A satisfactory meal, but not the best...

Rating: 7/10 (29 December 2009)

The movie starts of well with excellent wit and moves along a pretty good pace that sets up the rest of the movie. 3 Idiots is all about 3 friends – Rancho, Raju and Farhan (Aamir Khan, Sharman Joshi and R Madhavan respectively) who have been accepted into a prestigious institute and set about to pursue their dreams.
The three lead actors share excellent chemistry, along with the authoritarian principal Viru Sahastrabuddhe (Boman Irani) and the ever competing bookworm Chatur Ramalingam (portrayed by Omi Vaidya) in an excellent role that gives life to the movie. The humor is pretty good in the movie. And the way the director has managed to intertwine both comedy and sentiments subtly is applaudable.
Going to the negative aspects, I felt that some of the humor has been taken up shrewdly from the internet, the scenes which include Rancho pawning the campus director after his speech about his acclaimed astronaut pen, and then there's the scene where Rancho mixes up their exam papers among the pile of papers of other students. These jokes have been doing rounds on the internet for years now.
Then there's the need to insert a love story into the movie in the most conventional way possible. The usual bollywood type love story, the girl (Pia played by Kareena Kapoor) doesn't like the guy at first. And then the hero manages to weave magic (Chamatkaar or Balatkaar, choose for yourself) around her which leaves her intoxicated enough to fall for our irresistible Rancho.
Hirani also manages to push the limits a li'l far with some scenes, there is a scene wherein Rancho tries to extract a baby using a vacuum cleaner which he manages to assemble all and well within a few mins when our woman is in deep pain (literally), and then there is the succeeding scene where the baby isn't breathing. However, it comes to life when everyone starts chanting the tagline 'Aal izz well' (really???) The rest of the movie is well done which still makes it a full paisa vasool movie despite the flaws. Well written and most importantly surpassed by better acting by the actors who make up the movie. It would have been awesome if the the writer had managed to come up with some more original ideas. But still 3 idiots is one of the better Hindi cinemas this year. This is definitely not Hirani's best work, but one of the better one's indeed!!! There will always be talk about how movies aren't supposed to be taken too seriously, which is absolutely true. But in the end, its the feeling that you walk out with, that will define your contentment. If you read this review, you will find most of it is filled with negative aspects. The reason being, the rest of the movie is truly excellent, laced with sentiment and humor, which is a definite watch. Watch it!!