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Idiots - Movie Review
By: Sarita Tanwar Date: 2009-12-23 Place: Mumbai
3 Idiots
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Cast: Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, R Madhavan, Sharman Joshi and Boman Irani
Rating: 4.5
What's It About: Bring out the bugles for the biggest celluloid celebration in a long, long time. God bless Rajkumar Hirani for ending an otherwise mediocre Bollywood year on a smashing note.
You go in to see 3 Idiots expecting the genius combination of Hirani and Aamir Khan to weave magic on screen.
But despite the mental conditioning, the impact of the film is so overwhelming that it leaves you spellbound for hours after it has ended.
Based on Chetan Bhagat's novel, Five Point Someone (though only a miniscule part has been adapted from the book; the rest is all original), here's a story of three friends studying in an engineering college Rancho (Aamir Khan), Farhan (R Madhavan) and Raju (Sharman Joshi).
http://www.mid-day.com/imagedata/2009/dec/3-idiots1.jpg
Rancho is the rebel among them always questioning things and believing that learning is more than just the usual mode of education.
He encourages his friends to look beyond the ordinary and soon earns the wrath of the college director Viru Sahasrabuddhe (Boman Irani).
Despite his fun and frolic, Rancho always surprises everyone by topping the class. He even manages to win the affections of the director's daughter Pia (Kareena Kapoor). But Rancho's greatest contribution lies is making his friends realise their true calling.
The twist comes when on Graduation Day. After being awarded the Student Of The Year title, Rancho mysteriously disappears into oblivion.
Years later, Farhan and Raju, finding a common thread, embark on a journey to find their friend. 3 Idiots is a story of friendship, hope, aspirations and most importantly, the goodness of life.
With 3 Idiots, Rajkumar Hirani proves beyond doubt that there's no better storyteller than him in the present generation.
http://www.mid-day.com/imagedata/2009/dec/aamirk.jpg
This isn't an easy film to make the interplay between characters and the narrative is interestingly woven.
The film switches from present to flashback mode often but not once does Hirani lose the momentum. The medley of emotions that he brings forth as he establishes the film's structure is indeed commendable.
Like the peppy Aal Izz Well song drawing towards a tragic climax it's so cleverly done that it has the desired effect. There are scenes that'll make you laugh, they'll make you cry and they'll make you think.
Hirani does it all so beautifully that you want to go back to college and relive all those moments.
The falling in love, the harassment by professors, the secret drinking sessions, the ragging of fellow students it's all there.
Hirani also sends across a message on student pressures but there's no preaching here it's all done in his inimitable style.
Most films have their own set of 'highlight' scenes.
3 Idiots is different because every scene is special and brings with it something that's out of the ordinary.
But there are a few that have a far lasting impact the entire ragging sequence; the camaraderie between Rancho and Pia; Chatur's (the 'brainy' student) hilarious speech; the entire black-and-white depiction of Raju's family; most of the scenes between Rancho and Viru; the sequences that lead to Raju's recovery in the hospital and many more. After a point, you just stop counting.
Dialogues are snappy and totally effective ("In India, you get a pizza in 30 minutes guaranteed but not an ambulance"). The soundtrack, background score and cinematography is top class.
Among the performances, Madhavan delivers his most retrained act ever. He takes the film back and forth with his narrative and is splendid even with comedy.
Sharman Joshi is brilliant, especially in his breakdown scenes. Boman Irani is sincere as expected, with his lisp act getting all the right nuances.
Kareena Kapoor gives her finest portrayal in recent times as Pia. Her "dhokla, fafda, thepla, khandwa, khakra" scene is simply too delicious. Here's a performance that proves why she's indeed the best we have.
The life and soul of 3 Idiots is of course Aamir Khan. His perfection lies in the fact that he makes everything look so easy and spontaneous.
And at all the right moments, he brings the film alive with his sheer brilliance. From his look to his walk to his manner of speech, Aamir breathes life into Rancho and that's what stays with us.
If you thought Aamir Khan couldn't get any better than he is, think again. Aamir is the heart and soul of 3 Idiots and he proves why he's simply a class apart.
What To Do: Book your tickets for consecutive shows because one viewing isn't enough to savour 3 Idiots. Quite easily, this is the film of the year. Nothing else comes even close.
