lucky girl who comes from a conservative family but aspires to fly high. Her character arc is sketchy at best.

'Crash Course' has nothing new to offer in terms of insights. One thing that remains constant throughout the show, if not more, is that you will miss Kota Factory's Jeetu Bhaiya and his words of wisdom... All in all, this crash course isn't mandatory, but it is well worth taking once!

The students who go to Kota are from different parts of India and belong to different backgrounds. Some may be from rich upper class families, and some from middle class .how is institution handled its student.

As most reviews already say, this series is a darker version of Kota Factory. I would largely agree with that and would call it a depiction of the dark underbelly and the hard truths of the coaching institutes running in Kota, the coaching hub of India. Given the amount of politics, rivalry, numerous plot-threads, the show could easily be called: Kota Factory: Game of Thrones version. Though, there are no dragons or zombies here, at least not literal ones.

Before continuing, let me be upfront and confess that though I have cleared JEE and thus have experienced 4 years of hostel life at IIT, I have never studied or taken coaching at Kota. So my knowledge on the subject of kota coaching institutes is purely based on whatever I have heard from my batchmates and IIT aspirants, and not personal experience.

The story of the show is convincing, at least by Indian web-series standard, though not all of its subplots work. Some subplots are completely unnecessary (e.g. The relationship of Antara and Rakesh, Panther boys, Mayank Batra's murder), some are just stretched too far (e.g. Shanaya's pregnancy and abortion) and some are just underdeveloped (e.g. Shanaya's relationship with her uncle and aunt or that of Vidhi with her parents which would have been great insights into why they did what they did.). Mayank Batra's murder is so hurried and brushed under the carpet so fast that it makes me feel that it was written by a different writer altogether.

One big issue I have with it is that there is no almost light moment, every moment varies from serious to damn serious to WTF.

The acting is pretty good for a web series, something that Prime videos has now been consistent at for a long time now. Annu Kapoor is of course the captain of the ship who seems to be controlling the game, and he is complemented well by Udit Arora, Bhanu Uday, Pranay Pachauri, and Anushka Kaushik in other lead roles. All the kids have done well for what is the first major acting gig for most of them. Siddharth Kak is underused, and Bidita Bag's character is hard to understand.

Another notable acting failure to mention is that of Vidhi's father.. his acting makes me think that either his role was poorly written, or he is just a terrible actor; he doesn't any emotion other than a straight-faced angry old man even once, even when he's supposed to be grieving.

The background score is engaging, the cinematography is very colorful (one big clear difference from Kota Factory which is almost monochromatic).

The episodic length is being criticized more than it should be. In my opinion, the length was okay, but the number of episodes could be brought down to 7 or 8 by reducing unnecessary and overdrawn sequences.

The last episode leaves many questions unanswered and thus enough scope for a 2nd season, which I hope comes before people forget about this first season altogether.

All in all, this is definitely a one-time watch for anyone who has studied at Kota, or has ever been a part of hostel life, or is just looking for a serious drama about the cut-throat world we live in. 7 out of 10 for me.