3 Idiots (Rajkumar Hirani, 2009) is a film featuring
three best friends and their lives in one of the best colleges in India, the
Imperial College of Engineering. Ten years after their graduation, Farhan and
Raju seek to reunite with their long lost friend, Rancho. En route to locate
him, they revisit their college days as engineering students while recollecting
the memories of their unconventional friend who inspired them to think
differently. As the highest-grossing Bollywood film, 3 idiots captured its
audience with a strong aesthetic typically found in Asian cinema, also known as
the Indian cinema because India is also considered as Asia. From there, I would
like to discuss about the aesthetic of Indian cinema in terms of the emotional
content, themes as well as film dance, music and song.
First, I would like to discuss the dances and the
musics' elements found in Indian cinema. Indian cinema often use musical to
give a hint of what is happening around the main cast or use to show whats the
main cast feels in that particular moment with a bunch of backup dancers as a
signature which makes them unique from other country's film. For example, the
musical in 3 Idiots can be found at the part where Pia, daughter of Professor
Viru Sahastrabudhhe (ViruS) opens a photo album and starts imagines she singing
"Zoobi Doobi" and dancing with Rancho together with a crowd of people
as their backup dancers. However, in 3 Idiots, there is a sign of evolution and
influence by western style in their musical, for example, the first part and
the second part of the musical is in modern-traditional clothing musical with a
bunch of dancers at the back while the last part is in white gown and suits
with no dancers at the back with a resemble of Titanic's significant pose (Jack
and Rose standing at the ship's attic's pose).
The style in filming and writing for an Indian film is
different from foreign films. While the other films are following the Three Act
Structure, Indian film are divided into two parts: First half and Second half.
First half is the Act One while Second half is the joint of Act Two and Act Three.
In 3 Idiots, First half of the film shows the introduction, background and the
story happening between the trio while the Second half shows the crisis and
actions taken by protagonist to solve the problems. For example, in First half,
Rancho, Farhan and Raju meet each other in college and they happened to become
roommates before they become best friends. Then slowly the films focus on
Farhan and Raju's backgrounds and the start of their conflict between their
family and studies (Born in middle class' Farhan wants to be a photographer but
was strongly disapproved by his father while born in lower class' Raju study
engineering to support his family's crisis). In Second half, Rancho helps
Farhan and Raju to find their own dreams and study engineering for passion, not
for grades and also changed the perception of Professor ViruS at the end by
proving that grades are not everything after they managed to deliver the
grandchild of Professor ViruS with his own machine. The last and most obvious
conflict solved (grades is not everything) by Rancho is when he meet Chatur at
the end and he happened to become the prospective business partner of Chatur,
the famous Phunsukh Wangdu and more successful than Chatur.
In conclusion, the film is a very good and motivative
film that gives a valuable lesson of the importance of passion in study over
grades, and at the same time do not bored the audience with over formal
speeches but rather putting lots of inspiring yet funny elements into the film.
This film is definitely the best Bollywoord film I had watched so far, in terms
of educating, and highly recommended to those who likes funny movies or making
jokes and pranks (in good intention) to their friends to laugh over together
with 3 Idiots.
