3 Idiots

Case: Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Sharma Joshi, Madhavan, Boman Irani Music: Shantanu Moitra Direction: Rajkumar Hirani

Now this is what I have been writing about. 3 Idiots is pure entertainment, too pure in its intention that even the serious social concern it carries to plays out powerfully to entertain you. 3 Idiots proves once again, quite affirmatively, that you don't need a serious tear jerking art-house film in order to convey socially relevant messages. Cameron did it with a thumping response. Hirani does it here with equally exhilirating commercial results. The fact that both the films hit the screens almost simultaneously is nothing but joie de coincidence.

Hindi film industry has undergone a magical transformation in the last fifteen years. Led couragiously by Ram Gopal Varma's sustained and almost thankless efforts and Ashutosh Govarikar's one groundbreaking film, the Hindi industry woke up from its long slumber and began challenging itself. When films like Bhoot, Rang De Basanti and Swades came, we knew that we were heading for better times. 3 Idiots is a proof that we're living in the best of times in terms of Indian cinema. We've understood the format of the classical Hollywood script and are reproducing them with perfect ease and, within that framework, combining non-linear progression introduced by Japanese and South American directors. With that add in our own native social problems and essential elements such as song and dance, action, melodrama, and, voila, pure, unadulterated fun!. We Indians are the masters of fusion. Rajkumar Hirani fast turning out to be one of the important torchbearers of this movement.

3 Idiots, adapted from an impetuous, sporty novel, does a funny take on the Indian education system, one of the least discussed, yet the most important problems of Indian society. 3 Idiots shows how this system is ruining the future of our children, turning them into machines, affecting their psychology, and even driving them to suicide. All this is true, and every Indian reading this will have experienced all these, perhaps not the last but would have heard of such incidents. My own schoolmate committed suicide when he failed his board exams, and we were too young and too frightened to understand why. When you watch 3-Idiots, you'll know.

The above paragraph should make the film into a serious, brooding, and angry movie. Contrarily, in an almost absurd retaliation, 3 Idiots makes you laugh hysterically at the system and the people involved in it. At some relaxed moments, you realise that you're actually laughing at yourself as you too had been one of the characters. Such humiliation has never been so much fun.

Aamir Khan had been part of groundbreaking cinematic projects before. His own Taare Zameen Par tackled the subject of education system powerfully albeit with less laughs. He is returned to deal with it again and this time since Rajkumar Hirani is involved, there is ample hilarity, as well as ample melodrama. But Hirani is so sincere in his presentation that you don't mind some melodrama. Aamir has never cried so much before. You don't mind that either. The film ends with a typical hero-worship practiced in Indian films for eons. Strangely you don't mind even that, and on the contrary, you are so involved, care so much for the people there that you don't notice such things until you're out of the movie hall and had a cup of coffee. That's the real definition of suspension of disbelief. That's the power of cinema. At last our filmmakers have understood that. Yes, we have arrived!