3 Idiots

3 Idiots is a Bromantic comedy that was released on Christmas day, 2009. The movie was both a commercial and critical hit so early this year, I was all set out to watch it. But the DVD took ages to be released so in the end, I lost interest.

Anyway, since I was in a Bollywood kind of mood today, I decided to finally give it a try. 3 Idiots is about three roommates at the top (fictional) engineering college in India. Raju is from a poor family with a sick father and other than his interest in engineering, also chose the field to get a good paying job so as to shoulder his family's financial burden. Farhan is an amateur photographer from  a middle class family whose profession was decided for him at birth. So he attends ICE because it's what he was told to do. Rancho is from a rich family and lives and breathes science. He attends ICE because he wants to learn. He is the central character who challenges people out of their comfort zones and urges them to follow their hearts and not society or a system. The movie starts off 10 years after their freshman year with the two friends (and their nemesis) searching for Rancho, whom they haven't seen since graduation. So the story floats between the present and the past.

I think a lot of people from all over the world can relate to this movie because it challenges the educational system of cramming and competing just to get good grades so that you can get a good paying job. Not that there's anything wrong with working hard for good grades but it critiques the practice of cramming and studying just to pass exams, and not to learn. And picking fields like medicine and engineering, for example, not because one has an interest in them, but because the jobs pay well. The moral of this movie is to follow your passion and success will follow.

When I saw the first half of the movie, I thought it was pretty damn good. I love bromance so it was right up my alley. The comedy worked on both an emotional and a cerebral level. However, in the second half, when it started getting melodramatic with the plot going to Crazy-land, I began to give the movie the side eye. But it ended nicely and overall, was entertaining.

The chemistry between the three men was great, even though I don't get how 40+ Aamir Khan still gets to play a college student. The movie had only one romantic side story between Rancho and Pia and they also had nice chemistry. I liked that theirs was just a cute story with no over the top cheesiness.

I'm not sure that I'll watch 3 Idiots again in its entirety, but like I do with most enjoyable films, I'll probably rewatch a few hilarious parts... and the cute ending.

Watch here.