The Kota Factory

When we hear Kota, coaching, IIT, the first thing that comes to mind are the endless reports about student suicides, academic pressure, students with the sole aim to get into IITs even at the cost of their lives.

Being an IITian is something which makes everyone’s chest swell with pride. Almost all parents in India want their kids to crack the IIT entrance exams and “uske baad to life set hai”. While we all know how much “set” the lives of IIT Engineers and non-IIT Engineers are, Kota Factory talks about the life of students while trying to crack the IIT.

Kota Factory talks about the life of students in Kota. Without passing any judgment on the education system, It puts stress on the personal and educational challenges they face and how they overcome it & the importance of good friends and teachers.

The first season of Laakhon Mein Ek, which was released in 2017, followed an artistic 15-year-old boy who is forced to join a coaching institute in Vishakhapatnam. Hemant Gaba’s documentary, An Engineered Dream, similarly examines the intense pressures faced by aspirants to India’s topmost engineering institutes.

TVF’s show tries to establish that not all is wrong in this ultra-competitive world. “The popular narrative surrounding Kota and IIT preparation in Indian pop culture is that parents torment their children by pushing them through the process and it’s a one-sided representation,” Khanna told Scroll.in. “It’s not like everyone is in Kota with a passion other than clearing the exam. There are also studious kids, but people who study aren’t celebrated in the country. We make films on mavericks, but never something like A Beautiful Mind. We have developed this tendency to portray people who study and get nine-to-five jobs as these drones whose passions have been sucked away. It’s like there’s not a story in their life unless they quit their jobs and climb the Himalayas.”

Among the supporting actors is TVF star Jitendra Kumar, as one of Vaibhav’s teachers at the institute. Like almost all the TVF series and sketches featuring Kumar, he is known here too as “Jeetu bhaiya”.

Jitendra Kumar, just like his colleagues, has also been an IIT graduate who studied at Kota.

“Teaching is a very humble, underrated profession, where those who practise it are not that high up on the social ladder,” Khanna said. “That’s not how it is in Kota. Teachers are heavily paid and they are, consequently, under pressure to extract the best from students. Jeetu is one such teacher, a well-to-do guy with a taste for fine things in life. He is a motivator, a friend, a guide, and does not do lip service to make a student feel good. When Vaibhav requests to be allowed to move up to the elite students’ batch, Jeetu snaps at him to not beg.”

After a long time we see an educational satire that plays on new genres and story-telling with strong performances. Also it being freely available for viewing on YouTube is a massive plus.

Another breath of fresh air is the absence of toxic bro culture that becomes a trope at times in series like these. Also, it doesn’t always talk about rebellion with or without a cause. It talks about regular Joes, who have to conform to norms like most of us do everyday.

If you are looking for something worthwhile, The Kota Factory can be a nice watch that will make you think not about death and gloom but leave you with optimism. The chants of a season 2 have already started!

The most beautiful part of Kota Factory is that it talks more about the solutions and less about the problems. And that’s where it touches the hearts. Also, the web series has taken a very less dramatic route to narrate the story which makes it extremely relatable watch.