Review of 3 Idiots (2009) by Fadeblack — 20 Jun 2013

3 Idiots is a rather great Bollywood movie, truly hilarious and yet with a very focused and introspective message on life and the choices we make.

From a screenwriting perspective, it's almost the perfect script. It has a large number of different characters that all stand out and manage to be interesting in their own way, with a number of themes weaved throughout the film that makes it a very well put together piece. The actors also all do a very good job, and the songs are memorable, better than most Bollywood movies.

Most of all, the movie has an infectious youthful spirit that is very hard not to like. A refreshing, at times moving and very funny, blast of summer air.

But, here's the thing.

And this is more a reflection on society than a fault of the movie, yet it is remarkable to observe how unaware the characters are that the very message of the story, about freedom and making your own choices, is undermined in every way by the way the film ends. Because at the end, after all that talk about not caring about social status and money and living your life freely...all of the characters are singing and dancing and crying tears of joy because A) they got high-paying jobs or B) they are getting married and fulfilling they social contract.

That is how society works, all over the world. All people deep down understand that life is not meant to be slaved away working for money or titles. Everyone wants to "change the system" or "be different." But at the end of the day, the vast majority of people are too afraid to reach out for true freedom. True freedom, either by individuals leaving the system or working to abolish the system, does not have a happy ending. Freedom is not free. The price for freedom is in blood, and often in isolation. For most, the true price of freedom is too high.

And so, like all the characters in this movie, they create a "false freedom" in order to fill that gaping hole in their hearts. They make fun of the character who is greedy and openly lives for his love of money, thinking they are different but at the end they submit to the chains of marriage, to the chains of working for a corporate company. The main character, who most boasts about this "freedom" is a perfect example of this. He encourages others to choose the majors they are interested in studying, to do what they want with their lives but it just so happens that, conveniently, his own choice in the engineering field will make him a very rich man. It is easy for rich people to tell the poor that money is not important, it is a whole other thing to live that life.

So all of that together, 3 Idiots is a delightful movie about characters creating false freedoms and finding joy in them, which is a lie the majority of mankind tells itself each and every day when it wakes up in the morning. Is there no hope left for true freedom? Are there no more warriors left to fight the good fight? Or must we all get married and get corporate jobs? Is a happy lie better than the harsh truth? Let the philosophers ponder. But Neo said it's not.