Come December 25th of every year, Bollywood looks forward to powerful entertainers from the Mr. Perfectionist, Aamir Khan. 2009 doesn't disappoint either with 3 Idiots. 3i is a very endearing story of friendship, love, passion & ability of one's self to identify what one is made of.
Said to be based on Chetan Bhagath's book Five Point Someone, 3i follows the book's plot for most of the part. Unlike other book-turned-movies, 3i is a remarkable rendition on celluloid with the story told impeccably, managing to hold the interest till the very end. Trust Aamir Khan to give a mind blowing performance. He may be 40+ in real life, but his transformation to a 20yr old college student is entirely remarkable. Neither his looks, nor his mannerisms betray his real life identity and this works to the movie's greatest advantage.
Aamir "Rancho" Khan, R "Farhan" Madhavan & Sharman "Raju" Joshi become the inseparable hostel mates & class mates in Imperial College of Engineering. The introductory scene of Rancho is hilarious. While the freshers are being ragged & Rancho refuses to get ragged, the senior threatens to piss on Rancho's door. Rancho counters him practically by holding a metal spoon plugged into the power socket & delivers a shock of life. Farhan recollects Humne sirf pada tha ki Salt Water is good conductor of electricity, isne to practical use kiya.
The college directory, Boman “Viru Sahastra Budhdhi” Irani (fondly known to his students as Virus), is a proud man who has kept the college on top for years together. His mantra life is a race, tum baagoge nahin to kuchal diye jaaoge. He expects only one thing from his pupils, they should excel at whatever they are doing & earn themselves a fat plum job at the campus interviews. Rancho appears on scene to question each of Viru’s rat-race tactics. To prove that learning by rote without really understanding what it means, Rancho plays a hilarious prank on another student Chatur Ramalingam. Chatur is selected to orate the addressing ceremony on the teacher’s day. Rancho modifies Chatur’s Hindi speech with occurrences of chamatkaar with balathkaar and dhan with sthan. What follows is a total laugh riot. This arguably is the best scene of the movie & half of my money's worth was recovered here. Chatur is humiliated & in drunken anger he challenges Rancho to see who will be most successful in life ten years later.
Virus doesn't like his conventional ways to be challenged. Chatur doesn't want to be defeated. Rancho doesn't want to be bothered with any of these. Virus tries to separate the trio but he fails. This is where the movie showcases the true college life, friendship, helping one another, trying to realize one's own potential & finding love as well. Aamir has put in a tremendous performance, while Sharman Joshi excels. Its a pity Sharman doesn't get many roles. Madhavan is good too, but is a bit fat too. Kareena plays Aamir's love interest. While she doesn't have much to do among the boys, she gyrates well, looks gorgeous and puts in a heart warming performance.
Music by Shantanu Moitra is quite good. The song Zoobie Doobie is peppy & foot tapping. Watch Aamir move like Shashi Kapoor in this song. The attention paid to so such small details is amazing. Eccentricities of Virus and the quaint mannerisms is ably enacted by Boman Irani. What a fine find he has been to the industry.
Somewhere along the movie there are echoes similar to Taare Zameen Par; like when Farhan's father chides him when his percentage slid down from 94 to 91; but they do seem inevitable. The gist is that dont try to achieve something because your parent wished you to do it. Learn with passion, learn things so that they can be applied practically & you have got yourself a success mantra to be happy in life. I could easily connect with this thought, because it is the same mundane booky stuff that I too went through in college without actually getting to visualize them in real life.
Rajkumar Hirani's direction is razor sharp. Though there are some things which seem over the top, like Aamir assisting in child birth using a Vacuum Cleaner as the suction cup to pull out the baby, the stress is really on not being a bookie, I mean book worm. This line of thought is superbly collated with other bollywood stuff like comedy, emotions, songs & terrific one liners, that make 3i an absolutely entertaining movie to end the year with.
Ek free advice du, dont miss this movie :)
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