Prince of Peace College, Inc.

Balete, Poblacion, Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro

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Tel. No.: (043)287-3012

Hichki

A Movie Analysis
Prof.Ed. 408: The Teaching Profession

Submitted by:
Maricel T. Harmon
BEED III-OLD

Submitted to:
Ms. Sweetzel C. Paigmane
Instructress
 Introduction
Hichki is a 2018 Indian Hindi drama film, directed by Sidharth P. Malhotra and produced by Maneesh
Sharma under the banner Yash Raj Films. The movie is an Indian adaptation of Brad Cohen's 2005
autobiography Front of the Class: How Tourette Syndrome Made Me the Teacher I Never Had, which Yash Raj
Films acquired the rights to, with Cohen himself also giving advice during the film's production. “Hichki”
means hiccup or the state of having reflex spasms of the diaphragm accompanied by a rapid closure of the
glottis producing an audible sound.

Summary of the Story

Naina Mathur is an aspiring teacher with a BEd and MSc who is unable to attain her dream job of
becoming a teacher as she suffers from Tourette Syndrome. Her condition causes her to make uncontrollable
sounds likened to hiccups. Although she has been unsuccessful for the past 5 years in landing a teaching job,
she is supported in her ambitions by her mother and her younger brother. It is revealed that her father divorced
her mother several years earlier, which is why Naina's relationship with him is strained. It is also portrayed that
her father detests her attempts of becoming a teacher as he sees this profession as gaining lesser money, and
thus he keeps trying to get her to accept her weakness and land another job that she is able to cope with even
with her "miserable condition".
One day, Naina receives an offer to teach at the prestigious St. Notker's School, a job which she had
applied to 5 times before. When asked why she was so persistent for the particular school, Naina explains that
she herself graduated from St. Notker's and was inspired by Mr. Khan, a former principal. He had believed in
her and announced that she would never be expelled for being different. Naina's unwavering confidence
impresses the current school committee and they assign her to 9F, a new class section. It is revealed that the
school was desperate to hire her as all other teachers had failed to get the class to cooperate. Naina notices that
the students are unruly, misbehaved and are visibly different. Shyamlal, the school's peon, discloses to her that
the 9F students belong to families from a nearby slum and that they were given admission to fill the
government-prescribed quota for the underprivileged.
On the first day of class, Naina's students imitate her sounds and mock her. She decides to teach them in
an interactive way, determined to show resilience when dealing with the class. The students prank her with
liquid nitrogen and this causes a mild explosion that shatters the classroom windows. Naina prevents the class
from being expelled by saying that the prank required much thought and planning, and if that thought and
planning can be guided in the right direction, the class's potential will be limitless. Mr. Wadia, the teacher of
class 9A, strongly dislikes the 9F students. His class is composed of student prefects, who are academically
excellent. Naina challenges Mr. Wadia that students from 9F will earn prefect badges as well.
 The school's annual Science Fair project is assigned to 9A, who are prevented from mingling with 9F by
Mr. Wadia. They yearn to experience the interactive experiments that 9F gets to partake in but Mr. Wadia
dismisses them as inferior to textbook learning. Meanwhile, 9F warms up to Naina and begin wholeheartedly
participating in class; she teaches them to be brave in their pursuit of knowledge and helps them realize their
individual strengths. Aatish, the sole student who remains cold towards Naina, secretly sabotages 9A's project in
his vengeance. This is discovered by Mr. Wadia and decides to expel 9F. Once again, Naina prevents this by
promising that the class will pass their final exams, but she is unable to prevent their suspension from attending
school till the exams. Dejected, she tells her students that they have shattered her attempt to help them. Aatish's
classmates help him realize his mistake and he publicly expresses regret.
All of 9F studies diligently for their exams. Shyamlal supplies Aatish copies of the wrong question
paper so they would fail, but when he presents them to his classmates, they refuse to cheat and he gives up on
the idea as well. Exam results prove Naina's promise as the 9F students pass successfully. However, the class is
accused of cheating as Shyamlal confesses to supplying question papers, and the Principal decides to publicly
expel them during the prefect pinning ceremony. Prior to the event, Akshay, one of Mr. Wadia's students
reveals that he bribed Shyamlal into supplying the wrong question papers, and he realizes that 9F did not cheat.
Mr. Wadia takes to the stage and announces the he, himself, wrongfully tried to fail the students. He then
applauds Naina's transformative teaching and asks her to pin the prefect badge to her students who ranked first.
She later tells him that she doubts that he bribed Shyamlal. Mr. Wadia smiles and says that he doubts she caused
a liquid nitrogen explosion. With the combined efforts of 9A and 9F, the Science Fair project is rebuilt and wins
the competition.
The film shows Naina's last day at St. Notker's where she has served for 25 years and has been Principal.
As she walks out of the school, the school's students bid farewell. The last to happily bid her adieu are the
students of 9F who are now successful adults.

