3 Idiots

Rating : 7/10
Release Date : 24th Dec, 2009
Time : 170 minutes
Director & Writer : Raju Hirani; Music : Shantanu Moitra
Starring : Aamir Khan, Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Boman Irani, Omi, Kareena Kapoor

Welcome to a world where ‘Aal Izz Well’, a world where everything sorts itself out, and almost as in a fairy story, miracles happen just when you need them to. Watch this film because it makes you laugh, is very engaging and because somewhere the point it makes around the education system is true. Don’t watch it if you’re expecting a good replication of Chetan Bhagat’s ‘Five Point Someone’ (this is only very very loosely based on the book) or a real, grounded story from where you can draw upon lessons for life.


This is the story about Rancho (Aamir), a person who is a bit of a dreamer, thinks differently to the rest, is not interested in the ‘rat race’ our education system has become but rather the joy of learning, the joy of invention and the pleasure of new ideas / machines. He inspires at least two people to change and think like him. Farhan (Madhavan) and Raju (Sharman), his room mates, who despite warnings from the Dean / parents / the system (their grades are not exactly inspiring), they staunchly remain true to Rancho’s philosophy. The Dean (Boman), is an interestingly sketched character, a great believer in the competitive nature of the Indian education system and not exactly a fan of Rancho.


Other characters are Chatur (Omi, the stereotypical engineer who dreams of great grades, megabucks and green cards) and Pia (Kareena), the Dean’s daughter, a feisty girl and convert to Rancho’s way of thought. MM, the dorm boy is another interesting person we get to know, as are Kilobyte and Megabyte and their mom, Gigabyte.


I wish life was as simple as Rancho made out. I wish it was as easy to top an engineering college, life’s issues resolved themselves as easily as shown in the film. The second half, which had a surprise identity crisis thrown in, raised some problems which it was implausible that were not discovered / resolved earlier. But the humour / fun keeps you going through it all.

The Teacher’s Day speech, delivered with great verve and gusto by Omi was a true hold your stomach and laugh out loud moment, one of the highlights of the film for me. The black & white way of showing poverty, Aamir’s definition of a book in the first lecture, Kareena’s choice of a ‘price tag’ husband and her surprising drunk attack on Gujarati snack food names, old jokes about the NASA pen or ‘do you know who I am’, were all good fun.


I thought Aamir overacted a bit, there was a slight air of pretense around him, but nothing which detracted too seriously from the film. Everyone else did a stellar job.

My father said after watching it that if you’re willing to suspend disbelief, its an enjoyable film. That’s a pretty fair way of putting it, after all, we do the same for Bond films and a lot of action thrillers. Its just that I didn’t expect to be doing it for a rom com set in an engineering college….