Debut
Volvo XC90 R-Design makes its first appearance in Bollywood with 3 Idiots
3
The number of cities that Aamir travelled to in disguise to promote an alternate reality game (Varanasi, Palanpur and Sourav Ganguly's house in Kolkata)
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Life's worth living with 3 Idiots
SUBHASH K JHA 25 December 2009, 02:18pm IST
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“Just imagine if Lata Mangeshkar’s father had told her she can’t sing or Sachin Tendulkar was forbidden from playing cricket. Where would they http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/t...0&resizemode=4http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/photo/4764554.cms
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EmailPrintSaveComment be?” Aamir Khan’s elementary wisdom runs across this extraordinarily thoughtful treatise on our breached education system, with the dulcet directness of a Lata melody, and the irreproachable triumph of Tendulkar’s sixer.
Indeed, by now Aamir has hit so many sixers in his career, we can only wonder what this maestro of marketing intends to do next. For sure, 3 Idiots is yet another vehicle to showcase Aamir’s sparkling ability to be part of a [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]cinema[/COLOR][/COLOR] that creates a colloquial yet classy language of deeply thought provoking punctuations syntaxes and exclamations.
3 Idiots is first and foremost a tremendously entertaining piece of cinema. The boys-will-have-fun atmosphere on an engineering campus is shot with the devious humour and warmth of a joke that has not lost its punch even after years of re-telling.
Some things never change in a straitjacketed society like ours. And really, when Hirani with enormous help from his co-writer Abhijat Joshi, sets down to criticise the glaring anomalies in our education system we are compelled to wonder for a few seconds—and just for that bit of cynical time-freeze—if flogging the sacred cows of our institutionalised system of governance in cinema is not just an excuse to pull out all stops and let the young heroes have all the fun that their more disciplined counterparts in schedule-driven colleges deny themselves.
The British rock bank Pink Floyd said it first. “We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control/no dark sarcasm in the classroom/teacher leave those kids alone.”
So if Raj Kumar Hirani wants those ‘kids’ to be left alone where does our education system go? Into a free-wheeling zone of self-chosen vocation for every child? But then not every child is a Mangeshkar, Tendulkar, Khan or even Farhan Qureshi (Madhavan) from this [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]film[/COLOR][/COLOR], who craves to be a photographer but ends up living his father’s dream at an engineering institution.
The thought processes underlining the film’s super-vibrant but calm surface are never allowed to seep out and bubble to the exterior of the narrative. If at heart 3 Idiots is a serious indictment of our education system at the surface it’s a character-driven film played out at an observant and opulent but always-feisty octave. The sounds of protest against the curbs, checks and downers in our education reach out to us in a cascade of crisply-written lines spoken by characters who have lived out the nightmare that precedes that long journey into the realisation of our dreams.
At times, the narrative is savagely funny. Note the sequence where Rancho and his girl take the critically ill old man to the hospital on a scooter. Hirani has always seen humour of mortality. He has a potent style of storytelling, a mix of street wisdom and cinematic sensitivities that come together in a noiseless tango of social comment and entertainment. The [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]director[/COLOR][/COLOR] is strangely shy of displaying emotions. So he counters the melodrama of his third hero Raju Rastongi (Sharma Joshi)’s life with a black-and-white 1960s’ self-mocking background music. Ironically, Hirani’s unconventional hero Rancho (Aamir Khan) often goes the other way and sheds manly tears for colleagues, friends and tormented young citizens of modern India who are crippled by a despotic disregard for their natural creativity.
Aamir Khan undertakes his character’s journey through the paradoxical labyrinth of ambition-driven education system (incidentally, the loopholes in our education was also the theme of Aamir’s Taare Zameen Par and Hirani’s Munnabhai MBBS) with a gut-level understanding of what pains today’s average 20-something.
Aamir’s transformation into a 22-year old collegian is so complete and so non-impersonified you end up wondering if he has been lying about being 40-plus in real life! Like most Aamir starrers, 3 Idiots too is predominantly his vehicle. Most of the funniest lines and inspiring situations in the script come from Aamir. And boy, does he play the boy-man with restrained relish!
Sharman Joshi, as the poor middleclass boy driven to near-suicide by his parents’ ambitions, gets two meaty sequences. He chews on them with careful sensitivity leaving a lasting impression. Madhavan, as the third ‘idiot’, expresses his smothered dreams through a series of half-expressed thoughts and a fear of unhappiness that reach his eyes without transit.
Kareena Kapoor, as the girl engaged to the tycoon with a penchant for putting a price tag on all his gifts, brings a dollop of sunshine and feminine grace to an otherwise masculine tale. She is so spunky and spontaneous you wish there was room for more of her. There’s even less of [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]Mona [COLOR=blue ! important]Singh[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] who’s again a spirited free soul.
