Three Idiots

Me and three of my friends watched '3 idiots' last week. I know there are many reviews floating around the web, raving about how good a movie it is, with more and more people watching it and making it a huge hit. Hence I thought I will also pen down my two cents about the movie.

First of all, the movie tries to deliver a very relevant message. Kudos to the story writer for bringing up a topic which is very relevant in today's times. Being an engineer and MBA myself, I can very well identify with the predicament, because I myself have tried to make sense of all these degrees that I have earned over a period of time.

The movie tries to bring into light the fallacy of 'rote' way of learning which Indian educational system patronizes. Here, the person who memorizes the formulae, theories and even different definitions from the textbook, are given good grades above the person who tries to understand the concepts and applies it. Here is the first point were the movie fells short. Even I had friends in my engineering college who were very thorough with the concepts but didnt adhere to the rote method of learning. Though they were very knowledgeable, they never used to score good marks because of the way students are graded in our educational system. If you can't exactly replicate what is given in the textbooks, you are not given the marks. They did succeed in many of the competitive exams for higher studies and many good colleges around the world recognised their potential is a different story all together. The movie potrays Rancho as someone who understands the concepts and applies it, at the same time, scores more marks than Chathur who crams all day. Afterall, a Bollywood hero has his invincible image to live upto, because I found this something which cannot happen in the real life.

Though the movie progresses very well in the first hour, the second half becomes tad boring with the innumerable bollywood cliched scenes somehow pressed into the movie. Delivering a baby with a vaccuum cleaner, really, whom are we kidding here? The whole drama in the hospital, are they telling us that we wouldn't have known the depth of these friendship or even the good-heartedness of Rancho without these scenes? The film makers themselves kill the novelty of the movie and the wonderful plot they build in the first half with these cliched scenes.

All said and done, the movie truly belongs to Aamir Khan, maestro who surprises us each and every time with his choice of scripts and characters, and the two other idiots, Madhavan and Sharman Joshi who did a commenable job with their characters. Though all of them potray characters which are much younger to their self, their timing of the comedy is just perfect. Had the last half an hour been removed from the movie, I believe 'Three Idiots' could have become a cult classic like 'Dil Chahta Hai', but otherwise it is a bit disappointing from the director who have given us 'Munnabhai MBBS' and 'Lage Raho Munnabhai'. All izz not well with me Mr. Hirani.

Post script: About Chetan Bhagat claiming that he is not due credits for the story, I would like him to go back and read his book again, watch the movie once and then continue commenting on the issue. Except for the three friends, IIT setting and love angle with professor's daughter, I don't think there is any similarity between the movie and the book. I heard Five Point Someone sales have gone up after the movie released. So a little publicity never hurts.