3 Idiots (2009)
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3 Idiots Movie Review
3 Idiots is a 2009 comedy drama film directed by Rajkumar Hirani and starring Aamir Khan. It is another wonderful film from this great director.
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“I wasn’t teaching you engineering,
that you know better than me.
I was teaching you how to teach“
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The film follows the friendship of three students in an Indian engineering college. They all suffer through college which they find way too difficult and exhausting. The movie is thus an incredibly important, even alarming look at the pressures of studying in India and some other Asian countries such as China and Japan.
In those countries the number of students committing suicide is simply staggering. The film cleverly makes fun of the ridiculously hard requests from professors as well as terrible teaching methods while never forgetting to make a statement and thus it even manages to be urgent in tone.
Yes, 3 Idiots does explore this serious issue and it can be pretty heartbreaking to watch, but it still never forgets to be fun as it’s a terrific example of a fantastic dramedy. Yes, the humor here can be too silly at times (the childbirth sequence is ridiculous though fun) and the film frequently becomes too much of a parody instead of satire. However, the humor is mostly terrific and I actually did laugh quite a lot which I did not expect from a serious sounding film.
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I had mixed feelings about the emotional tone here. On the one hand, the film was simply too sentimental in some scenes and downright cheesy or manipulative. On the other hand, I was most definitely moved in more than one occasion. Some scenes with the three friends were just so incredibly emotional for me because they established these characters and their friendship so well that I felt strong emotion in such scenes.
So let’s talk about these wonderful characters. Once again Hirani imbues the film with a high number of instantly likable, such well developed personalities and terrific interactions between them. Rancho is such a fun character and an immensely likable person who influenced his friends and made their lives happier. He is almost like a mythical figure here and that was great as it fitted Aamir Khan’s persona so well and he did deliver another phenomenal performance.
Farhan is the most realistic of the trio and the highlight was him telling his father what he wants to do in life instead of engineering. Such a powerful sequence and so heartwarming. Raju is also terrific and I found his attempted suicide scene heartbreaking and eventually emotionally rewarding. Pia is also a wonderful soul and the romance between her and Rancho is a bit underdeveloped, but instantly I felt their chemistry and it worked for me. Chatur was a bit too goofy for me and professor Viru is also way too cartoony and made fun of, but it worked in the context of the film which is lightweight and fun more than serious.
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3 Idiots is superbly directed by immensely talented Rakjumar Hirani who is quickly immerging as one of my favorite modern directors. The dialogue in this film is consistently stellar and ranging from sophisticated and making a point to very witty and quirky. The tone is well realized and it succeeds as both a drama and a comedy. It is well shot and I found the soundtrack also pretty solid with a couple of numbers being admittedly very catchy.
Although at times its tugging on the heartstrings can become too manipulative, 3 Idiots is mostly earned in its high emotion as it develops its characters so well along with their interactions leading to one truly wonderful male friendship flick. It is an important, even urgent drama about frequent student suicides in India and their extremely strict school system, but it also never forgets to be entertaining and funny thanks to many amusing developments and strong humor. It’s another terrific Aamir Khan/Rakjumar Hirani collaboration leading to a much better version of ‘Dead Poets Society’.
