Review of 3 Idiots

Bollywood should be dancing, singing, rejoicing, shedding tears of joy…. For, Vinod Chopra Films’ 3 Idiots (UA) has come like a tornado to smash box-office records and create new ones which may not be broken easily, at least in the immediate future.

Once in many years comes a blockbuster like 3 Idiots which has everything – comedy, hum- our, emotions, romance, drama, melodrama and, above all, fulfilling entertainment and mean- ingful social message. In short, 3 Idiots is cinema at its best, and its business will be one of the biggest in the history of Hindi cinema ever.

Based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel, Five Point Someone, 3 Idiots is the story of three friends – Ranchhod­das Chan­jad alias Rancho (Aamir Khan), Farhan Qureshi (R. Madha­van) and Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi). They study in the prestigious Imperial Coll­ege of Engineering (ICE) and are somehow always in the bad books of its haughty principal, Viru Sahastrabuddhe alias Virus (Boman Irani) who thinks the three are nothing but idiots. Rancho, es­pecially, is a non-conformist. He al­ways strives to acquire knowledge rather than merely excelling academi­cally.

The film, which goes into flashback after a few minutes of starting, reveals in the first half about how the three be­came close friends. Farhan hails from a middle-class fami­ly and although he is passionate about wildlife photography, his father wants him to become an engineer because of which he is in ICE. Rancho seriously believes in the philosophy that one should follow one’s heart and over a period of time, he convinces Farhan to quit college and pursue his passion of wildlife photography. Raju comes from a very poor family which comprises an ailing father, an over-burdened and frustrated mother and a sister who can’t be married off be­cause he can’t afford a Maruti car to give away in dowry.

Rancho not only saves Raju’s father in an emergency by rushing him to hospital but also gives Raju a new perspective of life. He asks both, Farhan and Raju, to tide over difficult situations in life by convincing the mind with the words, ‘Aal izz well’. And then, one day, Rancho disappears without informing his friends who are, therefore, clueless about his whereabouts.

Back to the present times. Ten years have elapsed. Chatur Rama­lingam (Omi), a bookworm, who had studied with the trio, gets Farhan and Raju to the college campus once again, hoping that Rancho would come there in keeping with a bet Chatur had laid with him (Rancho). But when Ran­cho doesn’t come there, Far­han, Raju and Chatur set out in search of him, taking alongwith them Rancho’s girlfriend, Pia (Kar­eena Kapoor), who also yearns to be united with him.
The film, scripted by Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, is a flawless enterprise. Not a scene is out of place or lacking in any way, not a dialogue is irrelevant, not a performance is faulty or below the mark, not a nuance is wrong.

Rarely does one get to see such a wholesome entertainer that caters to age groups from three to 100, both the sexes, and all the classes and strata of society. If the first half makes the audience laugh uncontrollably in scene after scene after scene, the second half also has emotional moments that will make the public cry and the weak-hearted sob and weep! What is exhilarating for the viewer is that in the midst of all the sup­remely fresh humour and heart-rending sentiments comes the message that one mustn’t bow down to societal or par­ental pressure in deciding on one’s career.

Two points about the comedy here: the writers have penned scenes showing big college-going boys stripping down to their underwears so aesthetically that it doesn’t look vulgar at all but rather evokes a lot of laughter among the audien­ce.

Boys and men, especially, are going to go crazy about this comedy track. The second point is that the writers have poked fun at Raju Rastogi’s poverty but not once does the fun leave a bad taste in the audience’s mouth. The jokes about the poverty being the biggest curse of the Rastogi family are so fresh, so original and, most importantly, so non-demeaning that not a single person in the audience would feel offended. That’s the genius of the writers, as also of the actors who could’ve spoilt the show if their acting weren’t controlled and perfect.

In particular, the Chamatkar/ balaatkar scene in the pre-interval portion is a highlight and will bring the house down with laughter. It could easily feature in the Bollywood top 10 comedy scenes of all time. That scene alone has tremendous repeat value.

The other highlight is the pre­sentation of Raju Rastogi’s house in black & white to denote poverty akin to the financial condition of characters portrayed in films of the B & W era. The gatecrashing scene of the three friends in the wedding of Pia’s sister, Mona (Mona Singh), the scene in which Rancho and Pia rush Raju’s father to the hospital, the scene in which Rancho teaches his college-mate the lesson of his lifetime when he decides to urinate outside his hostel room, the scene in which Rancho defines ‘machine’ in the classroom, the scene in which Rancho and Farhan are eating food in Raju’s house, the scene in which Pia describes Gujarati food, the scene in which Farhan and Raju threaten to flush down the mortal remains of Senior Ranchhoddas…. the list of hilarious scenes and sequences is long, very very long.

There are also some very good scenes on the emotional side. In this category, special mention must be made of the scene in which Raju apologises to Rancho in hospital, the scene in which Farhan pleads with his father to allow him to pursue wild- life photography as a career, and the scene in which Raju lands a job on the strength of his self-confidence. These are all scenes which will moisten the audience’s eyes and even make the more emotional people cry bitterly.
There are also some scenes in which the audience would laugh while crying or cry while laughing. The prime example of such scenes is the one in which Rancho, Farhan and Raju’s mother try to revive a semi-comatose Raju lying on the hospital bed. Another such scene which makes the audience cry and laugh together is when Farhan and Raju take off their pants in front of Rancho to express their gratitude to him.

