Physics Wallah: Journey of Alakh Pandey

Book/film review- 13

        Physics Wallah: It is an inspiration! It is an emotion! It is a result of perseverance and persistence! And, it explains the meaning of ‘Everything has a purpose’!

       The web series starts with Alakh Pandey, co-founder of Physics Wallah, sitting at a tea shop ‘Chai Wala’. He is in conversation with his sister, who is lone earner of his family. He has left his engineering college due to weak financial condition and decides to teach for livelihood.

A scene from the web series shows Alakh Pandey talking to his sister after quitting the engineering college at a tea shop ‘Chai Wala’.

        He starts his journey of teaching with a principle of ’teaching should always be cheaper for everyone’ that never gets faded off. This is a compelling force behind the success of his venture ‘Physics Wallah.’

        Initially, Alakh Pandey is a depressed and motiveless guy. He has no option for survival except teaching. He gets a chance at an institute but there something unexpected happen and he is terminated by the management.

        After sometime, he gets an another chance to teach at an another institute. There, he manages all stuff of the institute like repairing water cooler, fan maintenance etc. He initiates to expand the teaching area and in attempt of that he tries to convince the owner of the institute to purchase a marriage hall that was situated besides the institute. 

A scene from the web series shows Alakh Pandey interacting to biology teacher ‘Soniya’ who is a Muslim ‘Sania Raza’ at Sangam in Allahabad.

         There is a biology teacher. Everyone calls her Soniya. She likes him but he willingly ignores her because of his first love who cheated on him. With time, he interacts with Soniya. After several days of romantic talks on phone calls, he wishes to marry with her. She denies because she was Muslim with name Sania Raza. A girl again hurts him. He becomes sentimental. 

       One day, he returns to the institute and sees the institute owner with a new car inspite of purchasing the marriage hall. In angry and frustration, he breaks the glass of the new car by throwing stone and flees to Koti, a village in Uttarakhand. 

         In Koti village, he understands the nuances of ‘Everything has a purpose’ by loosing his bag, going to a lodge where he meets some foreigners. He goes for a tattoo of mathematical symbol ‘pie’ and eats something as pain relief. But, there is something intoxicated and he accidentally goes in the middle of a forest where he witnesses Galaxy Point. 

A scene from the web series when he learns the purpose of life in Koti.

          At Galaxy Point, he suddenly meets Verma sir (it is supposed to be great HC Verma). Verma sir has written two books namely ‘Concept of Physics’ in numerical version that can’t be solved at all. I also tried to solve when I was pursuing my intermediate but I was unlucky. This part of story shows the conversation of Verma sir at Galaxy point with him holds how much truth I don’t know but it is a fact that he has taken an interview of him on his online channel. 

          At Koti, in attempt to teach the lodge’s son, he gets the idea of online teaching. He started to shoot video by his mobile. When he came in the online education, Internet connectivity was not good and cheaper. He struggles for long. It is believed that his fate turns with the launch of Jio that provides cheaper internet to all. 2-3 years of struggle ends with going viral of his one of the videos based on ‘Theory of Relativity’ firstly proven by Albert Einstein.

           An app developer from Delhi convinces him to start offline coaching, both succeed in their attempt and a frustrated and negative chap Alakh Pandey, who demoralises even his girlfriend and her father over so called cheating on him, and does everything unexpected in anger and emotion, becomes a billionaire with the brand name of ‘Physics Wallah.’

A scene from the web series shows when he was immature and emotional and tries to learn the basics of how to teach.

           When Physics Wallah was growing, Unacademy and BUJU’s were also leading players in the industry and still they are. Unacademy was founded by two IAS topper Roman Saini and Gaurav Munjal. Both resigned from their services and made Unacademy an empire. The institute contracted with all top teachers of the country. Mrunal sir, economist teacher based in Ahmedabad, also joined the Unacademy. I have also learnt his material from his website. It was big breakthrough for the institute.

          It is said that both Unacademy and Byju’s display loss, Physics Wala earns profit because it never expenses on marketing. Where both companies focus the richest students charging 40k to 100k as fee for their courses, but Physics Wala concentrates on rest of the students and charges minimal cost without spending any cost on marketing. 

          In the series, it is shown that a giant institute  ‘Youth Academy’ (it is believed that it is one of the above) manages to purchase many teachers of the Physics Wallah. Alakh Pandey experiences many emotional shock and decides to shut down the Physics Wallah. Following a conversation with his father, ultimately he survives: ‘You are a leader and everyone does not get this opportunity’ and he changes his decision to shut down the ‘Physics Wallah’.

**Video Grab from Physics Wallah Instagram** Alakh Pandey.

          Shreedhar Dubey’s acting as Alakh Pandey is good. His pitch gravitates the audience. His delivery of colloquial language is connecting. Script is written logically and it answers all doubts and questions created in the series. How and why anything happens, the story replies. But the storyline is a little bit predictable with some boring long scenes.    

Star: **** (4 out of 5)