If just one or two things in our lives were different, it would be us instead of the chosen four and that is the beauty of An Engineered Dream. Poignant and thought-inducing, this documentary is not talking about the big bad wolf that is Kota. Kota has always been that wish-fulfilling factory, maybe not for all, but for a very reasonable number. It’s a sacrifice you take for yourself, ‘yourself’ being the keyword and we can overlook the fact that Kota brings dreams into realisation in what ever extreme way it can, but only if that dream is ours and not ‘engineered’.

The documentary straddles a fine line between the heavy underlying themes of passed down dreams & encumbering expectations, and the comic relief provided by the children themselves. The way it weaves through the lives of these children is nothing short of fascinating. We find ourselves growing increasingly invested in the lives of these students and can’t help but root for them. This might be due to the fact that we find a little bit of ourselves in each child in one way or another. The dichotomy of desperately wanting to go home but ignoring your parents once they visit you is something so charecteristic of adolescence and the exam-day jitters are eerily familiar. The creative shenanigans that arise, sorry let me paraphrase, that only arise when we sit down to study, the human nature of compassion to those around you despite the highly competitive environment, all hit way too close to home. The documentary is a blast into the past for all engineering aspirants, regardless of their coaching situations. Hopefully it is an eye-opener for the rest, a window into the lives of these students riddled by insecurities, stress and what not, and a reminder to not fuel these feelings further by snide remarks and false concerns.