Review of 3 Idiots (2009) by Pur__0_0__ — 06 Apr 2021

When I was a kid, everyone in my class had watched 3 Idiots. They all used to laugh at me for some reason because I didn't watch it. So the day this movie featured on TV, I watched it. And I have seen it every single time it comes on TV. And afterwards I began laughing at them because I had seen it more number of times than them. But well, immaturity aside, let's review this movie.

The film talks about the rat race that everyone goes through, that we have been brainwashed into believing ever since we were teenagers. They always tell us that we need to get into a good engineering college if we want to have a good job irrespective of which field we work in, then that will play out when we have to get married, then we will have children and then the cycle will go on for them. We don't dare to think otherwise, because the elders always have a sense of insecurity about us and also because they always resort to shouting and scolding whenever we dare to question their authority.

The film has become something of a synonym with engineering life. Everyone learnt about the various things that happen in the top engineering college, because I think this is one of the first commercially successful Bollywood films to talk about the environment. There are three protagonists, each being a stereotype of an engineering student we all can relate to - Rancho the brilliant guy who doesn't study much but still gets good marks because he loves what he's doing, Raju who is a superstitious and cowardly guy coming from a poor household, and Farhan, a student who really has a passion for photography but his parents are forcing him to do engineering. Basically the three types of engineering students we all know.

Together they spend their college life in fun ways, teaching each other the meaning of life and the points of views of each person. And then after they leave college, they all decide to meet each other because of a "challenge" that Chatur, a teacher's pet had given them. Chatur wasn't exactly wrong from his point of view, since he came from Uganda, a country where Indians were being persecuted back in the late 20th century. He had learnt early in life that one has to take all means possible in order to achieve success, and that's exactly what he was going with.

Every time I watch this film I end up managing to find a new detail that I had previously missed. I watch it every time it comes on TV because of that reason. It was only later that I got to know this is actually a book adaptation of Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat, and those friends of mine who laughed at me for not having seen this film are the same people who ridicule Chetan Bhagat for his terrible books. And to be honest they are kind of right, since this is his only good book adaptation. And by good I mean absolutely flawless.