3 hours of stereotypes, melodrama and rehashed jokes from the nineties

Rating: 5/10 (29 December 2009)

I got to see this movie at a special screening before it hit the theaters. The high expectation was palpable. After all, Aamir Khan has been producing successive hits over the years. Now for the movie - which starts in an engineering college in India, goes on to show the lives of three of its students through the years till they graduate. This being a Bollywood film, obviously has a smattering of romance and song and dance sequences. Right from the start where Aamir jaywalks into the college building without a care in the world to the time he starts questioning the teaching methods in class, its just a matter of a couple of days. Some cheeky guy this is! Unfortunately, all his antics and funny lines are as old as the college building he is in. You would have heard these jokes a hundred times over. Anyways, that is the best part of the film since it at least elicits a few laughs. The rest of the 3 hours is filled with stereotypes and melodramatic scenes which are ridiculous at best. It seems that these days in India, anyone who can make the audience cry can laugh all the way to the bank. Aamir has this knowledge and isn't afraid to use it.