IDIOTISM WITH A NEW DIMENSION. Review on 3 Idiots

Each one of us has been directly or indirectly affected by our Indian education system. Most of us would agree to the fact that today India produces more of ‘literate’ individuals and few ‘educated’ ones. It’s a ‘rat’ race wherein the grades you score decide your ‘on paper’ worth, which subsequently assigns a ‘market value’ tag to your personality. An individual’s market value is fixed on the basis of the average pay packet he/she would receive from a company.

Amidst all this, ‘knowledge’ goes for a toss and people

=> Choose wrong careers for themselves

=> Underperform or succumb to pressures

=> Adapt to the existing system itself

How people react differently to similar situations in the current education system, and still manage to create ‘distinct identities’ for themselves is the crux of Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 IDIOTS.

Farhan Qureshi(R. Madhavan) & Raju Rastogi(Sharman Joshi) are engineering students, striving hard to make it among the top rankers in their institute. They meet up with Rancho(Aamir Khan) another fellow student, who’s brilliant but has a unique approach towards life. Then follows a roller coaster ride of twist & turns, happiness & emotions, etc.

Some remarkable scenes:

1) Ragging scene at the hostel

2) Rancho helping one of his fellow mates in his project without his knowledge, in order to surprise him, only to find……

3) A unique school for kids in Ladakh.

Talking about the performances, every role seems tailor made for the actor playing it. Aamir Khan springs up with another ‘marvellous’ performance. The actor though in his 40s, carries off the role of an engineering student with utmost ease, and proves why he’s undoubtedly the ‘ACE’ Khan. R. Madhavan comes up with an honest and sincere performance. His portrayal of the ‘confused’ youngster, with some of the wittiest lines is indeed appreciable. Sharman Joshi does complete justice to his character. He keeps switching between ‘underplaying’ and ‘aptly playing’ as demanded by the character. Boman Irani excels as usual. His character has shades of Dr. Asthana, played by him previously in Munnabhai MBBS.

Omi is an actor to watch out for. His dialogue delivery, accent, facial expressions, physical appearance, suit the character to the core. He’s a laugh riot on screen. Kareena Kapoor has a small but significant role with multiple shades. Other actors i.e. Parikshit Sahani, Mona Singh, Jaaved Jaffery provide adequate support. Shantanu Moitra's music is soothing, and connects to the film’s theme. All Is Well” is the best of the lot. Swanand Kirkire’s lyrics are simple & sweet. Cinematography by Muraleedharan C.K. is outstanding. Dialogues by Rajkumar Hirani, Abhijit Joshi are the backbone of the film. Screenplay & story has been aptly handled by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, though certain portions do seem ‘a bit’ over the top.

Rajkumar Hirani continues his winning streak with yet another ‘straight from the heart” film with a strong message. His maintains his patented ‘simplicity of narration” throughout the film, which proves to be the USP once again. “Chase excellence, success will follow” is the essence of the film. Overall, the film belongs to the entire cast & crew, difficult to point out one single person. It’s highly recommended for both masses & classes, especially those from engineering & academic backgrounds would relate to it more closely.

Rating (4/5)