If 2009 can begin with ‘Dev D’ and end with ‘3 Idiots’, it is indeed
time to sound the seetis and taalis for one of the most exciting
years of contemporary Indian cinema targeting education system of today’s
generation. Truly, 2009 has been the year of the Idiot in movie lore: the intrinsically
intelligent, downright smart, Inimitable, Original and Talented film maker,
actor, story teller, musician, lyricist, dialogue writer and producer. ‘3
Idiots’ is a 2009 Indian coming of age comedy-drama
film co-written, edited and directed by Rajkumar Hirani,
produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, and screenplay by Abhijat Joshi.
It was loosely adapted from the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan
Bhagat. The film stars Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, R.
Madhavan, Sharman
Joshi, Omi
Vaidya, Parikshit
Sahni and Boman
Irani. 3 Idiots is the perfect
end to an exciting year for India. The three idiots, Rancchoddas Shyamaldas
Chanchad (Aamir Khan), Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi) and Farhan Qureshi (R
Madhavan), are perfect archetypes of the new age Indian who is essentially a
non-conformist, questioning outmoded givens, choosing to live life on his own
terms and chartering new roads that consciously skirt the rat race. Of course,
they begin on the beaten track -- due to societal/parental pressure -- but
refuse to become cogs in the wheel. Naturally, they end up as the Frostian hero
(Robert Frost's Road Not Taken) who made all the difference to his life, and
the world, by taking the road less travelled by. In a late scene from the film,
2 of the 3 idiots zip down their pants and pat their bottoms facing the third
idiot and saying jahapana tushi great ho.
Rather than feeling gross at that instant, you have a lump in throat. For the
zillionth time in a Hindi film, a bride runs away from the pheras on her wedding day. But the scene still doesn't
come across as clinched. For a group of all-male engineering students, to
'deliver' means to literally carry out a delivery operation on a woman in
labour pain. And when the motionless new-born responds to a goodwill chant of 'aal
izz well' in true-blue Man Mohan Desai mode, you fail to find a fault in the filmy
formula. That's the golden touch of Rajkumar Hirani! So after successfully dispensing philosophies
of ' Jaadu ki jhappi ' in Munnabhai MBBS and ' Gandhigiri ' in Lage Raho Munnabhai, Hirani incites a new
philosophy of ' Aal izz well ' in 3 Idiots. And like his doctrine, all is well in
his helluva film.
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| 3 idiots |
Loosely based on Chetan Bhagat's bestseller Five Point Someone, 3 Idiots takes the plot much beyond the campus confines
and the target audience much above the youth, for universal appeal. The story
starts a decade after the graduation of college companions Farhan (R Madhavan)
and Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi) who get a clue on the whereabouts of their
missing third friend Rancho (Aamir Khan). As they set out on a road trip from
Delhi to Shimla to Manali to Ladakh to find their friend, the narrative cuts to
and fro into flashbacks as we are introduced to the three idiots in an
engineering college. Rancho, Raju and Farhan enter the elite engineering
college, only to learn lessons of life that cannot be taught through books and
classrooms. Principal Viru Sahastrabuddhe is no help at all. The story begins
with the entry of our threesome in the city's elite engineering college. It
takes the first tryst with the mandatory ragging sessions which enunciate who
the leader of the gang is going to be: new entrant Baba Rancchoddas, as his
friends fondly call him. Rancho not only leads his friends through the maze of
India's competitive, high-pressure, rote-heavy, illogical and almost cruel
education system, he tutors them on several life mantras too. Like, running
after excellence, not success; questioning not blindly accepting givens;
inventing and experimenting in lieu of copying and cramming; and essentially
following your heart's calling if you truly want to make a difference. Warm-up
has Farhan Qureshi (R. Madhavan) getting a call from oily businessman Chatur
Ramalingam (Omi Vaidya) that he knows where to find their former fellow
student, Rancho (Khan), who mysteriously disappeared after graduation. Farhan
rounds up his old friend Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi) and, with no choice but
to take Chatur along, the pair set off on the long drive north from New Delhi
to the hill town of Shimla. En route, Farhan’s mind goes back to their days at
engineering college, where he and Raju felt pressured by family and society to
succeed: Raju came from a poor background and Farhan (who really wanted to be a
photographer) from a conservative, middle-class one. Their liberating
friendship with roommate Rancho — aka Ranchhoddas Shamaldas Chanchad — gave
them a whole new perspective on life. From his delayed entrance on, pint-sized
Khan dominates the movie as Rancho, a pixie-like, free-thinking Gujarati who
isn’t fazed by normal pressures (encapsulated by his catchphrase, “Aal izz
well”) and has a talent for creative problem-solving. This leads to a running
battle with pompous, know-it-all principal Viru Sahastrabuddhe (vet Boman
Irani), nicknamed Prof. Virus, but attracts the romantic attention of the
prof’s daughter, Pia (Kareena Kapoor).
