Talk to friends about movies, and the discussion veers round to ‘3 Idiots’. (These days it quickly moves on to ‘Badmaash Company’ and ‘Kites’, and from there to gossip about the lives of movie stars if you happen to be in the conducive kind of company.)
Assume ‘3 Idiots’ (3I from now on) is a campus movie. In Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu, I have watched better campus movies. And even in Hindi, there are better ones. ‘Nammal’ (translated as ‘We’ which simply does not capture the sense of togetherness embodied by the Malayalam word) is a story that seamlessly brings together a vast range of feelings – the mother’s love, the orphan’s sense of loss, the lover’s sweet musings, the father’s caring seriousness, the friend’s joviality, the senior’s rashness, and the campus’s thrills. All of this, woven around a story worth acting and worth watching. (That the movie was shot in the college where I studied is only an added incentive. I would have watched it countless times even otherwise.)
‘Classmates’, another Malayalam campus movie, is perhaps more comparable to 3I since it too involves a batch reunion several years after graduation. But there the similarity ends. ‘Classmates’ is sensitive, and wonderfully acted. And the story – which is a story and not a prop for everything but – engages with the audience.
Of course, unlike 3I, ‘Classmates’ does not make feeble attempts at slapstick comedy, especially of the kind where the story has to leave its natural track to go and fetch the comedy that seems to have vanished like a naughty kid. Now, if 3I is a comedy movie, set in a campus, to what genre will genuine campus comedy movies like ‘Munnabhai MBBS’ belong? The latter was one Bollywood movie that did not have to rely on superstars or glitz or unreal romance to bring home the point or the money. And it is worth one watch. Even when Munnabhai becomes overly sentimental, the critic in you has enjoyed the movie till then so much that you excuse some lapses.
‘Happy Days’ in Telugu is sugary-sweet and childishly optimistic. But it too manages to tap some corner in the hearts of engineers who have spent four years in a roller coaster of common subjects like graphical drawing, common concerns like grades/marks, common troubles like hostel life, common worries like placements and of course, campus life with its inevitable romance. The movie does not pretend to be what it is not. It is a simple narrative of the lives of a few engineering students, with a few songs and dialogues.
A stronger story is present in ‘Boyz’ – that superhit Tamil movie with its hit songs. (Anyone who has heard Karthik’s rendition of “paal poley…” would agree.) It brings in all the usual campus movie elements – friendship, love, loss, a drive to do well, and so on, along with some bold takes on issues such as parental pressure to perform. The acting was not too memorable but the freshness of portrayal did not go unnoticed.
But not so with 3I.
The characters are all, without exception, caricatures. Take Rancho – the super-successful charismatic intelligent class-bunker who still bags the first rank. (Come on, do you want to ratto-fy and get the rank, or do you want to bunk classes and become a five point someone? Because the system still has not evolved to the point where you can be both. Even an Einstein will get the first rank only if he writes the right answers in exams, not if he makes remote-controlled toy helicopters.) Then there are two of Rancho’s admirers-cum-sidekicks who have no existence if not for Rancho (the evidence for this is right here: I am unable to recall the names of the duo). And what would the movie be without Chatur – the studious nerd, who too revolves around Rancho? The list doesn’t stop here. The principal of the college acts just like you would expect his caricature to, and his daughter is just as disappointing. And don’t even bother to consider minor roles like the daughter’s fiance.
If the characters are poor, can the story be far behind? So you have the stereotyped damsel on the bike, and vacuum cleaners and car batteries put to the one of the most uncreative (no pun intended) purposes possible. You have hostel scenes that should put any decent guy to shame. Ultimately, suicides and suicidal attempts have to save the show through sensationalism.
Yes, 3I has its vocal supporters, who laughed through the repeated obscenities in Chatur’s Teachers’ Day speech and rotfl-ed watching the same speech again on YouTube. But not me. Give me ‘Nammal’ any day. So that I won’t have to laugh at the pathetic attempts at comedy.
<Personal opinion disclaimer applies.>
Marketing, Real and Ideal 
First of all, Dont treat this comment as an Argument OR a way of making your opinions false. I think, the “Essence” of this story is QUITE good. Like it is trying to say that “We should enjoy what we are doing and should follow what our mind says, There you are”.
Also a Film is a of imagination,by which the director or writer is trying to say something or conveying some message to the audience and greatness is measured “how far the director succeeded in bringing his concept to the audience”. RED Color if he want to show to the audience, it is Quite easy But how about the Feeling…Very difficult… So We cannot compare the Film character with our life. You cannot find a Chatur or Racho among ourselves as you said One cannot bags !st Rank at the same time bunking the Clases, But You can accept 3I if you can accept the Theme as a message to the audience from a well structured imagination (so called film) from a great Director. Also i agree in some perspective like in the climax scenes, Engineers arranging an operation theater in their classroom,varying the Vacuum Pump pressure to pull the baby out….These are very difficult in the real life. But the Writer try to say is that Racho is basically not a Book Bug, but he is a REAL Engineer who can do everything (Not only the things mentioned in the Books). That we can accept I guess.
