My two cents on 3 idiots

Let me first clearly define the “good cinema”. It is the one that takes me closer to reality, and if I wish my world to be fictional, a virtual reality is also acceptable. The movie’s basic philosophy is to force the youth to emphasize on what they wish to do and unfetter themselves from the seemingly unbreakable chains of mark. “Success will follow the excellence” is the mantra which it wants to propagate. Throughout my college life and even today, there was nothing in which I have believed more. However, there was always a great sense of admiration and respect for those who sacrifice their present to build the future of their families and to me, it is an acceptable way of life. And this is where the film starts getting everything wrong.

The characters in the film are someone, whom today’s youth can easily identify with. My most of the friends will concur with me that in reality, the shades are skewed towards black end of the spectrum and toppers do keep leveraging their marks at every stage. Caricaturizing them (referring to Chatur) so brutally is blasphemous as this takes the viewer miles away from the reality, only to find himself in the same dark well a couple of hours later, when wisdom finally dawns upon him. And as if this was not enough, can you ever imagine, leave apart seen, any modern maverick (alluding to Mr. Khan) topping the exams without doing the route learning, getting 400 patents and holidaying in Ladakh!!

Cinematically, I am highly disappointed. They got the cast completely wrong. Amir Khan comes across as the most mature personality in the industry and in fact, I can even compare him to Mr. Bachan on this. When Amir philosophizes the message, you assimilate it from a person you consider very balanced and here is where it starts loosing the hand of reality. (Think again, when you see him telling to abandon studying for marks, don’t you confuse him with the professor of “Taare zameen par”. For instance, the analogy of Farhanitrate and prerajulisation resembles the one Amir used to explain Ishan Awasthi’s dyslexia to his father). To add to this agony, he maintains his calm and cool composure in every situation, be it paralytic attack of his friend’s father or somebody’s delivery. For instance, you find him in jolly mood, when a mother is anticipating that her child is probably dead. (And the reason for this is that Mr. Khan was extremely scared to look younger and went completely out of context. He has no concern for the parents of his friends and in his constant effort to look younger, he even mocks at them while arguing, which was so much against his personality). Turning to Madhavan, ask yourself what words come to your mind when you think about him. He perhaps, acted relatively more balanced !! (Though I guess it was a deliberate attempt to make look Amir younger and focus on him entirely). I fail to see the naivety everywhere in the movie, which I know these budding engineers have (the kind of stuff that you associate with Raju)

Though I commend on the team’s ability to identify what needs to be shown for rejuvenating engineer’s memories, yet the execution failed miserably. For instance, the scene in which the trio is having the drinks on the stairs and is discussing about each others’ weaknesses is so true to the reality but it seems so artificial that it completely turns you off. But then why was it such an instant hit?

The reality is everyone is frustrated on the road and people long those days when life used to seem so promising and was fun filled. For three hours, one just forgets the reel world and simply dives into his own real world where he was playing those very same roles. As I mentioned, the movie gives you ample shocks to come out from those past memories, but one wants to remain unperturbed.

More importantly, a lot of attention has been paid to “masalafise” the movie which actually overshadows all the pitfalls. So, one can do sightseeing in Shimla, Manali, ladakh etc. “Alls is well” was when it touches the height. Can one ever imagine a young baby giving a stroke on listening to Amir’s new movie’s mantra. But yes, it strikes instant chord with the Indian masses, who easily fall for these traps. You see, there was a magic in “Jadoo ki Jhappi” as it was given by a character that came in the movie with a life’s experience with him. How can a young engineer reweave the same magic, as is being done here? And I just held my head in my hands when I saw a reputed company offering a job on the candid behavior of the candidate, even after recognizing that it will not gel well with their diplomatic culture. To add another flavor to this badly prepared cocktail, a bride plans to run right from the mandap to jump directly into the car.

I leave up to you all to reconsider your decision if this movie was a runaway success because of its theme and marketing, or if it truly deserves as what Mr. Khan’s rest of the movies do. The part I though liked was the sound of the water in the end of the movie, sound of the bluish river of Ladakh, so pure, unadulterated condemning the very those who were holidaying there. Amen.