After a week long of nagging from my friends and after being called a “Indian Firangi” (for not watching bollywood flicks) I finally thought of taking the Plunge and downloaded “3 Idiots” on my lappy. (Yup am a believer is open source sharing so sue me producers). I wanted to know what the hype was all about, what was this movie that was creating uproar both in media and public. Let you all be forewarned I am not a big fan of bollywood I openly criticize for most of its work , so you may find this review overly critical at times and prejudice it to be expected.
For starters I have read “5 point someone” by Chetan Bhagat, on whose book this movie is supposedly based. I was expecting to see many scenes from the book enacted by highly paid actors. But what I witnessed was a sheer mockery of the book that had created a furore amongst Indian readers. As usual we Indians proved once again why we re such a bad copycats when it comes to cinema and why we shred to pieces a completely fine story .Of course director/producer Mr Chopra always stated in his defense that the movie was not based in the novel but just inspired by it a fact which Mr Bhagat refuted and so do I. Considering that many of the important scenes were straight out of the book and the extra “bollywood masala” that Mr Chopra added only resulted in a spicy overcooked dish that certainly didn’t appeal to my appetite , but then I am a “Bollywood Critic” and since Mr Chopra had made his due from this movie he doesn’t give a dam about my thoughts.
Still in a vain attempt I bring to you my points to put my case in front of the reader:
1. The movie should have been titled 1 idiot instead of 3, as it was completely based in an around “Aamir Khan”, it started with him, it ended with him. Other characters/actors were just filling in , to show that Khan lived in a human world. The movie portrayed him as a cousin to “Superman” who had come from planet Kryton, as there was not a single thing that he couldn’t do. Be it studies, pranks, chicks, inventions, you name it and the Indian Da Vinci had a solution for it. Utterly third class.
2. Acting is the last thing that I expect from mainstream bollywood stars and Aamir only proved me right. He was a misfit for this role and this 45 year old gentleman was miserably failing as a 19 year old college kid. The actor who portrayed his role the best was undoubtedly “Boman Irani” who once again proved his mettle in a very different role. So be it “Khurana” from “Khosla ka Ghosla” or “Viru Sahasrabudhe” he has delivered as is expected of him. As far as others are concerned they all were mediocre, with only bits and pieces of class acting, rest all was unnatural and overacting.
I wonder why with so many takes also, the director can not have the actor look natural.
3. Now to dissect the plot, many of the “ funny scenes” in the movie were classic clichés, be it the “speech”, “mixing the exam papers”, “man taking snap of burqua clad women” etc. The movie seriously lacked originality. Something that I was hoping to see in a “Box Office” hit but then again what was I thinking. If Mr Chopra would have towed in the line of the plot of the Book, he still would have produced a better piece than this. I mean the sheer absurdness of some of the scenes in the movie made it ridiculous to watch. It surprises me how Indian directors can really far fetched ideas through their movies and how public adores these asynchronous and impractical things.
4. People can debate that a movie is supposed to be enjoyed not analyzed at every point, but when you show a character with 400 patents and who has done engineering in some one else’s name, who didn’t speak to his sweetheart and friends for 10 years, because of some stupid “majboori”, the friends couldn’t find him for 10 years and what not. Then my friends you have to think rationally.
5. Some of my friends suggested that I specially watch this as I stayed in an engineering hostel so I could probably relate to many of the incidents like ragging etc. To them I say “Spare me the horror”. This was no different from other Hindi flicks where hey show an imaginative college which doesn’t exist in real world (Hollywood is no less in this matter, mind it.) I mean the director should have actually should at least have spoken to some hostlers before filming this abomination. There are very few Hindi movies that portray the hostel life as it truly is, “Dil Dosti etc” did this to a certain extend and so did “Gulaal” But movies like “Mai Hoon Na” only make me wanna Puke.
6. “All is well”, I mean “What the deuce”, is that a punch line from a T.V commercial, this horrendous phrase plagued my mood during my viewing of the movie. It saves a baby, I am sorry, but “are you shitting me!” I am so repulsed by this phrase exactly like “Subhan Allah” in “Fanah” that I don’t even feel like commenting on it.
7. So these are just few of my reasons for not liking the movie and I stand by them. How it appealed to so many people and why did people go “ga ga “about it is beyond my comprehension. To my eyes it was shoddy work.
Mainstream bollywood cinema was never my cup of tea and it never will be , I do like many of small budget bollywood flicks which cater to different issue than “Love” bud sadly there are very few takers for them.
In the end am just glad that I didn’t waste Rs 400 to watch “All is Well”.