The two ladies are fortunately part of the climax where our three heroes deliver Kareena’s sister (Mona Singh)’s baby on the office table ... A clear indication that even an all-boys tale has no qualms about embracing maternal responsibilities if the situation arises.
But did 3 Idiots really need a manufactured child-delivered-in-crisis climax? Did it need those endless toilet-and-bum jokes? Couldn’t Boman Irani (doing a variation on his Dean’s part from Hirani’s Munnabhai MBBS) and the new actor Omi Vaidya (who plays the stuffy Silencer) have been delineated less hammily?
It’s not that 3 Idiots is a flawless work of art. But it is a vital, inspiring and and life-revising work of contemporary art with some heart imbued into every part. In a country where students are driven to suicide by their impossible curriculum, 3 Idiots provides hope. Maybe cinema can’t save lives. But cinema sure as hell can make you feel life is worth living. 3 Idiots does just that, and much more. The director takes the definition of entertainment into directions of social comment without assuming that he knows best. Here’s V Shantaram happily and effortlessly jogging into Manmohan Desai’s territory
Life's worth living with 3 Idiots - News & Interviews - Bollywood - Entertainment - The Times of India
-
Life's worth living with 3 Idiots
SUBHASH K JHA 25 December 2009, 02:18pm IST
Text Size:
“Just imagine if Lata Mangeshkar’s father had told her she can’t sing or Sachin Tendulkar was forbidden from playing cricket. Where would they http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/t...0&resizemode=4http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/photo/4764554.cms
be?” Aamir Khan’s elementary wisdom runs across this extraordinarily thoughtful treatise on our breached education system, with the dulcet directness of a Lata melody, and the irreproachable triumph of Tendulkar’s sixer.
Indeed, by now Aamir has hit so many sixers in his career, we can only wonder what this maestro of marketing intends to do next. For sure, 3 Idiots is yet another vehicle to showcase Aamir’s sparkling ability to be part of a [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]cinema[/color][/color] that creates a colloquial yet classy language of deeply thought provoking punctuations syntaxes and exclamations.
3 Idiots is first and foremost a tremendously entertaining piece of cinema. The boys-will-have-fun atmosphere on an engineering campus is shot with the devious humour and warmth of a joke that has not lost its punch even after years of re-telling.
Some things never change in a straitjacketed society like ours. And really, when Hirani with enormous help from his co-writer Abhijat Joshi, sets down to criticise the glaring anomalies in our education system we are compelled to wonder for a few seconds—and just for that bit of cynical time-freeze—if flogging the sacred cows of our institutionalised system of governance in cinema is not just an excuse to pull out all stops and let the young heroes have all the fun that their more disciplined counterparts in schedule-driven colleges deny themselves.
The British rock bank Pink Floyd said it first. “We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control/no dark sarcasm in the classroom/teacher leave those kids alone.”
So if Raj Kumar Hirani wants those ‘kids’ to be left alone where does our education system go? Into a free-wheeling zone of self-chosen vocation for every child? But then not every child is a Mangeshkar, Tendulkar, Khan or even Farhan Qureshi (Madhavan) from this [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]film[/color][/color], who craves to be a photographer but ends up living his father’s dream at an engineering institution.
The thought processes underlining the film’s super-vibrant but calm surface are never allowed to seep out and bubble to the exterior of the narrative. If at heart 3 Idiots is a serious indictment of our education system at the surface it’s a character-driven film played out at an observant and opulent but always-feisty octave. The sounds of protest against the curbs, checks and downers in our education reach out to us in a cascade of crisply-written lines spoken by characters who have lived out the nightmare that precedes that long journey into the realisation of our dreams.
At times, the narrative is savagely funny. Note the sequence where Rancho and his girl take the critically ill old man to the hospital on a scooter. Hirani has always seen humour of mortality. He has a potent style of storytelling, a mix of street wisdom and cinematic sensitivities that come together in a noiseless tango of social comment and entertainment. The [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]director[/color][/color] is strangely shy of displaying emotions. So he counters the melodrama of his third hero Raju Rastongi (Sharma Joshi)’s life with a black-and-white 1960s’ self-mocking background music. Ironically, Hirani’s unconventional hero Rancho (Aamir Khan) often goes the other way and sheds manly tears for colleagues, friends and tormented young citizens of modern India who are crippled by a despotic disregard for their natural creativity.