Analysis of the Plot Elements

It is a heart-warming story of such good and beautiful relationship between underprivileged students
and their Tourette Syndrome affected teacher. The movie shows that neither of these negative adjectives inhibits
in a spirited lady, who doesn’t care about her speech disorder, to take upon daunting task of changing the
perception of poor children who feel they are unwanted and misfit in a prestigious elite school. With her
unconventional, out-of-box thinking, and teaching approaches, techniques, strategies and styles she makes these
bright youth hone their skills, dust off the negativity from their hearts and channelize their energy in right
direction to help them earn dignity, self-respect and rightful position in society.
 Creative Elements
The movie Hichki follows a story arc or perfect for of plot story. Hichki is a well-intentioned film that
will give you ample opportunities to wipe tears because of its perfect plot. The movie has an interesting premise
and has entrainment value that gave inspirational feelings to each of its audience and especially those teachers
and who suffers this kind of situation. The characters are multidimensional and their acting is convincing. Rani
Mukerji played a solid character as Naina Mathur who gets the job done. Rani Mukerji became the character of
Naina. The dialogues of Hichki help to tell the story in the correct context. The dialogue of each character has
been in calculated approach that facilitates the story and revealing the characters.
In terms of cinematography, there was a consistent visual language that was enhanced by the lighting,
setting and wardrobe. The cinematography of this movie added to the inspiration-feeling to the story. The visual
and special effects were seamlessly integrated. The music was harmonious and the sound design was authentic
that gave value to the story which gave an authentic storyline. The director had a uniform vision and executed
the film to its fullest potential. The way these components put together in the movie including the movie’s
visual language and its overall aesthetic.

Opinion
Naina Mathur says to a fellow teacher at an important juncture in Hichki, “There are no bad students,
only bad teachers.” This was among the several scenes that gave so powerful impact in me. Well, Hichki is
made up of several such heart-warming moments which made me laugh and shed a tear but this scene was
intended to touch a life forever and that are what the main character of the film believes in.
For me, she was correct. It doesn’t mean that we cannot blame students for learning but as teacher and
as a person in the society we have to developed ourselves as an individual person as well as a professional who
can adjust to different needs of the students. As a future teacher, we have our own “hichki” to overcome.

Conclusion
Hichki was a good movie. It was, in particular, a must-watch movie for students and educators for its
lesson on empathy and the powerful impact that a teacher has on the students’ morale and self-esteem. The
movie was a wonderful testimony of how everyone can shine brilliantly next to each other even they have
flaws. The movie holds a mirror to the modern-day education system now. The movie was an accurate
reflection of the current reality, the subtle discrimination between privileged and poor students, the gross
neglect of the weaker students, lack of respect and trust between teachers and students, bullying and more. But
the movie showed us the truth and positivity behind those situations. It was a sweet harmony that the main
character played the role who helped the other characters in the movie overcome all their “hichkis”.
 Elements

Title of the Film

“Hichki”

Summary
Hichki presented a positive and inspiring story about a woman who turned her biggest weakness into
her biggest strength. Hichki was a story about a woman who turned her most daunting weakness into her
biggest strength. Naina Mathur was an aspiring teacher who suffers from Tourette Syndrome. After several
interviews and numerous rejections, she lands her dream job as a full-time teacher in one of the most elite
schools in the city. However, she soon realized that the class she has been assigned comprises of defiant and
impish students who can't seem to keep out of trouble.
Despite a few initial hiccups, Naina must do whatever she can to ensure that her students realized their
true potential, and defy all the odds against them. Naina Mathur was suffering from Tourette Syndrome. Due
her disorder she had to change 12 schools as a child. She managed to complete her education at St. Notker's
school, then school principal Mr. Khan was her inspiration out there. Naina is now well qualified and wants to
be a teacher but is rejected by 18 schools due to her disorder. Finally she got a call from St Notker's during
midterm as an emergency recruitment for a teacher. But her job would be challenging to teach 14 students of 9F
class who were mostly interested in creating nuisance then in studies. But at the end of the story, they successful
and she served as a Principal.

