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Why Cheat India has a potent hook: a broker turns exam cheating into a business by arranging for capable students to take competitive tests for wealthy candidates. Emraan Hashmi gives the central conman a forceful presence, but the film’s writing and pacing do not consistently match the premise’s promise. It is worth considering for its subject and lead performance, with the caveat that its story can feel scattered.
What is Why Cheat India about?
Directed by Soumik Sen, this 2019 Hindi crime drama stars Emraan Hashmi as Rakesh Singh, who runs a proxy-exam operation. Students with the ability to earn high marks sit entrance or competitive examinations for wealthy candidates who want the results and credentials without doing the work themselves. The scheme expands into wider educational fraud, including fake credentials, and puts another young man, Sattu, in Rakesh’s orbit.
The setup points toward questions of money, access and merit: who gets ahead when the rules can be bought, and who bears the cost? T-Series described the project as inspired largely by real incidents, but that promotional description does not independently verify particular events in the film as real cases.
Does Emraan Hashmi make the film work?
Hashmi is the film’s main draw as Rakesh, a confident operator who treats other people’s ambitions as a market to exploit. The role gives him room to carry scenes through presence and persuasive charm. That makes the character’s predatory logic watchable even when the screenplay’s direction becomes less sure.
Shreya Dhanwanthary is also among the film’s principal cast, alongside Snighadeep Chatterjee and Manuj Sharma. The film’s strongest individual asset is its central performance; it is not enough, however, to make every turn in the story feel earned.
Where does the story lose momentum?
A premise with more force than its development
The film begins with a clear engine—the proxy-exam business—and a subject with obvious social stakes. Its challenge is sustaining that focus. India Today’s Charu Thakur praised the strong opening but argued that the storytelling loses its way, with episodes involving exams, a family event, violence and a courtroom section that do not connect smoothly. The result can feel less like a steadily escalating crime story than a sequence of loosely joined turns.
Tone and pacing
The Indian Express’s Shubhra Gupta found the theme timely but described the film as disjointed, saying the material was stretched across its two-hour runtime and that the writing muddied its point of view. That criticism gets at a central weakness: the story moves among social commentary, crime drama and melodrama without always making those modes feel part of the same argument.
Not every contemporary review dismissed it. The Times of India’s Rachit Gupta rated it 3/5 and called it an entertaining but flawed look at exam cheating, highlighting the proxy candidates, fake degrees and Rakesh’s exploitation of Sattu. The difference in responses is useful context: the subject and plot mechanics may hold a viewer’s interest even when the execution feels uneven.
Rank #3
- Original Eros Entertainment DVD
Why was the film first called Cheat India?
The project was originally announced as Cheat India. In a 10 January 2019 report, The Indian Express relayed the producers’ explanation that the CBFC had concerns the title could be misleading. The film was renamed Why Cheat India shortly before its theatrical release on 18 January 2019. This is the producers’ reported account of the change, not an independently adjudicated finding about the title.
When the project was still announced under its original name, director Soumik Sen said in T-Series’ 17 January 2018 announcement, “Today’s youth will hugely relate to Cheat India.” The quote reflects the project’s earlier title.
Is Why Cheat India worth watching?
It is a reasonable choice if you are drawn to films about education, unequal opportunity and fraud, or want to see Hashmi play a resourceful, morally compromised operator. Go in expecting a strong central idea and a commanding lead rather than a consistently tight screenplay. Critics’ assessments varied, but several contemporary reviews objected to the film’s storytelling, pacing or coherence.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where can you watch Why Cheat India in India?
A JustWatch India catalog check dated 10 March 2026 listed the film for streaming on Zee5 and VI Movies & TV, and for rental on Zee5. Catalog listings change, so confirm availability directly with the service before subscribing or renting. Google Play’s listing says the title is unavailable.
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