Aamir Khan undertakes his character’s journey through the paradoxical labyrinth of ambition-driven education system (incidentally, the loopholes in our education was also the theme of Aamir’s Taare Zameen Par and Hirani’s Munnabhai MBBS) with a gut-level understanding of what pains today’s average 20-something.
Aamir’s transformation into a 22-year old collegian is so complete and so non-impersonified you end up wondering if he has been lying about being 40-plus in real life! Like most Aamir starrers, 3 Idiots too is predominantly his vehicle. Most of the funniest lines and inspiring situations in the script come from Aamir. And boy, does he play the boy-man with restrained relish!
Sharman Joshi, as the poor middleclass boy driven to near-suicide by his parents’ ambitions, gets two meaty sequences. He chews on them with careful sensitivity leaving a lasting impression. Madhavan, as the third ‘idiot’, expresses his smothered dreams through a series of half-expressed thoughts and a fear of unhappiness that reach his eyes without transit.
Kareena Kapoor, as the girl engaged to the tycoon with a penchant for putting a price tag on all his gifts, brings a dollop of sunshine and feminine grace to an otherwise masculine tale. She is so spunky and spontaneous you wish there was room for more of her. There’s even less of [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]Mona [COLOR=blue ! important]Singh[/color][/color][/color] who’s again a spirited free soul.
The two ladies are fortunately part of the climax where our three heroes deliver Kareena’s sister (Mona Singh)’s baby on the office table ... A clear indication that even an all-boys tale has no qualms about embracing maternal responsibilities if the situation arises.
But did 3 Idiots really need a manufactured child-delivered-in-crisis climax? Did it need those endless toilet-and-bum jokes? Couldn’t Boman Irani (doing a variation on his Dean’s part from Hirani’s Munnabhai MBBS) and the new actor Omi Vaidya (who plays the stuffy Silencer) have been delineated less hammily?
It’s not that 3 Idiots is a flawless work of art. But it is a vital, inspiring and and life-revising work of contemporary art with some heart imbued into every part. In a country where students are driven to suicide by their impossible curriculum, 3 Idiots provides hope. Maybe cinema can’t save lives. But cinema sure as hell can make you feel life is worth living. 3 Idiots does just that, and much more. The director takes the definition of entertainment into directions of social comment without assuming that he knows best. Here’s V Shantaram happily and effortlessly jogging into Manmohan Desai’s territory
Life's worth living with 3 Idiots - News & Interviews - Bollywood - Entertainment - The Times of India
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Review: 3 Idiots
Mayank Shekhar, Hindustan Times
December 24, 2009
First Published: 23:01 IST(24/12/2009)
Last Updated: 13:48 IST(25/12/2009)
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3 Idiots
Director: Raju Hirani
Actors: Aamir Khan, Sharman Joshi, Madhavan
Rating: ***1/2
Sharman Joshi’s character Raju represents the lonely hope for lower income group India. His family can barely meet three meals a day. The father is old and ill; sister unmarried; mother in poor shape. A professional degree, preferably engineering, is the only route for Raju to rise above this. On his young shoulders rest his family’s dreams. It’s not a happy situation.
While portraying this in the film, however, the filmmakers turn the screen into black and white. A melancholic tune on the shehnai plays in the background. The family’s state is neatly ascribed to ’50s realist, darker cinema. The comedy around this grimness is complete. You empathise for sure. Still, you laugh along.http://www.hindustantimes.com/images...ir-3Idiots.jpg
Opinions are like blogs. Everybody has them. What Hirani also has is a peculiar sense of humour. This makes connection with an audience easy.
Self-seriousness in the times of Rakhee Sawant won’t fetch you even an art-house seat. Hirani and his co-writer Abhijat Joshi realise this.
They make significant points through the picture. Yet, they retain the lightness of being another ‘Munnabhai’ film throughout. Even if it means digging into Internet or memory, a joke, that cheers up the purpose better. I won’t give out the jokes; you’d rather watch them on screen first.
Young Raju may be overburdened by his family’s expectations. He has but two friends in his engineering school for a support system. One of them, Rannchhod Chachar, or Rancho (Aamir Khan, 44 plays 22, but all’s well), is a natural tech-whiz, and a guiding light of sorts -- not just for his friends, but also for the film itself. The other, Farhan (Madhavan), could’ve been a wildlife photographer. An admission into Imperial College of Engineering, or IIT, to be more precise, is for him, like countless others in this country, a ticket to neighbour’s envy, and parent’s pride.
He must endure unhappiness for the sake of both.