So, you have the threesome embroiled, time and again, in a confrontation
with authority, as represented through the domineering figure of Viru
Sahastrabuddhe (Boman Irani), the unsmiling Principal who venerates the cuckoo
because the bird's life begins with murder. Kill the competition, because there
is only one place at the top, believes the Principal. Poor, mistaken Principal!
Doesn't he know that competition is effete, model students like Chatur (Omi)
end up as duns in real life and non-conformists (Rancho and Rocket Singh Inc.),
who care about being on top, could end up as eventual winners. More
importantly, they could be high not only in IQ (intelligence quotient) but in
EQ (emotional quotient) too, never losing their humaneness and social
networking skills. Rancho clearly is different from anyone else in the college
with his individualistic thought-process and rebellious attitude, which invites
the ire of the college principal (Boman Irani) and affection of his daughter
Pia (Kareena Kapoor). The high point of the film is the fact that
director Rajkumar Hirani says so much, and more, without losing his sense of
humour and the sheer lightness of being. The film is a laugh riot, despite
being high on fundas. Certain sequences almost have you rolling in the aisle,
like the ragging sequence, Omi's chamatkar/balatkar speech, the threesome's
wedding crasher sequence, their mournful meal with Raju's mournful mum and
Rancho's sundry demos to prove how Kareena has chosen the wrong guy for
herself. Add to this, the strong emotional core of the film that makes gentle
tugs, now and then, at your guts, and you have an almost perfect score. Hirani
carries forward his simplistic `humanism alone works' philosophy of the Lage
Raho Munnabhai series in 3 Idiots too, making it a warm and vivacious signature
tune to 2009. The second half of the film does falter in parts, specially the
child birth sequence, but it doesn't take long for the film to jump back on
track.
Coming from Rajkumar Hirani, there was clearly a risk involved in the
film's setting and characterizations for having a deja vu effect with his first
film. Boman Irani, as the principal, almost revives his disciplinarian dean
characterization from Munnabhai MBBS which
is more palpable with his disgust towards the rebellious protagonist, Rancho
(aka to Sanjay Dutt) who is furthermore in love with his daughter (aka Gracy
Singh). Nevertheless, Hirani's direction is so impeccable that without a
conscious effort, the analogy never strikes your mind and the scenario never
looks repetitive. In his trademark style, Hirani grabs your
attention from scene one with an unconventional opening to the film. Thereafter
every single scene written in the screenplay (by Hirani and Abhijat Joshi) is
not just relevant but also has a clear set objective - to be funny or be deeply
poignant which means it either makes you laugh or cry and at some superlative
instances do both simultaneously (which is an achievement). The writers have
kept absolutely no room for any intermediate option.
The introduction sequence of the principal is hilarious and so is an
annual day Hindi speech of honour by an NRI student. Raju Rastogi's
poverty-stricken family is introduced with such nonchalance in spoofy
black-and-white frames that what could have ideally been a melodramatic
tear-jerker scene is transformed into a laugh-riot. The short-n-smart suspense
induced at the interval point teases your anticipation. Sharman's revival scene
in hospital reminds of the inspiring carom board scene from Munnabhai MBBS while
the delivery sequence in the pre-climax is tackled tactfully and tastefully.
The excellence in screenplay can't be summed up in merely a paragraph. In fact
even the romantic song Zoobie Doobie is one
of the most creatively conceptualized numbers since ' Dhoom Taana ' (Om
Shanti Om) or ' Woh Ladki Hai Kahan ' (Dil Chahta Hai). The writers also represent a lot of their ideologies through
the thoughtful dialogues touching several academic issues from grading systems,
parental pressure, student suicides, and conformist coaching to theoretical
knowledge, without getting preachy at any instance. Sample a straightforward
gem that says, "Even a lion learns to obey his ringmaster. But you call
him well-trained and not well-educated". Several engineering jokes make
way into the script and never fail to make you laugh.
A word about:
Performances: Believe it or not, but Aamir, Madhavan and
Sharman actually look -- and behave -- like students. While Aamir pitches in a
near-perfect portrayal of Rancho, the free-spirited innovator, Madhavan and
Sharman are perfectly in sync too. Kareena as the independent-minded medical
student is winsome; debutant Omi has a refreshing flair for comedy and Boman
Irani doesn't ham or go over the top even once.
Story: Rajkumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi script a warm
and humanist indictment of India's rude-crude education system that prepares
rats for a rat race rather than thinkers for a new world.
