3 Idiots (2009)

3 Idiots, a comedic Hindi film about the beautiful friendship between three students from Indian Engineering College and also the education issue happened in that college was produced in 2009. This film was directed by Rajkumar Hirani based on the book Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat, and it had won many different awards, including the Annual Central European Bollywood Awards in India, the International Indian Film Academy, Awards of the Japanese Academy, Filmfare Awards and many more. 

This film starts with Farhan Qureshi and Raju Rastogi looking for their long lost friend Ranchoddas Chanchad, who they call him as “Rancho” after they heard about his location from Chatur. Then, Farhan flashbacked to his student life introducing the stories among three of them. The trio knew each other as they were actually roommates back in their uni-life. The university that they studied, Indian Engineering College was actually a competitive place to study. Unlike most of the students in this college, Rancho seems to be a carefree learner and the reason why he studied Engineering is purely because of his passion. Throughout his uni-life, Rancho gave a lot of positive life impacts to his friends, his institution director - Viru Sahastrabuddhe (nickname: Virus) and also Virus’s daughter - Pia. This is why Rancho is an important friend for Farhan, Raju and Pia to search for after they lost his connection after graduation. In the end, the four of them were united in Ladakh. 

This film is the very first Bollywood film that I watched in my life and it really amazed me. Before I really watch a Bollywood film, I used to think that Bollywood films are just some musical film with exaggerated visual effects due to the influence of social media. However, my perception was changed, a lot, after I watched this film because it is truly artistic and meaningful. Firstly, what I was amazed from the artistic perspective in this film by Rajkumar Hirani is the musical part. I was expected to see dances in this film because of having that stereotype but I think that Rajkumar did not include the dance blindly just because he likes it. The dance and music actually often serve a purpose as they always be the enhancement of the story in his film. In my opinion, musical dance is always the unique identity in Bollywood films that must be preserved since the early age of the cinema. From the sharing session by Rajkumar, he said that Indians had already used to see the musical elements in Hindi films because it was already existed in Indian cinemas throughout the history. I think this is a really important element as it shapes the Indian cinema and let the world knows how a Bollywood film really is. Therefore, I think that the world, including myself, should not question about why are there so many musical element in Hindi cinema because this is the identity of a Bollywood film. Without music and dance in a Hindi film, I can’t call it a Bollywood film. 

Furthermore, the reason why I love this movie is because I really like how Rajkumar shape the characters. I think that Rajkumar had made a really good example through his main character, Rancho. I was amazed with his kindness towards his friends or even strangers, like he first meet Pia and Joy. Rancho’s attitude towards his passion had also amazed me. Rancho’s true identity is “Chhote”, according to the real Rancho in the film. He actually uses Rancho identity to get knowledge since young because of his passion in learning. Another important quality that I like about this character is that he never let out his anger or frustration towards the people who treated him badly. For instance, even though Virus kicked him out from his studies, he never even hesitate for a second to help out Virus’s daughter when she is in a critical trouble. 

Moreover, this film had actually resonated with many Asian countries like China, Hong Kong etc as Rajkumar said in the conference. He mentioned that it could be the education issue of India that portrayed in the film. This truly hit me because this issue can also be found in Malaysia. As Rancho mentioned in the film, the education system in Indian Engineering College is actually producing “machines” because students are just study for competition instead of passion. It could also due to the social pressure that happens in India because majority of the people think that engineering is always a very successful job as they could earn a lot of money. Besides, Rancho had also claimed that Virus’s teaching method gives a lot of pressure to the students. Just like what we see in the film, Virus strict philosophies had made him unintentionally murdered Joy and also his own son. Thus, I think that this could be the reason why this film could resonate with many countries because of the similarity in education issue that happens in the world.

Last but not least, how can Rajkumar produce such masterpiece is not just by brainstorming during the midnight and then make up the story. He actually mentioned this during his convention, which the most important thing for producing a good film is to create something unique. He mentioned that if we produce a film by reusing the style of certain filmmakers, it would become common and people will just forget about it easily. Therefore, a unique film with its own identity is really important. Next, we should have a mindset of producing a film for ourselves instead of the audiences. There are a lot of people in this world and people’s preference of a film is often different with each other. It’s really hard for us to fulfill everyone’s preferences. Even though we try to do so, the film would just be a mess. Thirdly, Rajkumar mentioned that it’s good if we use the life trigger in creating a story. In my opinion towards his point, everyone in this world have their own identical stories, and by using a story based on our own life’s trigger, it will make the film to have its own unique value. Rajkumar thinks that films are not business. Based on this point, I think that film is a way of telling your own stories to the world. If you treat it like a business, it will just lose its own value and uniqueness. 

In a nutshell, 3 Idiots had really changed my perception towards the Indian Cinema. I will always remember that the unique identity of a film must always be preserved. Although we can’t fulfill everyone’s preferences but if our films tell a unique story that comes from our life experience, be ourselves, our films will also suit many people’s taste.