As Rancho suggests, he’ll have to spend an entire life somehow liking what he does, over doing what he likes. Engineering and medicine have been, for years, potential suicide notes for those growing up in this country. These may be less now the concern of metropolitan youth. But little has changed elsewhere, as in this film.
The campus here could be any Indian college. Usually a dreaded professor, referred to by his initials or acronym, walks around to dry you out of any interest in learning. I had someone called KRC. These boys have Virus (Boman Irani, with Atal Behari Vajpayee’s lisp, and Vito Corleone’s pout).
Rancho evaluates through him a cruel, classist examination system that passes off as an education system. Not surprising, this rote-learning, even from India’s best institutions, produces more a bureaucracy to serve the corporate and banking sector, than any original thinkers.
Rancho is the sort of genius this classroom cannot fathom. He plays the fool, but still tops. His friends remain flunkeys. As we all realise later in this film (and in our lives): everyone turns out fine eventually. The skits around the buddies deliver comedy with an urgent message. At some point, Rancho disappears.
The friends, including the love-interest (Kareena Kapoor), set out to figure who Rancho really was. This is the part where this doesn’t remain a ‘campus flick’ it started out as: with its own rituals of ragging and the cult ‘sutta’ song (one that’s still called for in our cinema).
The director admits, 3 Idiots is at best 5 per cent of Chetan Bhagat’s pulp-read 5 Point Someone. Thankfully. This is a film that never undermines ‘Bollywood’ for its authenticity: it has its alternating emotional highs and lows, a catch-point (‘aal ij well’ for ‘jaadu ki jhappi’), an invincible hero, and perfect knowledge of when to break into chiffon, song, or the interval. That smart art-form with its own suspensions of disbelief is getting scarcer by generational loss.
Before 3 Idiots on screen, you still don’t feel like the fourth idiot in the theatre. That’s a non-Bollywood relief. This is the sort of movie you’ll take home with a smile and a song on your lips, unless the hype has entirely messed up with your expectations.
Masand's Movie Review: 3 Idiots, satisfying but not the best
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3 Idiots is cinema at its best
Aniruddha Guha
Thursday, December 24, 2009 19:36 IST
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Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Cast: Aamir Khan, R Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani, and others
Rating: ****
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Aall Izz Well: Aamir Khan, R Madhavan and Sharman Joshi in a scene from the film 3 Idiots
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Aall Izz Well: Sharman Joshi, R Madhavan and Aamir Khan in a scene from the film 3 Idiots
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Aall Izz Well: Sharman Joshi, Aamir Khan and Sharman Joshi in a scene from the film 3 Idiots
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Caution: The following review may strike you as gushy, overzealous, or exaggerated in praise. But films like these are made once in a while and, so, superlatives are in order.
Rajkumar Hirani is the best filmmaker Hindi cinema has produced in a long, long time. It's not that there aren't other mavericks, geniuses, and talented storytellers who give us some fabulous movies from time to time. But Hirani has, one film after the other, proved his mettle as a writer/director who does not believe in giving you entertainment the easy way -- he ensures that you take back home a few lessons about life, too.
Three Idiots has one of the most relevant issues of Indian society at its core, a heartwarming story woven around it and a narrative that takes you through the film effortlessly, leaving you happy, moved, and thoughtful in the end. Yes, the film has certain hard-to-digest moments -- like engineering students helping a woman to deliver a child in the campus with the help of some 'skills' -- but if the oft misused term 'cinematic liberty' has ever been put to apt use, it is here.
Ranchhoddas Chhanchad aka Rancho (Khan), Farhan Qureshi (Madhavan), and Raju Rastogi (Joshi) have got admission in ICE, the most prestigious engineering college in India. "You'll have to beat your competitor every step of the way if you want to be successful in life," dean Viru Sahastrabudhhe aka Virus (Irani) tells students on their first day in college.
While the others just follow orders, Rancho defies rules. He raises questions in class his teachers can't answer, refuses to complete assignments unless he really enjoys them, and infuriates the dean, who is a stickler for perfection. "You have the best college in the country, yet none of your students has ever invented anything of note," Rancho tells the dean straight-faced, enraging him further.
To make matters worse, he falls in love with the dean's daughter (Kapoor). The dean is out to make Rancho's life hell but is baffled how Rancho deceives him every time. The most laidback of all students, he surprises everyone by ending at the top of the class, year after year, confounding even his two friends. "We learnt an important lesson," says Farhan. "When your friend fails an examination, you feel bad. But when he tops it, you feel worse."
