FUN AND ENTERTAINING WITH MEANINGFUL LESSONS

Rating: 10/10 (25 February 2019)

The movie '3 idiots' is a masterpiece directed by Rajkumar Hirani. The movie revolves around the lives of three engineering students of Imperial college of Engineering. Rancho, who is gifted, Farhan, who possesses the passion of photography and Raju, who wants to help his poor family by getting a good corporate job. The movie tries to draw special attention to the pressure the Indian education system and the Indian society puts on students. While the engineering discipline is highly glorified by the society as depicted in the movie; disciplines such as photography are degraded.
The movie tries to depict the struggle those students face who are forced into the discipline of engineering. It is a story of almost every student in South Asia who is passionate about something in life however due to family and societal pressure cannot pursue their career choice. They, then lose the battle against the tough, impossible and cruel system and in result lose their life by committing suicide.
The movie shows the unbreakable bond of the "idiots" trio. The head of the institute, Dr Viru Sahastrabuddhe also called Virus by his students, tries to break the friendship of the trio by distancing Farhan and Raju from the rebellious Rancho as Rancho becomes a challenge for him. However, he fails to do so as Rancho helps Farhan to follow his passion and saves Raju's father from dying with the help of Pia, younger daughter of Virus.
The character of Rancho is played by the versatile actor Amir Khan who never fails to do justice to the characters he plays. Rancho is a character to amaze people through his thoughts, his ideas, his unusual ways of understanding and expressing knowledge, his innovative inventions, his passion for achieving something in life not through copying and cheating but experimenting and exploring. He builds strong emotional bond with Farhan and Raju. He encourages Farhan to give his passion of photography a chance and try to convince his father to allow him to pursue photography. On one hand, we see Rancho, who believes in understanding, simplifying knowledge, enjoying his passion for science and engineering and implementing his knowledge practically. On the other hand, we see Chatur, often called 'Silencer' by the trio, who Is obsessed with memorizing books and topping the exams. These two types of characters are portrayed in the movie to show contrast to the audience between the two different techniques that the students follow.
The way the director shot the movie is to the point. It is full of fun and lessons. All the actors played their part brilliantly and contributed to the success of the film. The audience of the movie may be anyone. Adults, kids and students particularly those who belong to engineering as they can easily relate themselves to the movie. The good thing about the movie is that it focuses on the issues which are ignored in the society. However, one negative point I noticed in the movie was that it portrayed suicides. Suicidal scenes may affect the younger audience in a negative way.
Conclusively, the lessons that can be learned from the movie are that memorizing the curriculum word to word is not the aim of education however understanding is. Topping the batch does not declare you to be successful. Additionally, the main aim of education should be understanding and to convey meaningful knowledge to the students rather than forcing and pressurizing them to follow a strict, exhausting and punishing curriculum. The movie throws light on the way teachers do injustice to their students and how the pressure that they put on students forces them to commit suicide. The movie emphasizes the need to develop passion for learning in students. Moreover, the students should be given choice to choose their career path and not forced into science and engineering disciplines just because they are thought to be the most successful career choices. Being an engineering student myself, I would rate the movie 10/10 because it perfectly shows the life of students and what they go through.