Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya

Schools have long served as fertile ground for stories, but few recent series have captured the joy, absurdity and quiet idealism of a government school quite like Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya. Sharing the gentle spirit of Panchayat and Gram Chikitsalay, this easygoing seven-part show is funny, sharp and only occasionally sermonises. Created and executive-produced by Biswapati Sarkar and Sameer Saxena under the Posham Pa Pictures banner, the Hindi-language Prime Video comedy feels like a natural extension of the storytelling both have come to be associated with through shows such as Maamla Legal Hai and Home Shanti. Saxena has also helped shape the observational worlds of Gullak and Kota Factory. This latest series brings a similar specificity and humour to a struggling government school in the Delhi region. Sarkar and Saxena also pop up in brief cameos.

Kay Kay Menon is outstanding as the unconventional school principal, bringing warmth, wit and effortless charm to the role. He anchors the series with a performance that is both hilarious and deeply humane. Kay Kay once again shows why he is one of India’s best actors. Equally impressive is young actor Prasanna Bisht, who leaves a lasting impact with a natural and endearing performance. Prasanna has moved on quite swiftly from playing a student in Farrey just 2 years ago to playing a teacher here. One of the series’ biggest strengths is its writing. The humour never feels forced, and the emotional moments never become melodramatic. The show makes its point in subtle ways, allowing the characters and situations to speak for themselves rather than delivering sermons. It celebrates teachers, students and the spirit of never giving up, all while keeping the laughs coming.

Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya revolves around a ramshackle public school and its many colourful faces. It may not directly belong to the ‘Rural Cinematic Universe,’ but you can tell that it comes from the house of former TVF collaborators (you can take the makers out of a streaming brand, but you can’t take the streaming brand out of the makers). It’s the same shtick of Panchayat (ramshackle village office), Gram Chikitsalay (ramshackle government clinic) and Maamla Legal Hai (ramshackled district court): slice-of-life dramedies where everyone is a ‘sample’ character, every crisis is lighthearted, every episode has a centrist moral stance, and every monologue belongs to the Rajkumar Hirani school of happy problem-solving. The genre fatigue is real. The language is faded, like a gravy-stained page of a book that’s worn out from overuse.

Why should one go to school? If you ask the students of Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya, they might answer: to play cricket with their headmaster, or to enjoy kheer in the midday meal. For girl students, it means a 5k deposit in their parents’ bank accounts, a government incentive for women empowerment (the money is then used by parents to pay for the girl’s dowry). But then one of the female students states she doesn’t want to study anymore. She would rather marry her hip-hop dancer boyfriend. When a teacher tries to convince the girl, she declares: It’s my choice. It’s an amusing conundrum. What is actually the real purpose of education? It’s a question that the Prime Video series Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya, from the house of Posham Pa Pictures (Kaala Paani, Maamla Legal Hai), keeps circling back to. Is it for these kids–most of them who come from marginalised backgrounds–to make money and pull their families out of poverty? Because that they can do by network marketing or working at a local tobacco factory. What can really a school provide them? When the boyfriend doesn’t come to pick her up, the above-mentioned girl takes up a cycle and rides on her own. She doesn’t have to wait for anybody anymore. Education gives independence.

This seven part series reminds me a little of Maamla Legal Hai, the show set in a lower Delhi court in a part of the national Capital far away from the swag and smoothness of Central Delhi. Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya functions in the same mould: this is a sarkari school in the fictional mohalla of Tinki Toli, whose students come from a certain section of society, with parents working low rung jobs, whose only way out of the rut is education.