The film also has a number of claptrap scenes. Actually, many of the comedy scenes are so ingeni­ous that the audience would find itself clapping in appreciation while laughing and guffawing. Besides such comedy scenes, there are other scenes too, which would evoke claps. For instance, the scene in which Rancho ties Raju’s father to himself as he rides him and Pia pillion to hospital, the scene in which Pia holds Raju’s hand and runs away from her wedding mandap, the scene in which Rancho and his friends fight all odds to facilitate the birth of the child of Pia’s sister, the scene in which the child lets out his first cry…. all these will be met with thunderous applause, claps and whistles.

If the climax is superb, the int­erval point is shocking, to say the least. It leaves the viewer speechless because one has least expected the twist that comes in the tale at that point. The film, it must be mention­ed, has many layers and they are the multiple layers which make it a cinematic experience of a lifetime. Even the messages are aplenty. Besides asking people to follow their heart, the film also has a message for educational institutions – that rather than laying so much em­phasis on success, they should en­courage the students to become more capable because success will then automatically follow.

Dialogues, penned by Raj­kumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi, are gems. Every dialog­ue is so simple, yet so full of meaning that one can’t help but admire the spoken words and applaud them after every few minu­tes.

Like the script, the performan­ces by the actors are also great. Aamir Khan, a 40-plus actor, plays a 20-year-old college-going youngster to such perfection that no praise is too much for his talent. His app­earance, his clothes, his gait, style of walking and talking, his mannerisms, his acting, all befit a 20-year-old and that’s a major victory for Aamir. Easily a landmark performance by Aamir Khan, this film has the power to fetch awards for the reservoir of talent that he is. Kareena Kapoor looks superb and acts with such restraint that one can’t help admiring her.

Undoubted­ly, this is among her best performances. R. Madhavan does extremely well. He moves the audience to tears in the scene with his father in the second half. Sharman Joshi is fantastic. He seems to be a born actor, so smooth and un­laboured is his performance. He is exceptional in both, emotional and comic scenes. As Chatur, newfind Omi is mind-blowing and will become an over­night star, thanks to this film. Boman Irani deserves tons of praises for a job extra­ordinarily done. As the college principal and father of Pia, he is simply splendid and could easily walk away with awards for the best supporting actor. Parikshat Sahni leaves a strong impact. As his wife, Farida Dadi is nice. Amardeep Jha deserves kudos for her acting in the role of Raju Rastogi’s mother. As his sister, Chaitali Bose is appropriate.

Mukund Bhatt, as Raju’s father, lends able support. Akhil Mishra is efficient as the librarian. Ach­yut Pot­dar is excellent. Rahul Wagh (as the young Milli­metre) and Dushyant Wagh (as the grown-up Millimetre) are superb. Atul Tiwari, as education minister, acts very naturally. Jaaved Jaaferi stands out in a brief role. Mona Singh is cute. Sanjay Lafont (as Suhas) is very effective and leaves a mark in a brief role. Ali Fazal (Joy), Madhav Vaze (Joy’s old father), Arun Bali (Jaaved Jaaferi’s father), Rajendra Pat­wardhan (old peon), Supriya Shukla (matron who assists Kareena Kapoor in the child delivery scene) and Michael Joseph (exam invigilator) lend superb support.

Rajkumar Hirani’s direction is fantastic. Unquestionably, the best directorial work of not just 2009 but in a long, long time. Hirani’s biggest plus point is that his narrative style in the film never gets preachy even though there are so many messages conveyed. Another major victory for the director comes because his easy narrative style appeals to all age groups and all strata of society. He seems to know the pulse of the public just too beautifully. Music (Shantanu Moitra) is superb. The ‘Aal izz well’ song is wonderful but even more wonderful is its picturisation (Avit Dias) and the relevance of the mukhda of the song in the context of the film’s story.

It should not be a wonder if because of the aforementioned reasons, the song goes on to become the new national anthem for some months! ‘Behti hawa sa tha woh’, ‘Give me some sunshine’ and ‘Jaane nahin denge’ (the last-named song is excellently rendered by Sonu Nigam) have extraordinary melody and great lyrical value (Swanand Kirkire). ‘Zoobi doobi’ is yet another excellent song and its picturisation (Bosco-Caesar) is ref­reshingly different. Back­ground music is excellent. C.K. Mura­lee­dharan’s cinematography is superb and just too eye-filling. Production and technical values are of a high standard.

On the whole, 3 Idiots will prove to be one of Hindi film industry’s biggest hits ever. It will smash box-office records from North to South and East to West and write new box-office history. The tremendous entertainment value in the film will prompt people to repeat the film not just once but even twice, thrice and four times (yes, this is not an exaggeration!). For the messages it gives, the film deserves governmental support in the form of tax exemption.

Frankly, so remarkable is the film that one would need to coin a new word to describe its worth, just like Aamir Khan coins two words – ‘Farhanitrate’ and ‘Prerajulisa­tion’ – in the film, deriving them from the names of his two best friends. Let’s just say, this one is a Hiranistic Blockhanbuster i.e. a fantastic blockbuster by Hirani and (Aamir) Khan!
Released on 24-12-’09 at Regal (daily 3 shows) and 74 more cinemas and on 25-12-’09 at Eros (matinee), New Empire (daily 4 shows), Maratha Man­dir and 40 other cinemas of Bombay thru Reli­ance Big Pictures. Publicity: outstanding. Opening: earth-shattering. …….Also released all over. Opening was historic everywhere, surpassing all expectations!!

Issue dated December 27,2009-January 2, 2010

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