3 Idiots

Loosely adapted from the Chetan Bhagat bestseller Five Point Someone, 3 Idiots tells the story of a road trip undertaken by two friends on a journey to find a long lost companion. The man Farhan and Hari seek is Ranchoddas Shamaldas Chanchad, also known as Rancho. The bond between these three men unfolds in a series of flashbacks as we learn of their time at the Imperial College of Engineering.  The enigmatic Rancho challenges the success driven ideology of the institution inspiring his friends to adopt his freethinking philosophy for themselves. He subsequently clashes with the university’s headmaster whilst romancing his daughter behind his back. The three idiots, as their teachers refer to them, disband after graduation. Whilst Farhan and Hari keep in touch their friend Rancho disappears. Ten years later they reunite amidst mysterious circumstances in an effort to track down the man who made such an impression on their lives.

3 Idiots’ biggest flaw is that Aamir Khan, now in his mid-forties, is too old to be a believable protagonist. His character Rancho is a university student who is obviously supposed to be in his mid-twenties or younger. Although his star power is an obvious commercial draw, Khan’s persona as one of the most successful Bollywood stars of the last twenty years, if not all time, detracts from the role. Therefore the film requires a suspension of belief in order for the audience to root for the protagonist. The same can also be said for the narrative as a whole, which is overly ambitious and often unbelievable, even though its slapstick comedy is not grounded in realism.

For those unfamiliar with the conventions of the Indian film industry the running time, over two and a half hours, may seem lengthy for what is essentially a campus comedy. This is not helped by a weak soundtrack, minus a couple of songs which aid the narrative instead of attempting standalone success. Being a mainstream Bollywood film, however, 3 Idiots is not as purely juvenile as the gross out films that have come to be associated with the campus comedy genre, such as its western counterparts Porky’s and American Pie. It aims a lot higher drawing comparisons to Good Will Hunting, albeit with added fart jokes.

Like any “masala” film 3 Idiots tries to please all demographics of the cinema-going audience. Its simple message of overcoming the odds and learning to be yourself is universal. There is also a strong emphasis on the family unit and an added dose of romance. The gags come hard and fast but are accentuated by the emotional weight of the sombre scenes. The fact that it actually succeeds despite all of its shortcomings is nothing short of a miracle.  In the words of the film’s protagonist Ranchoddas Shamaldas Chanchad “aal is well”.

The juvenile humour and rapid pace of 3 Idiots cloaks the ambitious and thought provoking film at its core. The self-referential idealistic romantic side-plot highlights the film’s refusal to take itself seriously. Underneath its bright and energetic surface, however, lurks a dark subtext which deals with suicide amongst India’s student population. The burgeoning pressure of economic expansion on the country’s youth population haunts the cast of self-tortured individuals. Meanwhile through Rancho the filmmakers dissect the hierarchical structure of India’s education system.

The humour remains dark throughout the course of the film with the best gags coming from the blackly comic moments. To his credit the film’s director Rajkumar Hirani uses imaginative visual gags to compliment the film’s surreal tone. The repetitive use of black and white in the scenes that take place in Hari’s house are a brilliant spoof of the sentimental portrayal of poverty in classical Bollywood cinema. Aside from the clever self-referential narrative, the film provokes gut-busting belly laughs. At times it evokes comparison to the Farelly Brothers, who mastered dark humour and gross out gags in genre classics such as Dumb and Dumber.

3 Idiots’ barrage of jokes is reminiscent of the wisecracking classic Hollywood films such as His Girl Friday and Bringing Up Baby. Unlike those golden age masterpieces, however, it does not contain a single interesting female character. Pia, as played by Kareena Kapoor, is bland to the point of nonexistence. The Female sorority found at a mixed university campus is also completely ignored. We glimpse girls onscreen in the classrooms but they remain nameless and voiceless. The focus of the film is on the male student body. Both Aamir Khan and Sharman Joshi are satisfactory in their roles. The standout performance belongs to Madhavan as the quiet conformist Farhan. He portrays the young man with reserved grace as an internally tormented individual.

The fact that 3 Idiots manages to maintain its comedic momentum whilst successfully tackling larger complex themes is what makes it a cut above the rest. Aamir Khan’s Rang de Basanti tried to achieve a similar feat. That production’s ambitious storyline, however, worked against it. The first half of the film was about male bonding while the second half concerned itself with student protests and terrorism. Consequently Rang de Basanti felt like a muddled film that had crudely been split in two. Much like the motivation behind Farhan and Hari’s nostalgic quest to find their friend Rancho, the success of 3 Idiots lies in its unity.