3 Idiots' Movie Review: a Cinematic Reflection on Education and Life

"3 Idiots" is a bollywood film which was produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and directed by Rajkumar Hirani. It was released on 25 December 2009. This movie is said to have been adapted from the book ‘Five points someone’ by Chetan Bhagat. The leading actors of this film are Aamir Khan, Sharman Joshi and R Madhavan, hence the film is named 3 Idiots. These three are intelligent students of their respective high schools. While Boman Irani portrays the role of the director of the college which these three students join after graduating from their high schools. Kareena Kapoor also plays a small role in this film. She is the leading lady of the film and plays the role of the college director’s daughter.

The film portrays the importance of learning and education in our lives. The film puts a limelight on the education system in India and how the students are unable to cope up with the pressure because of the excessive amounts of exams and assignments. 3 Idiots is a story of three intelligent students who have acquired a GPA of 10.00 (on a scale of 10.00) in their respective high schools. They get admission in the most prestigious college for engineering in India: The Imperial College of Engineering. Aamir Khan plays the main character’s role who is Rancho. He loves machines and practicality and that is the reason he wants to pursue mechanical engineering. Raju is the character played by Sharman Joshi who comes from a poor family and he is the only one to support his family. He is always so scared of the future and believes in God. He is always scared of everything and takes a lot of pressure on himself.

R Madhavan plays the role of the third leading actor named Farhan. Farhan passion is to be a wildlife photographer but he joins the college of engineering because his father wants him to be a mechanical engineering as he has very good grades in his school. While Boman Irani plays the role of Viru Sahastrabuddhe who is the director of the college. Viru is a very strict professor and puts a lot of pressure upon his students. There is a scene in the film which shows that a student named Joy Lobo commits suicide because he doesn’t provide enough time to him for completing the project.

The students cannot cope up with such pressure and they believe that it’s time for them to commit suicide. This is an exactly same situation and such pressure do exist in most of the colleges in India.

Rancho is interested in engineering so he doesn’t have problems with the exams and assignments. Rancho also believes in the practicality of things rather than just rote learning.

While Raju and Farhan don’t get good grades as they feel pressurised by the education system.They also feel that they have to mug up the book’s content to pass in their exams. Unlike Rancho who is totally opposite of these two.

One day when all three of them visit Farhan’s family, Rancho learns about Farhan’s real interest. Then Rancho convinces Farhan to change his field of study from engineering to wildlife photography as Farhan’s passion was to become a wildlife photographer. He also advises Raju to put away his fear and it would help him to succeed in his exams. In the third year of engineering recruiters hire students. Viru addresses the students saying that Raju and Farhan would only be able to get the jobs only when they pass with good grades in the final exam. To purposely fail them and keep his words, he sets the paper himself, increasing the difficulty level. Pia, viru’s daughter who is friends with the three of them comes to know about this, so she informs Rancho. Rancho tries to steal the paper and is caught by the director.

He decided to take an action on all the three and rusticate them for their act. Pia informs his father about the real reason that took her brother’s life. Viru thought that his son had died in a car accident but later he comes to know that he committed suicide as he didn’t want to pursue engineering. He was forced by his father to become an engineer while he wanted to study literature. This is the reason why he committed suicide. After knowing this side of the story and of course the truth he decides not to rusticate the three students. Chetan Bhagat inspired the director of the film to make a movie which revolves around the life of students who go through this much pressure. Chetan Bhagat’s novel titled Five Point Someone - What Not To Do At IIT is an inspiration behind this beautiful movie. Bhagat’s novel also involves the same three lead characters but with different names. The title of the novel “Five Point Someone” is based on the five point scale which is used to calculate the GPA at the Indian Institute of Technology. Chetan Bhagat is being regarded as the ‘biggest selling English author in India’s history’. Chetan Bhagat feels very proud that his book and his message have received a wider audience because of the film. All of Bhagat’s novels are being made into different movies.

The film 3 Idiots smoothly points out at the education system of India by showing exactly what happens with the students of a particular engineering college. Students have to go through such high amounts of pressure just to pass the exams. Students think that committing suicide is not a solution to the problem, but fighting against the system to improve it can solve the problem to a certain extent. This film shows that Rancho argues with the director to make him understand that the way of teaching is incorrect and he blames the system for this. During an academic year students have several exams to take which involves vast syllabuses and also projects need to be completed within a short span of time. The film also motivates people to study what they like and not what their parents would ask them to. The director of the movie has put in so much of effort just to highlight the situation of the education system of India in the form of a brilliant movie which also sends an important message to the viewers and which is also entertaining. I would really suggest everyone to watch this movie atleast once.