Dialogue: Witty
and wild, the film walks away with the best comic scene of the year citation
with its uproarious `balatkar' speech.
Music: Shantanu Moitra may not have forced you to pick
up the music album of the film but the songs do come alive on screen, especially
Jane Nahi Denge Tujhe, Zoobie-Doobie and Aal Izz Well.
Choreography: Avit Diaz has the threesome -- Aamir, Madhavan,
and Sharman -- kick up some wild fun in Aal Izz Well, while Bosco-Caesar
rightly go retro with Zoobie-Doobie.
Cinematography: The streets of Delhi and the picture postcard
beauty of Ladakh are captured in riveting images by Muraleedharan CK.
Styling: Designers Manish Mehrotra, Sheena Parekh and
Raghuveer Shetty create the pucca campus look for our rumbustious kids on the
block, complete with ganjis and capris. Kareena too is an archetypal Delhi girl
with her trendy, not flashy ensemble.
Inspiration: Chetan Bhagat's Five Point Someone literally
comes alive on screen, although the film does not kowtow the book verbatim.
Shantanu Moitra's music is in perfect sync with the mood of the film. C
K Muraleetharan's cinematography and Hirani's editing are flawless. Manish
Malhotra, Sheena Parekh and Raghuveer Shetty's informal styling succeeds in
giving the film it's trendy campus feel and the 30 plus trio convincingly pass
off as college students.
Performances are a highlight with Aamir Khan
clearly stealing the show in the role of the sharp, optimistic, livewire
Rancho. He is so effortlessly natural in his act that you take a moment to
analyze and appreciate this as one of his career-best performances. Sharman
Joshi is as much competent showing brilliance in both funny and emotional
moments. Madhavan has an easy screen presence and perfectly complements his
costars for amazing companion chemistry. Kareena Kapoor may have less
screen-time but this is amongst one of her most appealing acts. And that is
beyond her gorgeous looks. Boman Irani is exceptionally good as the principal.
Despite adding a lisp to his character, he doesn't make a caricature out of it,
which is the usual tendency. His mannerisms so distinctively remind you of the
professors from your college days. Omi as the nerdy NRI symbolizes the
teacher's pet you encounter in every classroom.
Rajkumar Hirani serves you idealism but with utmost conviction. He is
able to establish a compelling connect with his audience, qualifying himself as
one of the finest filmmakers of his time. Who else can turn something as
trivial as pudina chatni into a
price indicator? The film redefines idiot as 'I do it on my own terms'. After
watching the film, you won't mind being certified as an idiot. If you still
don't approve of the film, you are a certified cynic. '3 Idiots' is one of the
most entertaining films of the decade. Amongst the performances, Aamir Khan is
stupendous as the rule-breaker Rancho. But the rest of the cast doesn't remain
in the shadows. Both Sharman and Madhavan manage to carve their independent
characters as lovable rebels too. Even Kareena shines out, despite the
minuscule length of her role. A special mention for Boman Irani who is
impeccable as `Virus', the vile Principal and newcomer Omi who perfectly slips
into the stereotype of the best, albeit bakwas student. Shantanu Moitra's music
score, which may have sounded pheeka in the audio version, comes alive on
screen with lyricist Swanand Kirkire giving India its clarion call for 2010:
Aal Izz Well. Rush for it.
3 IDIOTS belongs to everyone. But, yes, there's no denying that Aamir
makes you forget all his past achievements as you watch the amazing actor play
Rancho. To state that this ranks amongst his finest works would be an
understatement. Madhavan is incredible, especially in the sequence when he
explains his point of view to his father [Pareekshit Sahani]. Sharman is
outstanding from start to end. This was a difficult role to portray and only an
actor of calibre could've pulled it off. Boman is superb as the vicious head of
the institute. The scenes between Aamir and Boman are extra-ordinary and it's a
treat to watch these two powerful actors clash on the big screen, without
getting overdramatic. Boman's appearance, mannerisms and dialogue delivery are
exemplary. The length of Kareena's role may not be as much as Aamir, Madhavan
and Sharman, but she registers a strong impact nonetheless. Omi is excellent
and the viewers are sure to love his acidic tongue and gestures in the movie.
Mona Singh doesn't get much scope. Jaaved Jaffery is competent. Pareekshit
Sahani is decent. On the whole, 3 IDIOTS easily ranks amongst Aamir, Rajkumar Hirani and
Vidhu Vinod Chopra's finest films. Do yourself and your family a favour: Watch
3 IDIOTS. It's emotional, it's entertaining, it's enlightening. The film has
tremendous youth appeal and feel-good factor to work in a big way.