Starring Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Boman Irani, Omi Vaidya, Mona Singh

(5-Okay Film)

Fun. Silly. Emotional.

Rancho: Pursue excellence, and success will follow, pants down.

Insanely popular, 3 Idiots, to me, is a very strange epic. Alternating between tones frequently, as is common in Bollywood movies, I found the mood swings to be a bit jarring. In any case, a number of films, when they want to highlight the extraordinariness of a lead character, will use a more “average” character to be our point of view. We see Sherlock Holmes through Doctor Watson’s eyes or Andy Dufresne through Red’s eyes, for example. 3 Idiots introduces us to Rancho (Khan) through the eyes of his classmates, Farhan (Madhavan) and Raju (Joshi). They attend the highly competitive Imperial College of Engineering and when Rancho makes an enemy of the Dean by challenging tradition and the way the school puts pressure on its students, Farhan and Raju are forced to decide who to follow, Rancho or the Dean. The soundtrack is infectious and the three leads make a merry trio of friends. There are also a couple of good surprises along the way. The romance is less compelling, however, and overall, despite being one of his biggest hits, 3 Idiots isn’t as strong as some of Khan’s other star-vehicles; Dangal or Lagaan being my favorite.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

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