3 Idiots – Film Review

Akhilesh Malla

Film/TV 1

HONORS ASSIGNMENT

3 Idiots – Film Review

     The Indian film industry, commonly referred to as “Bollywood”, is the largest in terms of the number of tickets sold and the films produced. Sholay has been the highest grossing film of Indian Cinema until 3 Idiots hit the theatres. Right when Aamir Khan began promoting the film, I could imagine that he was not away from making a hat trick. From the last two years his films have been releasing in December consistently. Two years ago, his movie Taare Zameen Par (Like Stars on Earth) rocked at the box office. The next year he recreated the same magic with Ghajini which became a super hit. This year, the Indian Santa brought 3 Idiots for his fans. The film created a history by setting a box office record for the Indian Film Industry. Loosely based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel, Five Point Someone, the film represents an encouragement to all college students to excel in every field they study, and to enjoy their life at the same time.

     Rancho (Aamir Khan), Farhan (Madhavan) and Raju (Sharman Joshi) are three engineering students at Imperial College of Engineering, one of the best colleges in India. All of them are from different backgrounds.  Rancho is from a super rich family. Farhan is born to a middle class family and Raju is from a low class and poor economic background family. Viru (Boman Irani) is the principal of the college who has many strict rules and believes in putting peer pressure on students so that they can succeed in their lives. Rancho is a person who thinks that students should never chase upon their grades, but they should love what they are doing. He always tells his classmates that one should follow excellence and not success and that success will come only after one has enjoyed and achieved brilliance in their work. The rest of the story is all about how Rancho makes his friends adopt his outlook and proves that the principal is wrong.

     The tone was set early on in the beginning of the film where Farhan and Raju set out on a journey to find their long-lost friend Rancho. The first half of the movie is filled with some nice enjoyable moments including the pants dropping humor. The entertaining first half ended on a mystery note, which made me eager to know what was going to happen next. The second half of the movie portrayed a little more about the three friends including their family background.  I come to know that Rancho is adopted by a rich family when his father passes away. Farhan came from a middle class family and his parents wanted him to study engineering when he wanted to become a wildlife photographer. Raju represented the lonely hope for low income group in India. His family could barely have three meals a day. His father was old and ill and mother was not in good shape. The only way for Raju to upbring his family was by earning a professional degree in engineering, so he could have a well stable and respectful job. It wasn’t a happy situation at all. Even though the latter half of the movie had some dragging moments, it slowly made a good impact on me with a masterstroke used in the climax which had a nice surprise twist.