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@Vipin Raj: I agree that the movie has its messages. In fact I liked the part where Rancho mentions that the heart is a delicate thing and that we just have to tell the heart that “all is well”. I am also ready to give director all creative freedom.
My point is that in the Engineering education system at present – and this includes IITs – it is impossible to be a Rancho at the core (who goes for “real learning”) and still come first in examinations. Which means that the movie-maker is confused as to what Rancho actually is.
That said, I am not saying that the movie is completely devoid of merit. 3I could not have become such a hit without people actually watching and enjoying (or thinking that they are enjoying) it.
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Nice article priya.But if we look at 3I from another angle we can find that it raises some basic questions against the current education system,which aims at preparing more ‘rats’ for the ‘rat race’.It also reiterates the prime duty of a teacher.A true teacher has a very big responsibility in helping students find their area of interest and guiding them to that,rather than just imparting the textbook knowledge.Teacher’s should create ignited minds which are the seeds of innovation rather than killing it because there is no column for innovation in the report cards.I agree that some parts are exaggerated,but unles you coat some jaggery and give the message,it will not reach to larger audience.That’s why its called a commercial film,not a documentary one.All is Well in films right.
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@Ramithash: You are right. The message will reach the “larger audience” only if it is sweetened enough.
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I found 3 Idiots entertaining and I did Laugh out Loud during Chatur’s speech. Though Amir’s antics were over the top, Chatur was brilliant, acting-wise.
The idea that one has to learn for the sake of learning is an age old ideal never quite understood by the brains behind the Indian educational system. This might be due to the practical issues involved, nevertheless, an effort towards that goal is a worthy step. NCERT texts are much better, and has better standards that what it was a six years ago. But, let me not digress.
The movie has unlike Happy Days, Boys, or Nammal brought to the fore the importance of learning for learning’s sake. Dead Poets Society is a movie which conveys the same message, so does Holland’s opus, albeit in the fashion of Hollywood.
I agree with Rancho’s ideals. I believe in it. A person must learn whatever he is wants to learn. I believe that And I also think that if an ideal must be portrayed and if it needs to be propagandized then the ideal must win, if not throughout, win in the end at least. Here I believe that Rancho is more of an idea, and it is a great thought: To learn for learning’s sake. For people to relate to it easily, for people to feel to take up this cause more seriously, the idea must win.
There is another theme, of professors being too narrow minded. In boys, or Happy days, we find students are the ones doing the mischief and being disrespectful to teachers as it so often happens in real life. Ranho is never disrespectful-he is frank. He might not be right, but he is frank in his opinions. He gets chucked out of classes because teachers think he is not conforming to what they say (this is slightly over the top, all teachers cannot be like this…there is always one in a school full of old boring teachers, who is passionate of teaching, this has not been shown in the movie. Nammal, i think has a character of sorts.) Also, he goes to classes, there’s a scene in which Rnacho attends classes of seniors, because he was thrown out of his own class. He doesnt bunk classes because he wants to, actually he goes and sits any class, because he think “knowledge is everywhere”….
I do not think that also, is a wrong message. And i also don’t think it was being portrayed in a manner that undercut the necessity of working hard to get a good rank. Hardwork is not trashed in the movie.
About getting good marks.
I agree when you say that a person who is Rancho at the core might not always be able to come first or in most cases might not end up having a life like Rancho.
But, let me ask: if you were to make up a character to portray a character with the ideals like Rancho, and for the sake of reality have him fail in a dozen subjects, and again for reality’s sake, have him slog through his entire life and perhaps just for a good ending, have him marry the girl of his dreams and get a decent job…would it be more reasonable? Would it push the idea that people should learn for learning’s sake and would the idea be then accepted as not something utopian or laughable?
Love, Loss, Friendship…I believe the story is not as bad as you make it sound to be. Yes, it is slightly puerile, and the story sometimes twists and turns very unnaturally, and just for the sake of the twists and turns which could’ve been done without. I am not saying it is a great movie. Boys and Happy Days….Classmates is a class apart, I shall not take its worthy name amongst such mere mortals…are movies which do not talk about educating yourself. It talks about college life, or life afterwards, and to borrow a word from you, it is a caricature of that life.
About friendship and love etc, there are better movies on friendship and love. A movie about education cannot avoid these themes. But, one must ask, which theme is predominant, or which theme did the director wish to highlight. I feel it was the theme of “Learning for learning’s sake.” and it conveyed it without making many of us bored.
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@Unni: Fair points. My contention is that given the current system of education, learning for it’s own sake requires sacrificing grades. By imagining a system that is contrary to this, the movie loses its sense of realism. You say that the ideal should be shown as winning in order to captivate the audience and to “push the idea”. But this underestimates the audience; it assumes that the audience cannot handle the lacunae of reality.
But well, this is true of most commercial movies.
And indeed, ‘Classmates’ is certainly a “class apart”!
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Not much to say…. but… Cannot disagree more…
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3 idiots is boring. Completely agree. Too preachy and too cliched.
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