Rancho explains to his friends that the only reason he excels at everything he does is because he enjoys doing them. He coerces the two to follow their goals without worrying about the end result, and by the end of the four-year period, the two feel more confident of what they want to do in life than before they entered college and met Rancho. While the institute asked them to chase success, Rancho asked them to chase excellence, assuring them that success would follow.
But soon after teaching them life's most valuable lesson, Rancho disappears. Why does Rancho leave without telling anyone of his whereabouts? Where does he go?
The film starts with Farhan and Raju renewing their search for Rancho after five years, following a lead they get on his whereabouts from one of their closest competitors in college, Chatur. The movie then moves into flashback mode, returning to real time every now and then. Starting with the first scene, the screenplay moves in one fluid motion, interweaving scenes and sequences one after the other in brilliant, seamless fashion.
Writers Hirani and Abhijat Joshi (story, screenplay, and dialogues) and Vidhu Vinod Chopra (screenplay associate) have worked painstakingly on every sequence, each of which stands out for its brilliance. There are so many 'highlights' and scenes that impress you that pointing out a few would be unfair to the others. Three Idiots is, in every way, a complete film -- one that works in its entirety, be it storytelling, dialogues, acting, music, cinematography, art direction, editing, etc. At the helm of it all is the captain of the ship -- director Rajkumar Hirani.
Madhavan puts in a restrained performance and brings both the maturity and confusion that his character requires. Joshi is good. His character undergoes immense change in the film and the actor brings across those subtle differences beautifully. Kapoor, in a smaller role, does a good job. Irani's performance ranges from competent to caricaturish, but works with the mood of the film. Omi as Chatur aka Silencer gets ample screen space and performs well as the grades-hungry student everyone hates in class.
Shantanu Moitra's music blends into the film perfectly and the songs are extremely hummable. Hirani is impeccable with his editing and CK Muraleedharan's cinematography is easy on the eyes.
Aamir Khan and Rajikumar Hirani coming together was always going to be special. Three Idiots sure is. In fact, the film blends elements of Khan's Taare Zameen Par with Hirani's Munnabhai series, making a comment on the education system without going down the documentary route, but the film stands out on its own.
Even as you have come to accept Khan's genius at ensuring a good product for audiences every time, this one is a Rajkumar Hirani show all the way. And it becomes easy to say that because even if you take Khan out of the equation, the film would probably make a similar impact.
That is not to say having Khan doesn't help. The character of Rancho is the voice of the film, innocent yet intelligent, and the script demanded an actor of Khan's calibre to take across the film's message to audiences. As a younger man, Khan springs the kind of performance you associate him with. For the three hours that you are watching the film, Khan ceases to exist and Rancho takes over.
But the real hero of Three Idiots is the guy who gave us jaadu ki jhappi and Gandhigiri. Raju Hirani, you are the man! After all the terrible films and flops this year, you have ensured that in the end, Aall Izz Well.
3 Idiots is cinema at its best - dnaindia.com
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3 Cheers to 3 Idiots! (Movie Review)
25 December 2009 | 2:51pm http://www.india-forums.com/images/comnt_ico.gif 17 Comments http://www.india-forums.com/bollywoo...-aamir-thm.gif A superb comedy granted to keep you guessing all the while!
Cast : Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Boman Irani.
Director: Raju Hirani
3 Idiots is not a film. In fact, it's a rollercoaster ride that guarantees you tons and tons of rollicking laughter. The film is like a kid that never tires of entertaining you. The creators of Munnabhai, have just raised their own standards several notches higher with 3 Idiots.
After the few initial sequences, the film is narrated in a non-linear pattern by Farhan Qureshi (R. Madhavan), the first idiot. He is brought together with the second idiot Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi) by Chatur Ramalingam, who apparently wants to clear the score with the three idiots. Thanks to Chatur Ramalingam's obsession to prove that he is the winner, the two idiots reunite with the third one- Ranchoddas Laxmandas Chanchad (Aamir Khan).
The three friends, study in a very cool engineering college aptly titled ICE where nicknames are kept to make it obvious that it's the area of numbers, formulas and everything scientific and complex. For example, the handy guy in the college is tagged millimeter. A dog is named gigabyte and her pups are named kilobyte and megabyte. Don't worry this family doesn't bite, tells the friendly Millimeter to Farhan.
