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Indian teachers that inspired Super 30 movie talk about hope

Movie is based on international best-selling book by B.C. doctor

The Maple Ridge screening of Super 30, based on a book written by Maple Ridge author Dr. Biju Mathew, takes place on Friday.

The book, titled Super 30: Changing the World 30 Students at a Time, is about a mathematician and teacher named Anand Kumar, in Bihar, one of the poorest states in northeastern India.

Super 30 is so named because the program prepares 30 students every year for the India Institutes of Technology, which has one of the toughest entry exams in the world.

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Dr. Mathew is expecting more than 400 people at the screening Friday evening at the ACT Arts Centre.

Super 30 is already in 71 countries including Canada. Anand Kumar will be at the screening in Maple Ridge and will be joined onstage along with his brother Pranav and Dr. Mathew for a live interview with Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows News publisher Lisa Craik ahead of the show.

“The movie is all about hard work, drive, motivation,” said Dr. Mathew. “How people achieve their goals and how some persons, when they are motivated, can make a change in people’s lives,” he said.

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Super 30 stars one of India’s hottest actors, Hrithik Roshan, who plays the role of Kumar.

“It was done very well. Hrithik Roshan did a fabulous job. Obviously they can’t cover the whole story, the whole biography, but they have taken important aspects of the book and then made a beautiful movie,” said Dr. Mathew, who had only one request for the film team.

“I told them to make it as real as possible and not to make it a typical Bollywood movie,” he said. “I’m very excited for our people here. I think lots of students are also coming,” noted Mathew, adding that he hopes people are inspired by the fact that even a writer from Maple Ridge can make a global impact.

The screening of Super 30 is a fundraiser benefiting the Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation and the Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Arts Council through The ACT Arts Centre in support of education programs and opportunities for youth in the community. Opening reception takes place at 6:30 p.m. on Fri. Sept. 20 at the ACT Arts Centre, 11944 Haney Pl. in Maple Ridge. The onstage interview starts at 7:15 p.m. with the screening at 7:30 p.m. in the Mainstage Theatre.

Tickets are $50 with a tax-deductible portion and are available for purchase until 11 a.m. on Thursday Sept. 19.


 

cflanagan@mapleridgenews.com

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Colleen Flanagan

About the Author: Colleen Flanagan

I got my start with Black Press Media in 2003 as a photojournalist.
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