3 Idiots by Nikhil

2.5 stars

Plot Outline: Just to sum up the story, its about 3 students at an engineering college who become good friends and the times they go through. One of them is a genius who gradually makes the other two realize the right path for life. The movie emphasizes on the important message that one should study to gain knowledge in a field of personal choice, and not just for material gains.

Review:
I'd gone for this film with a lot of expectations, after all it was a film with the finest actor in the country and directed by the guy who'd created the wonderful Munnabhai series. And on top of it, it was the paid preview on Thursday night. But contrary to the hooplah around, I came back disappointed. And though you (atleast most of you) might be thinking of me as some overtly-critical snob, I'll explain why below.

Well, right at start I must admit, that the movie is quite funny in portions, especially with the 'Balatkaar' speech, the light-hearted depiction of sequences with Sharman's poor family and some other portions as well. The movie has a decent message too. And normally, all this should be enough for someone to consider it as a nice movie, but not me, primarily because of the respect and expectations that the people associated with this film have come to command.

Well to start with, for a director who had provided such an amazingly original and genuinely hilarious comic content in Munnabhai, it was a shame to see jokes in the movie that are so cliched or have been doing rounds as email forwards since quite some time. Whether it was Madhavan trying to get off the plane, Sharman forgetting his pants, Aamir shuffling the exam papers to avoid identification, or for that matter, even the whole talk by Boman about the Pen/Pencil use in space; I dont think there would be anyone who hadn't seen/heard that before.

And as is the commonly seen problem with the Indian film industry, subtelty is a like a crime. Not one, not two, but Three people commit suicides in a single film just to drive across the fact that there is a lot of pressure on students!! And how many scientific innovations would you show in one shot (that too of a pregnancy!) just to show that Aamir is a genius? How highly do these film makers think of the intelligence of the Indian audience is clear as a crystal, and it ain't something to celebrate about.

Aamir somewhere needs to move out of the 'perfectionst' mould, atleast while picking up roles, cause here he is the genius at studies, the perfect friend, the most profound thinker and the kids lover who get the girl too.. waah! A bit of flaw would probably have made me believe that such a character could somewhere exist in this world, but no, he's the achetypical slightly-more-believable version of the shaktimaan-type hero.

On the positive side, 3 Idiots brings to fore the fresh talent of Omi Vaidya aka Chatur as the leechy, front-bencher sychophant. He has done a brilliant job and I expect to see much more of him in the future. Boman as 'Virus', the typical ultra-khadoos engineering professor, is very believable, especially for those who have seen similar characters while studying in engineering colleges themselves. And yea, another positive of the film is Kareena's short role :) .

But on the whole, the cliched exaggerations and disappointments from people like Hirani, Vidhu Chopra and Aamir who have such a big responsibility on their shoulders to come up with meaningful cinema is what drives me towards disappointment from an otherwise 'decent' film. Laugh and enjoy, but you won't get an intellectual kick out of 3idiots.