All's well with this one :)

There are movies, and there are more movies. And then there is ‘3 idiots’. Not many reviews would begin with this but to put it on the record: Muraleedharan C.K.'s cinematography is awesome. Though that won’t be the only thing you’ll want to watch this masterpiece.

Whenever in life someone tells you to be ‘realistic’, they often want you to comprise on your ideals, or about what you really feel for , vouch for....deep inside a thing which makes every other piece of ‘work’ as fun, that something, a little spark instigating passion..they more than often want you to chuck it away. Coz it’s impractical, idealistic. This movie is one of the biggest and the finest and superlatively fantabulous slap on the face of such a commonplace societal conformity. Period. And doesn’t the that very society limp away after the slap’s based but offers a helping hand to regain posture and really follow what it wishes to do and wants to be and that too in a stitched to T level perfect Bollywood flick style.

Self seriousness and over the top preaching in today’s presence of curt and no nonsense satirical comedies from the west would have made a lot crunch their noses up. That point is well realised by the makers of this movie. Awesomely written screenplay by Raju Hirani and  Abhijat Joshi alongwith screenplay associate Vidhu Vinod Chopra so easily wards off any occcurance of a situation where the public goes “be yaar....” No, that friggin never happens. The scenes are dealt with such finesse that even internet/email humour jokes, which probably were thrown at you for like a 657 times by spammers would retain it’s freshness on screen, and you’ll wait for the punch line to still come and laugh harder than what you did the first time you read the same joke in FWD email.

Aamir makes you totally forget that he was, right time of the year last time, a burly buffalo with a stupid movie doing awesomely well at bix office. Hell he even makes you forget that he is 44 and a hyper duper Bollywood star. He makes you see him in a totally new light as an incorrigible free thinker who is governed by passion not by obedience, who is looking for excellence and not success. Coz, as goes the most catching dialogue of the movie “Kabiliyat ka peecha karo, kamyabi toh jhuck marke tumhare peeche aayegi”

R. Madhavan narrates to you the whole story and you never even for once feel that you have had a rough ride. This film’s narrational aspect has truly set a lofty benchmark. His performance too is one of his best, as all of his already were. Sharman joshi has by far the toughest character to potray and he does more than a fine job of it. Kareena kapoor is the symbolic representation to say the best. If guys in Indian middle class become Engineer then girls have Medical to opt for. And she is that medical student. Her role has freshness and bubliness to itself which you thought was passé after her “Kambhakat ishq” escapade. Boman Irani, so very expectedly, delivered yet another ‘blame-it-all-on-him’, perennially hated Director of the institute. The characterisation is one of the most comic one yet not frivolous. All in all, a tribute to Casting finesse and Characterisation and no other movie in the past can be compared to this for it.

The backbone of the story all along has been the way in which it has been told plus ‘what all’ has been told. This film takes about a)Education system b)Youth aspirations c)Family expectation d)Stress propelled suicides e) Passion f)One of the best philosophies ever g)Something i have definitely missed and how does it manage to do all this? By telling it in a way never seen before all the while preserving the ‘Bollywood way’ of doing it with immense cliché busters.  Raju Hirani brings in a pot and concocts flash-backs, dream sequences, tales of woes, scenic journeys, superbly conducted situational songs and stirs the pot with a chiselled spoon so well that you transpire anything and everything that must be going around.

You realise the importance of screenplay and story board presentation and you actually see as to why was 2 years taken to draft this screenplay when it was already based on an equally game changing novel by Chetan Bhagat. Each and every word belongs to second when it is delivered adding the charm are the songs. With their perfect placements and apt lyrics they are sure to become something which would linger in your head the moment you leave the hall – ‘Aal Izz Well’ is a sure shot campus anthem, ‘Zoobie doobi’ makes you want to fall in love that very moment, ‘Give me some sunshine’ will be a song which all the engineers up at college would like to chant around as a perfect story depiction of their lives. ‘Behti hawa Sa tha’ will set your mood from the first scene in a way which you never expected this film to begin with.

The direction has by far crossed any bar previously set. The act of a perfectly feel good song leading to tragic end or that of the scene when Shraman Joshi decides to call it quits, or the scene when you enter interval makes you pop out of your 150 bucks rented cine-seat like a gecko. One of the best story told in one of best way possible. Raju Hirani has done it again.

And why is it something more than a movie? Because it talks to you, to your parents, to you neighbour uncle to everyone and anyone you would have come across ever. The ‘Rat Race’ which you have so well become a part of. Where ‘liking what you do’ always presides over ‘doing what you like’. Where in a wish to be envious to someone who won’t even gossip about you for more than two mins, intitated the building up of these many ‘engineers by planned accident’ who anyway would end up squandering away all the resources expended at them all the while cribbing and cursing the system and their inability to handle such cruelty. It shows all sides, the one of a zeal driven ‘engineer by choice’, the one of ‘parent pushed’ engineer, the one of a ‘future fearing’ kid on the block from whom you expect a lot, the one of their all’s family and their insecurities – some justified, other’s just a show-off one timers, the one of a vehement, belligerent director who after these many years of experience has come to realise without doubt that ‘yes, life is a race, accept it or suck it up bitch’ , the one of a perfect ‘product-of-the-game’ rattu – chatru (omi) (he is someone you always wished the other to be so that you could call yourself ‘cool’). It talks about all of them, it brings in all the POVs possible and does it with an innocent panache of it’s own.

What it does best, is that it becomes the first Indian movie ever to talk about – Self Actualization’ and without being a grandma. It speaks fluidly about the ‘Aal Izz Well’ philosophy which re0inforces your conviction that you have lost it. Because all this is a freaking beautiful illusion! It just doesn’t friggin matter. Our worries, qualms, doubts, uncertainty they all have life span only as long we let them endure in our heads and hearts. So it, very cutely tells you, that you number one job is to keep yourself away from ‘frustration’ and away from any sort of ‘fear’..because my dear..’Aal Izz ver very very well’

Do yourself the biggest favour of all time and watch this one for sure. It’s inspiring, it’s emotional, it’s enlightening and above all it’s entertaining. It’s something that if it is not yet a habit with you, you will want to sit through the end credit roll. And slap me hard if the audience around you doesn’t break into a unanimous applause the moment the movie ends.