3 Idiots-The Review

'Excellence ke peeche bhaago, success jhak maar kar apne aap peeche bhaagegi!'

This enlightening piece of advice given by Rancchoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad aka Phunsuk Wangdu accurately focuses on the problem of our present education system where we all are told that bringing marks is the ultimate goal. Gaining knowledge plays second fiddle.

I thought no movie in 2009 could match the excellence of Dev D but was proved wrong. If 2009 began with Dev D, it was only fitting that it ended with 3 Idiots.

In 3 Idiots, I found a little bit of myself on the screen which is why I loved 3 Idiots.

Because this was the first time that a college movie wasn't about cool clothes and hot chicks. Instead the focus was on pressure, fear of failure, coping with family and authority and most importantly the struggle between who others want you to be and who you want to be yourself. A struggle I myself experience since I go to an engineering college, like one of the protagonists, not because I have a love for engineering (I want to be a filmmaker) but because it guarantees me the most secure future.

When one of the characters reads a speech “remixed” without his knowledge (watch the movie to understand what I am saying), I laughed aloud because it reminded me of my classmates who would by-heart almost anything and everything without paying a penny's concern as to what they were reading.

I could see a friend I knew in the character of the ultra-competitive Chatur, and the “engineer by nature” Rancho (Aamir Khan) and saw bits of myself in Farhan (R.Madhavan) and Raju (Sharman Joshi) . And when a character says that what hurts more than seeing a friend fail is to see a friend succeed, I just could not help but chuckle in agreement at the genuineness of that “confession”.

3 idiots made me realize that Indian cinema has come a long way in treatment of a wide variety of subjects that reflect social stereotypes. It was a hilarious, touching and enlightening movie. It was a journey of laughter and tears in the true sense of the term, the ability to lighten moments even during an emotionally charged heart wrenching scene. The credit for why 3 Idiots works must go primarily to Rajkumar Hirani and to the very intelligent and equally funny script that kept me continuously engaged. The technical work is top-notch and some of the camera-work breathtaking.

3 Idiots is a a direct critical hit on the heart.

Highly, highly recommended.