3 idiots

Times of India very rarely gives a movie a rating of more than four stars and 3 idiots was rated at four and a half and the review concluded saying, “rush for it”. Indeed, we three idiots (myself, soli and fali) had tickets for first day first show (25th December) at liberty. It was after a decade that I was entering into delhi cinema theatre; the last one was taal at chanakya. soli was even careful in reserving the seats; first row of the balcony - ample of leg space and easy exit in case of any accident resembling uphaar theatre.

The film showcases the thought process previously explored in taarien zameen par and munnabhai. No similarity in the plots but both deal with frailties and strength of human. Issue of competition among kids is taken one step forward to that of getting a respectable engineering degree and shifting base to usa, possessing a big house and lamborghini. Truly, in today’s context, engineering degree is the passport to good job, wife and successful life. Commerce and arts graduates are labeled as outcaste. Engineering colleges mushrooming all over the country is a testimony of this attitude. The education system at aal levels leans towards the science stream i.e. if unable to get good % in 12th - opt for a commerce course, if unable to get engineering seat – go for commerce course and then opt for professional courses like C.A. etc. whereas commerce and arts students have no such option of choosing any science subjects.

The underlying point does not fail to strike a powerful chord at personal level. I am grateful that I was not forced into the science stream. Mom always wanted me to join the rat race of engineering. Surely, I would have secured my engineering degree from any college, secured a job and secured a wife by this time. I happily ended in joining a bigger competition group, that of lawyers, worked for free, got exploited and learnt a lot from my court sittings. An adage in this field is that a lawyer prospers when a prostitute considers her retirement. I did not miss the scene where maddy talks of life only being competition to gain credit cards and wife. Poignant dialogue! Both these necessary evils elude lawyers – bankers do not extend credit card to lawyers being litigious and father do not give away their girls for young lawyers lack money. A lawyer’s market is ever in recession. B.E. that as it may be!

But charity work for around 3 years and enjoying long court vacations did not went unnoticed. The family got into saamuhik mental balaatkaar. No occasion was lost in labeling me as non-enterprising and non-pushing. Thankfully, mom supported me through this bad patch. It was indeed a torturous quarter. Eventually I got through a consultant’s position in an american mnc with 25 K deal. Not a bad deal for me, from zilch to 25 K. The mental balatkaar was performed in order to attain some value in marriage market. How does a lawyer compete with computer software engineer who has done mba and is into investment banking and is earning hefty package? 25 K was raised to 40 K in next 10 months. Still no impact on my value in market. Girls were and are still after engineers, abroad or India. Again the family got ready to perform mental balaatkaar-“why don’t you ask for employee status?”. Down nine months, the approval came from usa and I am on rolls and I will be getting my credit card; so much fight. Some peace has dawned on family! What a rat-competition life! The song, “Give me another chance I wanna grow up once again, bachpan to gaya jawani bhi gaye, ek pal to hame jene do” captures the right emotion.


Back to the film! The jaddu ki jhappi is taken forward in the form of talismanic “aal izz well” to overcome human weakness and infuse optimism. 3 idiots, thus, is a nice blend of thoughts of two creative brains – aamir and hirani.

Excessive reliance on god and use of other charms as a solution provider has been denounced. The scene showing kids praying to god and bribing god on the result day like, “bus pass kara dey”, “bhagwan pass kara de, mein rani aur dmple ko apna behan manonga” and another promising to offer Rs. 100 daily was very enjoyable and forces one to go down the memory lane. I always looked to god for passing especially clearing my mathematics paper. Even first rankers like my cousins, who otherwise only paid lip service, used to visit temple and offer bribe. The song aal izz well captures this in lines, “agarbatti rakh ho gaye god to phir bhi dikha nahi”.

Though the spotlight is on aamir, the director has done full justice to the talents of maddy, sharman and the newcomer – omi vaidya. Right from style, xcuse me, rang de basanti, golmaal, life in a metro to 3 idiots, sharman has throughout put in credible performance. The pet of the director, boman, has put in fine performance as a crazy and genius professor-diction and einstein’s hairdo adding more to the performance. The newcomer, omi vaidya as the gas chamber was an instant hit with the audience. The deliberate south indian diction could not be missed and the speech with chamatkar replaced with balatkar and dhan with sthan was toooo good. It was good to see seasoned small screen artists like parikshit sahni and jayant kriplani chipping in. As usual, maddy has come up again with credible performance. The scene with javed jaffery involving his father’s urn was great.

And how can someone miss kareena; the audience went crazy on seeing her. The lip-lock scene of kareena and aamir elicited the biggest roar in the theatre. The lines, “jahanpana tussi great ho, tohfa to kabool karo” with pants down and a spank on ass was great. Cramming and book system has been ridiculed and the scene of farhanhite and prerajulative was thought provoking indeed. How many teachers dare to lean on creativity side in teaching the syllabus? My history teacher, praveen bhatnagar, belonged to this rare breed – came up with new methods to teach old history and presented us history in vivid colors. Amidst laugh riot scenes, came couple of melodramatic scenes – sharman crying in hospital and thanking aamir, sharman committing suicide, jayant kriplani hiring sharman and parikshit sahani giving go-ahead to maddy to pursue photography apprenticeship (this scene was very well appreciated by the audience).

The scene dealing with delivery of baby seemed to me too out of context. Also the electric current passing though chappal and shoe first appeared to me illogical, for rubber is an insulator. But obviously I missed the connecting point - salt water happens to be a conductor of electricity and in this case it was during the mutra visarjan process. And kareena marrying her fiancé after 10 years was too much. But no complaints, the story is dil-logical and seeks to send across couple of right social messages and above aal takes the audience into recap mode.