While Farhan comes to the college because his father wants it, Raju comes because he sees it as a way out of poverty. Their dull and boring lives are changed by Ranchoddas Laxmandas Chanchad who on the very first day proves that he is so smart, he is eccentric! The way rigs up an instrument so that the senior who pees n his door gets an electric shock, right where it would hurt the most, proves that he is a class apart!
Rancho is naughty and loves making people laugh. He hates the way the educational system works. According to him, the grade system is like the caste system. He hates the fact that the system is mass producing machines and not well-educated people. But his unconventional thinking is easily misconstrued by his professors and especially his rigid principal Veeru Sahastra Buddhe aka Virus, as bad attitude. It puts him in the bad books of the faculty. And since Raju and Farhan always tag along with Rancho on his misadventures, they too fall under the same category. Poor fellows, unlike in the book, here Rancho comes first and they are left to come last in class.
Raju and Farhan's parents are sent a note to inform that their children are getting way too influenced by 'bad company'. So the three are summoned by both the families. At Farhan's house Rancho is totally blamed and not allowed to have food. At Raju's house the food is offered but after seeing that Aunty Rastogi is not very particular about hygiene, the food just doesn't seem so yummy! Rancho as usual comes up with a knock-out idea to gatecrash at a wedding to fill their tummies. That's where he meets Pia (Kareena Kapoor), explains how she shouldn't marry her fiance and also finds out she happens to be Virus's daughter.
Rancho's continued misadventures force Raju to change rooms, so he can be on the safer side. However, Farhan who takes an instant liking to this 'different boy' sticks with him and his ingenious plan to make Raju return. However, it takes Raju's father to get seriously sick and get rescued by Rancho to make Raju realize what a true friend Rancho is. It's apparently during this emergency that he takes Pia's help and this is the point where Pia starts to have a soft corner for him.
The college life of Rancho, Raju and Farhan are filled with disasters and catastrophes, laughter and fun, love and tears. However no one in their wildest dreams thought that the last day of college would be the last day they will ever see Rancho.
The journey of Raju and Farhan to meet Rancho again, and the many shocking truths that they come across, the stunt they pull to coax Pia to run away from her own shaadi-mandap, all end into a fantastic climax in the beautiful locales of Ladakh.
The movie right from its first frame to the last will continue to tickle your funny bones. However, the sequences that makes you howl and grunt in pain are the ragging scene, the way Raju defines induction motor after he gets drunk, the way millimeter misinterprets when Rancho says 'virus ko nikaal' and of course, the get electrocuted when you pee scenes. The movie has lots of chaddi and ass flashing sequences. So be prepared!
The one thing about this film is that it's very different from the last film that was an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's novel Hello. If that movie completely butchered Chetan's work, this is just the opposite, probably even better. In fact it seems, in the case of 3 Idiots, the film makers have had a healthy competition with the author. With every passing sequence we see the efforts have gone higher and higher to make the film more interesting. Though, Chetan's was a more realistic novel, Hirani has taken the liberty to go surreal on the celluloid.
Aamir Khan has given up all his Ghajini muscles to put on a slight layer of flab in 3 Idiots. The chubby face gives him a kiddo look, which makes sense as he has to look younger for the character. In every scene and sequence, he continues to make us fall more in love with Rancho. His chemistry with Kareena may not be the one to set sparks flying, but it's definitely cute.
Kareena Kapoor is a welcome eye-candy in this film. As medical student Pia, she strikes the right balance between being geeky and being gorgeous. However, this bombshell is hard to accept in a comic role. Like they say, to make people laugh is the most difficult thing and Bebo still has to learn the ropes of it.
R. Madhavan as Farhan Qureshi is smooth. The way Farhan removes his anger at Virus by knocking off the letters from the nameplate so that it reads Veerus Buddhe is simply fantastic. Madhavan's cool quotient still continues to charm everyone with every character he portrays.
Sharman Joshi is one person who was there in the last adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's novel and also in this one. He has a gift for comedy. But in this film, the boy is seen struggling to break out of his shell. Soon enough Sharman will be touted for his histrionics.
Boman Irani probably is the only person who could've brought alive the character of Veeru Sahastra Buddhe so beautifully. He looks mad. He talks like he's even crazier. And the lisp just makes his fast talk even more hard to grasp. The peculiar pants that ride above his paunch, the awkward gait, the perpetually upturned smile all make virus a character who will be remembered for long days to come.
The camera work in this film is amazing. Especially the shot where Raju jumps off the third floor window of virus' office.
The music is catchy but the lyrics are the ones that make it work.
