An average movie which still is better than most of the comedies which rolled out this year in Bollywood (Yes, that's the sorry state of Bollywood these days!).

Rating: 6/10 (1 January 2010)

Chetan Bhagat's novel on which it is loosely based, is not a literary masterpiece but it succeeds in selling what it promises. I think a more serious, drama with subtle humor approach should have been used to make a good movie out of that novel. What we have got in 3 Idiots is another addition to the streak of mindless comedies. One movie genre which has suffered the most in recent years is comedy and movies like 'Jane bhi do yaron' or even 'Andaz apna apna' or many of the Hrishikesh Mukherjee's movies are not made anymore. What we get these days is run of the mill gags with jokes copied from youtube (Search 'funny student at exam hall' if you want to see an example).
Rajkumar Hirani has tried to emulate the success of Munnabhai films by using the same formula but has tried to pull one too many a stunt this time. Munnabhai movies were fresh, something new always works! Repeating same thing over and over is what killed 3 Idiots. Amir tries hard and gets away with it but definitely younger actors could have done a better justice. Madhavan as an actor and narrator fails big time in this movie. An actor like Sharman Joshi who has done quite decent job till now in comedies isn't given much meat in his role. In fact I would have loved to see him do the role of Rancho! Boman Irani's character is straight out of a cartoon book and its not funny at all. Surprisingly, Kareena Kapoor has done a very good job in the smaller than others role she got. It seems she succeeds in carrying this role forward from Jab We Met!
Finally, I would say that this movie has soul, it has a message(in fact may be one too many ;) but it lacks execution. It fails to stick to this message with heart because of senseless and unbelievable comic scenes which are forcefully thrusted to get some quick laughs but ultimately prove to be roadblocks in the storyline. Many situations in the movie are so hard to believe that you can only gulp them down if the movie was a spoof which it is not. I have seen(and have been a part of) much crazier things when I was in engineering college but still what they show here is simply stupid.
Watch this movie if you want to relax and watch some mindless comedy where you have to apply your brain... 6/10 for me.