After 'Jaadu ki jhappi' and 'Gandhigiri' its 'aal izz well'

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2010)

In a late scene from the film, 2 of the 3 idiots zip down their pants and pat their bottoms facing the third idiot. Rather than feeling gross at that instant, you have a lump in throat. For the zillionth time in a Hindi film, a bride runs away from the pheras on her wedding day. But the scene still doesn't come across as clichéd. For a group of all-male engineering students, to 'deliver' means to literally carry out a delivery operation on a woman in labour pain. And when the motionless newborn responds to a goodwill chant of 'aal izz well' in true-blue Manmohan Desai mode, you fail to find a fault in the filmi formula. That's the golden touch of Rajkumar Hirani.
So after successfully dispensing philosophies of 'Jaadu ki jhappi' in Munnabhai MBBS and 'Gandhigiri' in Lage Raho Munnabhai, Hirani incites a new philosophy of 'Aal izz well' in 3 Idiots. And like his doctrine, all is well in his helluva film.
Loosely based on Chetan Bhagat's bestseller Five Point Someone, 3 Idiots takes the plot much beyond the campus confines and the target audience much above the youth, for universal appeal. The story starts a decade after the graduation of college companions Farhan (R Madhavan) and Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi) who get a clue on the whereabouts of their missing third friend Rancho (Aamir Khan). As they set out on a road trip from Delhi to Shimla to Manali to Ladakh to find their friend, the narrative cuts to and fro into flashbacks as we are introduced to the three idiots in an engineering college.
Rancho clearly is different from anyone else in the college with his individualistic thought-process and rebellious attitude, which invites the ire of the college principal (Boman Irani) and affection of his daughter Pia (Kareena Kapoor).
Coming from Rajkumar Hirani, there was clearly a risk involved in the film's setting and characterizations for having a déjà vu effect with his first film. Boman Irani, as the principal, almost revives his disciplinarian dean characterization from Munnabhai MBBS which is more palpable with his disgust towards the rebellious protagonist, Rancho (akin to Sanjay Dutt) who is furthermore in love with his daughter (ala Gracy Singh). Nevertheless, Hirani's direction is so impeccable that without a conscious effort, the analogy never strikes your mind and the scenario never looks repetitive.
In his trademark style, Hirani grabs your attention from scene one with an unconventional opening to the film. Thereafter every single scene written in the screenplay (by Hirani and Abhijat Joshi) is not just relevant but also has a clear set objective – to be funny or be deeply poignant. Which means it either makes you laugh or cry and at some superlative instances do both simultaneously (which is an achievement). The writers have kept absolutely no room for any intermediate option.