Raju Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra couldn't have delivered a better Christmas gift for the Bollywood loving audience. And boy, with the returns this film going to make them, they are sure to have a splendid Christmas and New Year too.
A perfect movie to watch with your friends and family this festive season!
Rating: ****
3 Cheers to 3 Idiots! (Movie Review)
These guys have given the same title as I gave for my review :-)
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Great expectations
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Namita Nivas Posted: Dec 25, 2009 at 1511 hrs IST
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R. Madhavan hopes that 3 Idiots becomes the biggest blockbuster of the century What was the most idiotic thing that you did while shooting for 3 Idiots?
Everything that one does when in college, from doing dadagiri to addagiri to playing agony aunt, you name it and we did it. I actually felt like I was back in college. We had so much fun.We were made to stay in a girls’ hostel. Before you get any ideas, it was a co-ed college. (laughs) We played tennis, volleyball, badminton, carrom and dumb charades in the campus. It was the best experience of my life. It was actual masti time for all of us
What about line maro-ing?
That I didn’t do. (Laughs) because mere haath bandhe hue hain!
Why is that?
I am married, that’s why. (Laughs)
Are Aamir Khan and Sharman Joshi also as naughty as you are?
Very much so! All three of us look very plain and simple. But don’t go by the looks.
Which is the other film in your career in which you went all out and did masti?
I freaked out while doing Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein and Ramji Londonwale. But there is nothing like 3 Idiots. It is leagues apart.
Were you not apprehensive about doing a film with Aamir, considering there may not have been much scope for you?
In fact, the thought never occurred to me. That Aamir is an amazing actor is well-known. He gave his co-stars ample scope to perform and was very encouraging. We had worked in [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]Rang [COLOR=blue ! important]De [/COLOR][COLOR=blue ! important]Basanti[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] earlier.
As for selecting the film, when Rajkumar Hirani (Raju) narrated the script to me, I was impressed, because he was narrating my real story. But I asked him why he chose me for the film. He said he has liked my work. Yet I insisted that he audition me nevertheless.
Why do you like to go through a screen-test each time?
So that there are no inhibitions on either side. The director gets to confirm whether I suit the character while I get to know if the director is capable of delivering. Neither party is disappointed nor do they get a chance to pass any judgement against the other.
How was it working with producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, director Rajkumar Hirani, Sharman and Kareena Kapoor?
Vidhu Vinod Chopra is the best producer. He never interfered while the shooting was in progress. He gave a free hand to everyone. Raju is a much organised filmmaker. He has his film all sorted out on paper before he sets out to make it. And he is the only director in the entire world who never deletes a scene that he has canned. I did not have any scenes with Kareena. She is a sweet person. Sharman is a darling and we have become very close. They are all frank people sans any sugar- coating.
Now that the film is set to release, what memories will you take home with you?
Loads and loads of fun and many memorable moments. One of them is the time when we were on our way to Ladakh for the shooting and got lost in the snow. Aamir, Sharman and I were travelling in one jeep and managed to find our way but the rest of the cast and crew had to be rescued. It was scary.
Did you have to work very hard on your physique to suit the character of a student?
In fact, Raju left it to all of us to decide on our looks. For my look, I decided to stop working-out because that is how boys in college are. Aamir shed all his extra muscles and Sharman is cute as it is. The three of us looked so much like the students that many times the people did not even recognise us. Even the professor would admonish us and ask to return to our classes.
Teen Patti is another big film for you.
It was a very fabulous experience to be working with stalwarts like [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]Amitabh [COLOR=blue ! important]Bachchan[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] and Sir Ben Kingsley. I am glad to be a part of this film where I was fortunate to share screen space with them. There is also Tanu Weds Manu with Kangna Ranuat that will release some time mid-next year.
What about the projects from your [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]production [COLOR=blue ! important]house[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR], Leukos Films?
I am happy being an actor. I don’t have any plans for production at the moment. But I have two [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]Tamil [COLOR=blue ! important]films[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] coming next year. Plans are also on to make a bilingual (Hindi-Tamil) with director [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]Vikram[/COLOR][/COLOR] of 13B fame. It is a fantastic script.
What are your expectations from 3 Idiots?
That it becomes the biggest blockbuster of the century.
Great expectations
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booked ticket for 8.20 show in metroplex :-D[IMG]http://www.*************.com/images/smilies/More/kayyadi.gif[/IMG]
x mas night adiploi:yahoo::yahoo:
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padam kandu
really enjoyed the film.
Full length comedy with good script
Patiyal nale review idam
good night all.
