Viewer’s rating: **** (Laugh-o-riot!)
Image: wikimedia.org
Keep aside the controversy, Raju Hirani and Abhijat Joshi have worked wonders to bring about the much-awaited blokbuster of the by-gone year! Three idiots is hillarious to the core and yet successfully sends a strong message through its script. Its a rare combo in Bollywood to see a commercially hit movie, packed with superstars, and filled with ideologically challenging equations. Well, that’s Raju Hirani for you, lage raho Rajubhai!
The movie is loosely based on Chetan Bhagat’s best-seller, Five-point someone (at least that’s what the readers say!). It begins with a slapstick flashback colluded with search of an old class-mate, Rancho (Aamir). The script then evolves as the films starts rolling, where 3 engineering students, Rancho, Farhan (Madhavan), and Raju (Sharman Joshi) have just embarked upon their journey in one of India’s best technical institutes, ICE. But little that they know, that it would once land them in a zoo-cum-prison whose ring-master replicates Hitler’s lost era, where “fun” is a just a word inside dictionary, where Rancho is their only silver-lining!
Rancho is extra-ordinarily talented boy (well, yes, a boy!), who is inquisitive and challenges every theory in engineering to test. The school’s headmaster, Viru Sahastrabudhe (Boman Irani), is wizard who has problem with Rancho’s careless attitude towards studies and his not-so-apparent rudeness. Even more is he disappointed to see Farhan and Raju, two sincere students joining Rancho’s league. The laugh-o-riot begins as Rancho starts playing around in ICE, its teachers, and more so with engineering concepts. His friendly nature conspires fellow students to rebel like him, at the same time he pesuades them to follow “excellence” rather than success.
The battered Viru is even more bruised as he sees his daughter, Pia (Kareena Kapoor) falling for Rancho. All this while, competition is brewing between Chatur Ramallingam (Omi Vidya), a Uganda-born south Indian, who finds speaking Hindi tougher than learning differencial geometry! One nasty prank and Chatur vouches for a revenge against Rancho, but unabashed Rancho continues to dominate ICE’s student-circle. Farhan and Raju learn a lot about life through Rancho, his theory of “ALL-IZZ-WELL”, and slowly mould into the new-shown path towards excellence. Few more twists and turns, and occasional “inspirations” from elsewheres, the story finally gears up for the eventual reunification in the real time. Do Farhan, Raju and Pia find Rancho, and who is Rancho anyway, find it yourself!
If Rocket Singh was all about excellence in directorial skills, 3 idiots is about great script, well presented. Abhijat Joshi truly deserves more accolades, but Raju hasn’t left any flaw for criticism. Despite the “inspirations”, the plot is well fused with events and covert messages like burgeoning exam pressure, student-suicides, etc. Aamir is tad old for a 20-year old engieering entrant, Maddy and Shraman alike, but what can you expect in Bollywood, if 44 year old veterans are flaunting 6-packs and running around nacked! Kareena is bareble in this movie, but its a must that she shouts at least once in during the whole film! Boman has been effortsless as always. Omi Viadya threatens to steal the show with his Chatur Ramalingam, and I definitely hope to see more from him. Out an out, a fantastic film to remember for a long time!
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I agree. The movie was a nice watch. However, it was too idealistic. No character in the movie had shades of gray. It was a new avatar of Yash Raj movies
Yes! But I guess Raju stuck at entertainment and was quite desparate to deliver the message. In fact, I assume that he wanted to capture the innocense of students..