A discussion with my friend Holly about the film 3 idiots last week reminded me that I’ve been meaning to write about it. But since its release, I’ve seen it maybe twenty many more times. Every viewing brings new insights. The draft of my blog post about it was turning into a thesis.
When Indians would pooh-pooh Bollywood masala to me, I used to cite a list of great Bollywood films to make them admit they actually do like good masala movies. Now, I just mention 3 Idiots. FTW!
This movie follows the masala formula—there is singing, dancing, comedy (including slapstick), drama and melodrama, death, birth and a monsoon dance number. But writer-director Rajkumar Hirani and his co-writer Abhijat Joshi, make it all new and exciting again.
What’s the movie about? Hirani and Joshi take the dull subject of education reform and the grim subject of student suicides and make it wildly entertaining and meaningful. The slapstick and sight gags are inspired (Raju’s paralyzed father on a motorcycle is genius), the melodrama moving, the corn sweet, the musical numbers dazzling.
This film got the whole country talking about education reform. Not only was it a megahit all over India and in the overseas NRI markets, it has become a hit in China. Seems that non-desis in North American have caught on to it now.
Hirani and Joshi just get better and better. If you haven’t already, see 3 Idiots, then rent Lage Raho Munnabhai, in which they take on Gandhism and political corruption in their own smart-silly way.
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