Film Review: 3 Idiots

Thursday 11 March 2010, 9.46 AM
By The Team | Posted in Events

Rajkumar Hirani’s Bollywood blockbuster, 3 Idiots, gives a wonderful insight into modern India with lots of intended and unintended hilarity along the way. Make sure you look up the meaning of ‘rusticated’ before you go.

Bollywood films can sometimes be a bit like an overdecorated meringue cake: light on substance and big on style. The standard recipe for pure escapism requires:

• Take one stunningly, glamorous heroine or mildly attractive hero.
• Add some melodrama, stir and include at least one villain.
• Spread liberally with several catchy song-and-dance routines.
• Incorporate at least two life-changing occasions to highlight the full human spectrum of emotion: wedding, funeral, birth or graduation. The more the better.
• Bake for at least three hours with one short interval.

3 Idiots, the highest grossing Bollywood film of all time, follows all these rules for making Bollywood perfection, yet it’s the confrontation of issues such as youth suicide and the pressures of student life that lift this film to the top shelf of Indian cinema.

The story follows the friendship and lives of three young men, Rancho, Raju and Farhan who all meet at a prestigious engineering college. It begins ten years forward as Farhan and Raju try to find their friend after having lost contact with him since graduation. Flashbacks tell the story of their friendship and college hi-jinks before they discover the startling truth about their revered friend in the present.

Rancho, the hero, played by Amir Khan earns the respect of his friends through his free spirit and passion for engineering. This completely clashes with the education system which is focused on rote learning and teaching students to obey rather than question and probe.

3 Idiots provides a fascinating insight into Indian cultural attitudes to higher education, seen as the key to getting the prestigious job, perfect partner, house and all the other trappings of material success.

It’s wildly entertaining, touching at times and the songs will leave you humming happily as you leave the cinema.

All is well!

You can catch a free screening TONIGHT at Federation Square at 9pm or a regular screening at the Cinema Nova this Saturday 8.30pm as part of the Indian Film Festival.

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