The Fun Side of Bollywood

Rating: 9/10 (10 January 2014)

There was an article published by Time magazine some years ago. It explained that while China enjoys a robust population and a rigorous educational system (for those who can afford it), the spontaneous and creative aspects of Chinese culture has been subverted. It's been marginalized so much so that American business specialists have been asked to speak at some of china's most prestigious companies to "teach" creativity. The article presumes that Chinese middle-managers have had so many concepts and facts drilled into them in school that they are unable to think outside of the box like Americans.
Subtle racism and cold war paranoia aside, the article does have a point when it comes to the importance of academic memorization versus creativity. American public schools have been drawing and redrawing that line trying to find the right balance to mold the leaders of tomorrow with mixed results. Yet when I hear stories of a fifteen year old inventing a new groundbreaking cancer test, I can't help but feel a little prideful of being the partial product of American schooling.
But while the Chinese seem to be stumbling, India has really stepped up, or at least the film 3 Idiots (2009) would have you believe it. Starring Aamir Khan as the amiable Rancho, the plot of 3 Idiots sounds like a Van Wilder (2002) rip-off. The brilliant but unorthodox Rancho causes mayhem and silliness at an uptight engineering university. His two friends Farhan (Madhavan) and Raju (Sharman Joshi) join in the revelry to the dismay of the pig-headed dean known to the students as Virus (Boman Irani). But when Rancho takes interest in the dean's daughter played by Kareena Kapoor, the dean vows to have the 3 idiots expelled for good.
Bollywood films are very good at taking seemingly trivial plots like the aforesaid and escalating them into gorgeous, high energy, thematically complex tales for which 3 Idiots is no exception. The movie encompasses a vastness of emotion and a breadth of themes which I do not dare expand on here for fear of ruining the movie. I will say that 3 Idiots does further validate my hypothesis that a major theme in modern Bollywood is upward mobility. While my familiarity with Indian film is limited, all the films I have seen made over the past twenty years involve a protagonist unhappy with his or her station in life and works their butt off to achieve better, often through creative means.
I saw this theme in the repellently named Wedding Planners aka Band Baaja Baaraat (2010) and the silly sci-fi comedy Joker (2012). Even the sappy love musicals of Yash Chopra like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) have characters who want to do better largely by questioning the conventions of traditional ways. 3 Idiots is an extension of that proud tradition only done with excellent comedy and some surprisingly depth along with some catchy musical numbers.
Stop to consider today's modern American films in comparison. Sure there are classic hero journeys in movie theaters but few have unadulterated happy endings quite like Bollywood. Many settle for the moral of "do what you can," or "you can be happy with your lot in life so long as you have someone to love". And let's not forget the common contemporary comedy message "have fun and worry about the consequences later." These messages make sense in the economic malaise of the day and the superhero genre has replaced the musical comedy as far as being a glitzy distraction for the masses. Still the superhero films as well as the Oscar-bait of the last few years don't have the subversive themes of their Indian counterparts. Nor to they have the energy! The energy in 3 Idiots is so incredibly infectious, if you're not smiling in the first five minutes you might need defibrillation. Seriously call a doctor, you're legally dead.
Those who are worried about China's looming domination of Asia and eventual world power status need not worry about it. If I were worried about any country flexing its muscle it'd be India. It's a polyglot, multicultural nation with English its language of commerce. It's got a huge, pro-democratic population and has the creative juices to pull off long-term economic and cultural growth. But don't lose any sleep over the decline of the American Empire, at least our overlords will be benevolent or at the very least hilarious.
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