Fairly idiotic, but it's not that bad

Rating: 5/10 (1 October 2011)

Rajkumar Hirani's 3 Idiots is generally a rather entertaining comedy, but as a film it is only partially successful. Though it does have its moments, it never really manages to completely deliver and lacks the power to enthrall. It mostly works as a senseless comic ride and only occasionally does it convince when it tries to convey a message. The film is quite messy in presentation, and it is a tiresome task to follow the proceedings as every now and then the story moves confusingly between past flashbacks and present developments. The movie is good in many ways, and at times it's very funny, but it is the overall product which is faulty. The dialogue is for the most part excellent, so is the visual style, but then, the script lacks focus. While Hirani's direction is quite smart and creative at times, he often tries to include too many elements, and, as a result, the movie often seems to go nowhere. The humour wavers between witty moments of hilarity and cheap, unoriginal gags. And then we also have poor sequences of overdone melodrama and manipulative sentimentality, which are incorporated rather forcibly into the movie and they really fall flat. The entire birth sequence, for one, is one hell of a clichÃ©. So is the ending, which is sugarcoated to the max.
Where acting goes, the one who does the best--and probably the only great--job is definitely Boman Irani, who is simply hilarious as the lisping, authoritarian college professor. Aamir Khan looks younger than his actual age but is still too old for his role. Acting-wise, he's just ordinary and offers nothing particularly impressive. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi are given little scope and only few short episodes here and there for themselves so that they don't end up unsatisfied from taking part in this film. They do reasonably well, but Joshi is made to cry far too much, and it really gets on one's nerves. Now who's left? Oh, Kareena Kapoor! Well, she is pretty but she is given a thankless blink-and-miss part which is neither significant nor demanding. That said, though she is hardly there, she does well when she is and her presence is pleasant. The songs are quite catchy and fun, but none of them is particularly memorable. "Zuby Duby", however, is superbly visualised and is enjoyable enough. Overall then, 3 idiots is an okay film at best which is flawed and terribly overrated, but in all fairness, it is reasonably enjoyable and may provide decent Hindi entertainment for the entire family. According to me, it is worth nothing more than a one-time watch.