Filmmaker
Hichki is an adaptation of US-based motivational speaker Brad Cohen’s autobiography, Front of the
Class: How Tourette Syndrome Made Me the Teacher I Never Had. After his nephew saw the film, Front of the
Class, the 2008 film which was based on the book, he asked Malhotra if he could direct it for Indian audience as
he is good with handling emotions and drama. It was directed by Siddharth P Malhotra.
The movie holds a mirror to the modern-day education system in India. The movie was an accurate
reflection of the current reality – the politics amongst the class teachers, the subtle discrimination between
privileged and poor students, the halo effect around the ‘class achievers’, the gross neglect of the weaker
students, lack of respect and trust between teachers and students, bullying and more.
 Significance
Hichki was indeed a good and beautiful movie that gave an inspirational-feeling in me. But behind this
feeling, the movie holds a mirror to the modern-day education system. It was an accurate reflection of the
current issues, the politics amongst the class teachers, the discrimination between privileged and poor students,
the gross neglect of the weaker students, lack of respect and trust between teachers and students, bullying and
more. This movie made me realized that each one of us has a “hichki” to overcome. As future teachers, I am
inspired to become Naina Mathur. As I can relate this movie to our past lesson in The Teaching Profession,
Naina possessed all the components of a teacher as a person in the society even some of her needs are not
fulfilled. She was very inspirational because despite all of these, she made her students successful using her
good teaching style and commitment.
As I realized, we need to become as a teacher as an individual person with control of knowledge,
repertoire of best teaching practice that can be used to instruct students or learners in classrooms with different
learning styles, disposition and skills to approach all of her aspects without thinking her situation, and
commitment or solemn promise to perform the duties and responsibilities as a teacher.

Actors
Rani Mukerji is perfect example of an actor playing her age and strength. Prettiness of her soul is
reflected in every frame in the movie. She has proved that she has the capability to drive entire film all by
herself. To aide her are witty one-liners, believable sequences without any romantic melodrama, rustic beauty of
an old school which still uses blackboards and chalks, authentic school uniform which doesn’t look like party-
dress, wooden bench and chairs reminiscent of the old world charm and broad corridors. All these are enough to
make one feel nostalgic and go down the memory lane of best times we had in school.
The Library
September 1, 2020
Maricel T. Harmon
BEED III-Prince of Peace College, Inc.
Maricel T. Harmon
Ms. Joeanna Eve Caguete

books
magazines
newspapers

charts
board displays Non-electronic visual resources let the
globes students to experience the real world of their
lessons.
maps

Printed resources were capable in In experiential learning, non-electronic visual

providing guidance and ideas to students who materials are very useful. Non-electric materials
were not familiar with it. It makes them aware. let the students to experience their lessons.

Printed resources provide students to master

So far, this Learning Resource Center can facilitate students
their lessons; it is use for inquiry-based teaching
that provides their needs and interest in learning. Even if
and research-based teaching.
there were no Audio Resources and ICT Resources, Printed
Resources were up-to-date.

NONE

NONE
The learning resources/materials were arranged properly.
The materialsfor College students, HS students and Elementary
Learners were separated from each other to locate conveniently
for the students and teachers. The learning resources/materials
of teachers were also separated which brought convenience.
 The guidelines and procedures facilitate easy access by the
Teachers because there were printed instructions that were posted
as you enter the library regarding how to access materials for
teachers. The learning materials for teachers were separated from
the students’ materials.

The strengths of this LRC were; it can be access by students

and teachers, the materials were properly arranged, it provides relevant
materials and the learning materials were all up-to-date that can be used
anytime by the students and teachers.

The weaknesses of this LRC were; it was lacked of audio-

resources and ICT resources, especially computers and internet access,
even if the materials were separated by each Level, the materials and
learning resources of the College students must be separated to HS and
Elementary learners through separated rooms.

The suggestions that I can make are; the school should provide
ICT resources for the Library that are accessible by the students for a
wider world of ideas through internet and the LRC of the College students
should be separated from the HS and Elementary learners through
separated rooms.

The materials in the LRC that caught my interest were the newspapers
because seldom of Libraries offer updated newspapers as I have been to
some other Library Facilities in other schools.

The gadget or material that I already confident to use or operate

were computers because since I was an young learner I used computers
for my assignments, activities, outputs and projects.

I have to learn more about how to operate the video projector

Because I already know the advantages of it but those effects and dis-
advantages are the things that I need to know.
 Many teachers find chalkboards to be almost a thing of the past with the
advent of projectors in the classroom. Rather than writing notes across a board,
teachers can make use of PowerPoint presentations, images, and even film as
teaching tools through the use of projectors. Easier note-taking. Projectors enables
teachers to create bulleted PowerPoint presentation or other highly organized notes
for the class. With use of it, teachers can now use films, slides, and images to teach
students variety of subject areas. It provides better use of class time. It requires only
a simple click of a button or mouse, thus, freeing valuable class time. Using video
projectors, it help us to give better teaching to students and provides for educators to
reach students with multiple approaches and students with multiple approaches and
they enjoy seeing, hearing and interacting with technology rather than simply seating,
watching,and listening to their teacher.