My Movie Review: 3 Idiots

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3 Idiots | www.amalgamationspp.com

On a very strong recommendation from a good friend, I was curious to watch this one. This was my first time to watch an Indian film in full length, so I didn't want to have any expectations. But from what I heard, it broke all box-office records in India in its release.

The 3 Idiots is a 2009 Indian comedy film directed by Rajkumar Hirani, with a screenplay by Abhijat Joshi, produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It was a loose adaptation of a novel called Five Point Someone, by Chetan Bhagat. 3 Idiots stars Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Omi Vaidya, Parikshit Sahni and Boman Irani.

“School is not pressure cooker.”

Is a quote from Ranchoddas Chanchad, played by Aamir Khan, who enrolled in one of India’s finest engineering college called the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE), and challenged the traditional learning system of the institution.

His direct-to-the-point character pushed off most of his teachers who always saw things in one dimension.

Viru Sahastrabuddhe, played by Boman Irani, runs the school like a factory and treats learning as a competition.

His view was that “Life is a race. If you don’t run fast, you’ll get trampled.” In order not to get trampled on, students need to run fast. Those who cannot endure the pressure, either quit or lose and some even go as far as commit suicide.

Rancho's view and passion for learning made him see things in different perspectives. And since day one, he had become a pain in the ass not only to the director, but his teachers as well who disliked his idealogies that contradicted their traditional ways of teaching.

If Rancho wanted to pass his subject, he must stick to what the books say. These are situations easily observed in learning institutions we also have in the Philippines. This style of teaching will teach the students to “cram blindly” as the character of Ramalingam shows in the movie.

Students memorize the book without understanding what it means for the sake of getting “good grades" which defiles the purpose of learning. You can top your class yet end up unable to apply what you've learned, to the real world.

The movie also showed how the two courses namely, Engineering and Medicine were the only courses considered to be acceptable and that the “other” courses didn't matter if you wanted to be viewed as socially successful.

In the later parts, I thought it was fascinating and interesting how the movie came out emotionally strong to bring out the message that there are other courses out there, no matter how seemingly insignificant, can make one tremendously successful and live a happily fulfilled life.

“Do not chase success, be good in your field and success will chase you.” And the first step to do that I think, is to realize what you are most passionate about. That way you never get pushed into any negative pressure of doing things because you love what you’re doing.

The 3 Idiots is a movie worth watching not just for students, but the parents as well. It provides a perspective that not all professions that are considered “big” are what's going to necessarily give happiness to a person, that it must ultimately be giving in to one's interests and passions that one can live a happily successful and fulfilled life.

With that, I'm giving 3 Idiots, 4/5 Stars.