A 2012 Hindi coming of age romantic comedy film made by Karan Johar, which introduced its leads Sidharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt, and Varun Dhawan to feature films.
The old sports coach of St. Teresa's College calls eight of his former students to inform them that their old Dean is dying and that his last wish is to see them all before he passes. Upon arrival at the hospital, old friendships and tensions resurface as five of the eight students recount the events that transpired ten years prior while they were students, the events that drove them away from each other and may or may not have driven the Dean to his current condition.
Student of the Year contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents:
- Rohan's father, Ashok Nanda is the primary example in a movie full of horrible parents. Because he resents Rohan for wanting to be a musician instead of a businessman like him and his older brother Ajay, he verbally and emotionally abuses him in nearly every scene they have together. In the climax of the movie, he even becomes physically abusive towards Rohan, hitting him when calls him out on his treatment of him.
- Abhimanyu's aunt makes it clear how much she doesn't like having to take care of Abhimanyu, even going as far as to call him bad luck when his grandmother is hospitalized.
- Academic Athlete: Both Rohan and Abhimanyu are not only the two best players on the soccer team, but are also smart enough to score in the Top 12 of their entire graduating class on the IQ test portion of the Student of the Year competition.
- All for Nothing: It turns out that the entire Student of the Year competition was this for the group, as Abhimanyu lost on purpose so Rohan could win, and Rohan winds up rejecting both the trophy and the scholorship. Not only that, but it damaged everyone's friendships with each other nearly beyond repair.
- Alpha Bitch: Tanya Israni. All she cares about is stealing both the position of the most popular girl at St. Teresa's and Rohan away from Shanaya. Present day shows that she hasn't really changed.
- The Atoner: It's revealed that the Dean kept track of the students' accomplishments after their graduation, and it can be inferred that the reason his last wish was to see them so that he could apologize to them.
- Big Brother Bully: Ajay Nanda, who laughs and joins in on his father's emotional abuse of Rohan.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: The characters directly address the audience in the present day scenes.
- Broken Pedestal: Ashok Nanda winds up being this for Abhimanyu. Previously, Abhimanyu idolized him as the two of them both came from humble beginnings and had the same goal of becoming successful businessman. Ashok's downright fatherly attitude towards him didn't hurt either. But hearing about his abusive treatment of Rohan starts to make him reconsider, and once Abhimanyu sees Ashok happy at the notion of Rohan losing the Student of the Year competition, he realizes that he doesn't want to be like him and willingly throws the competition not only so that Rohan can win, but so they could both spite Ashok.
- Cooldown Hug: Rohan gives one to Abhimanyu when his grandmother is hospitalized and even asks him if wants another one after they let go.
- Cool Old Lady: Abhimanyu's grandmother, who stands up to Abhimanyu's aunt in his defense.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Implied in the two instances Abhimanyu's parents are mentioned. When Rohan asks him if he misses them, Abhimanyu noticably chokes up before he answers. Later on in the movie, he also tells Rohan that apart from his grandmother, his parents were the only people that would actually listen to him and give him the time of day.
- Desperately Craves Affection: Shanaya, according to both Shruti and Abhimanyu.
- The Gadfly: It's hinted that Shanaya is this towards her family, saying things to deliberately get under their skin, such as announcing she's pregnant at the dinner table.
- How We Got Here: The entire movie is an example of this, opening ten years after their final year of university and explaining what happened in said year that drove their group apart.
- Ignored Epiphany: When first talking about Rohan, Jeet confesses that he knew he was nothing more than a gofer and a hanger on to Rohan and that he mistook that as friendship. About twenty minutes later... he's accusing Abhimanyu of supposedly taking his spot as Rohan's best friend. He's promptly called out on this.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rohan is this to a tee. Jeet even references this trope (though not by name). Though he starts off as antagonistic towards Abhimanyu, he immediately drops the attitude when Abhimanyu takes the blame for the prank he, Dempy, and Jeet threw, even more so after he finds out that Abhimanyu is an orphan. And that's before they officially become best friends.
- Shanaya also falls under this. While she puts up a stoic and somewhat bitchy front, it's said multiple times she only does this because of the neglect she's suffered throughout her life and anger at Rohan for ignoring her in favor of Tanya. Once she lets that wall down, she's actually shown to be a very nice person.
- Karma Houdini: Abhimanyu's aunt doesn't suffer any consequences for abusing her nephew. It may be clear he may have cut her out as a punishment.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After the competition ends, Sudo gives the Dean a vicious dressing down, accusing him of only starting the Student of the Year competition out of jealousy, using it to deliberately break up friendships to compensate for his own loneliness. It shakes him up so badly that it may or may not have led to (or at least exaserbated) his deteriorating condition in the present.
- Scholarship Student: Abhimanyu Singh, who isn't poor, but definately comes from a more humble background than most of St. Teresa's students.
- Shipper on Deck: Shruti for Abhimanyu and Shanaya.
- Useless Bystander Parent: Rohan's mother clearly doesn't approve of how his father treats him, yet she does nothing to stop him either. Rohan calls her out on this.
- A non parental example would be Abhimanyu's uncle and legal guardian. The most he does is weakly reprimand his wife's treatment of their nephew.
- We Used to Be Friends: The entire group, but none more stronger than Abhimanyu and Rohan, who go from enemies to friendly rivals to best friends back to bitter enemies. They repair their friendship at the end of the movie.
