3 Idiots – All Izz Well

3 Idiots sets new standards of friendship and mutual bonding between classmates

3 Idiots is adapted from a Chetan Bhagat’s novel, Five Point Someone. It is directed and produced by Raj Kumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, respectively. The screenplay is by Abhijat Joshi.

Prof. Pankaj Chandra (Director of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore) along with the management, faculty and students has contributed a lot in the making of 3 Idiots. They shared their real life experiences and expressions that enabled the makers to display the aspirations, issues and concerns of engineering students with accuracy and impact.

In this movie Aamir Khan played the central character Phunshukh Wangdu who takes on the identity of Ranchoddas Syamaldas Chanchad, the son of rich, influential businessman to further his studies.  He does all the hard work and gets the grades and gathers knowledge but the certificates and awards he gets are all picked up by the real Ranchoddas Syamaldas Chanchad, who was never good in studies.

3 Idiots is a story of human struggle from cradle to grave. The movie portrays how the human struggle for existence begins with the birth of a child. The child opens his eyes in the world to see the expectations floating in the eyes of his parents who want their children to become Engineer, Doctor, IAS, or some other officer, and glorify their family name.

Parents are completely ignorant if their expectations are actually benefiting their children or adding to their mental pressure.

The pressures of parental expectations and being pushed into doing something you didn’t want to do.

It is not that parents are enemies of their children or they have their personal interests in doing so. But even parents are humans who tend to make mistakes and take wrong decisions.

The movie shows a father accepting his mistake later on for forcing his son, who was passionate about wildlife photography, to do engineering. He eventually allows him to follow his heart.

Boman Irani as the inimitable director of the institute

In another scene, the director of the institute (who had already announced the career for his grandson/granddaughter while he/she was in his daughter’s womb) seemed convinced that a child should choose his or her career as per the interest. The cinema hall bursts into applause when he says holding his newly-born grandson, “jo banna hai ban (become whatever you want to become)”.

3 Idiots sets new standards of friendship and mutual bonding between classmates which was evident in the first frame of the film.

The film begins with Farhan (R Madhavan) receiving a call from one of his old classmate Chatur (Omi Vidya), who asks him to meet at an old spot in the university campus as he claims to know the whereabouts of their long-parted friend Rancho (Aamir Khan), a close friend of Farhan and Raju (Sharman Joshi).

Farhan was in the flight at that time and the flight had already taken off. He was so desperate to meet Rancho that he pretended to have suffered a heart attack and forced the pilot to make an emergency landing. This scene shows how deep was the bond of friendship between these three friends.

He then committed another crime by boarding a taxi waiting for somebody else at the airport. From the taxi, he called Raju and informed him about Chatur (nicknamed ‘Silencer’) having the information of Rancho. On hearing this, Raju got so excited that he forgot to wear the trouser and joined Farhan in the taxi.

‘Kamyabi ke piche mat bhag, kabil ban, kamyabi jhak marke tere piche aayega’

Farhan and Raju instructed the driver to drop them at ICE (Imperial College of Engineering), their college where they had completed their engineering and had become friends for life.

After leaving the taxi, they hurried towards the terrace where Chatur was waiting for them. While Raju and Farhan were eager to know about Rancho, who had gone missing after completing college, Silencer reminded them of Sept 5, a date when he had challenged them to meet on same day after 10 years and decide who had done better in life.

Ranchoddas Symaldas Chanchad or Rancho’s dialogue, ‘Kamyabi ke piche mat bhag, kabil ban, kamyabi jhak marke tere piche aayega’ (Don’t run after success, be capable and success will come running after you) is my favorite in the movie and is practical and effective.

3 Idiots is not just the story of 3 engineering students; it is a story of every being that takes birth on this planet. The movie presents the struggles of life that people have to face in their lives. There is a scene where Farhan says that the moment he’d taken birth his father had announced that my son will become an engineer – Engineer Farhan Qureshi, B. Tech.

The movie effectively highlights the problem of parents pushing their children to choose what they don’t like and make them forget or ignore their hobbies that could have become a great profession for them.

Raju, Rancho and Farhan on a joy ride

This happens with Farhan who wanted to be a wildlife photographer. He could never do well in engineering but once he took up his hobby as profession he never looked back and established new milestones of success.

On the other hand, Raju represents the class of children who under the burden of expectations of their parents start to fear failure. This ultimately kills their confidence and leads to their failure. This fear of failure sometimes forces them to take extreme steps as it happens with Raju who tries to commit suicide. But once he gains back his confidence he starts to taste success in whatever he endeavors.

Also, there are some cute romantic scenes between the lead pair, Aamir and Kareena. The movie conveys a very interesting message but in a humorous and interesting way. The scene where Chatur delivers a speech in Hindi, which he crams but doesn’t understand, is absolutely hilarious, especially when he pronounces ‘chamatkar’ as ‘balatkaar’, courtesy Rancho who changes some words in the speech.

The film depicts that life at engineering colleges is not fun; they have to deal with some serious problems including struggle to get good grades, ragging and mental pressure that forces a student to commit suicide.

Rancho’s dialogues are motivating. “There is lot of knowledge flowing around us. Don’t miss it; grab it from wherever you get it,” he says. Every dialogue in this movie is a motivational quote that may guide you in all walks of life.

There are a lot of thrilling scenes in the movie including a scene where Rancho with knowledge and engineering skills helps Mona (the director’s elder daughter) deliver a baby, which could otherwise have been life-threatening for both child and mother, as the roads to hospitals were jammed due to heavy rainfall.

The movie comes with an unexpected and unpredictable but delightfully pleasant climax that proves Rancho’s point – “Kamyabi ke pichhe mat bhaag, kabil ban, kamyabi jhak marke tere piche aayegi” (Don’t run after success, be capable and success will come running after you).

Everything is perfect, right from individual performances, screenplay, direction, editing to cinematography. Music is situational and melodious especially songs such as ‘give me some sunshine give me some rain’ and ‘o bhaiyya all izz well.’

3 Idiots is a must watch for everyone!