12 years of 3 Idiots

 It will forever be my all time great movie, as I could relate a lot shown in that movie to my Engineering College days. Today completes 12 Years of the iconic film ever made in India "3 IDIOTS". It is called the "Shawshank redemption" of India, a movie you can watch again and again, yet not get bored.

In a 2013 interview, iconic filmmaker Steven Spielberg had revealed that he loved Aamir Khan starrer 3 Idiots and has watched the film thrice. Today the movie completes 12 years of its release.

What makes the movie so great ? It is full of fun, love, sarcasm often bordering on dark humor, capturing ethos and pathos of human and student life - how parents force their children into Engineering against their will, spoiling their dream forever. As Aamir Khan has mentioned in the movie - "If Lata Mangeskar played cricket and Tendulkar made singing as his career wonder what would have happened to both" !!!

Though Aamir Khan stole the show, everyone else in that movie excelled in their performance - especially the character played by the irrefutable Chatur Ramalingam, the teacher's pet and with his South Indian accented Hindi a butt of joke of his classmates. 

Throughout the movie it pokes fun of our education system - our tendency to prefer complex solutions over simple ones, deliberate obfuscation versus common sense. At beginning of the movie when the director of Engineering College boasts in front of the students showing a pen which works in space, the pragmatic but playful Rancho played by Aamir Khan retorts back - "Why don't they use pencils in space" ? As they say in Hindi "BADI BADI KHUSIYA HEY CHHOTI CHHOTI BATON MEIN" (Big happiness lies in small talks). The audience instantly burst into laughing after Rancho's impromptu response.

Both friends of Aamir Khan feel sad as they thought their friend Rancho has failed in the final exam. And they were sadder, when they found that he topped the class. It exposes our human foible - we can very easily share some one's sorrow, but rarely someone's happiness at the same breath.

Rancho keeps telling him two closest buddies - SUCCESS KE PICHHE MAT BHAGO. KAVIL BANO. EK DIN SUCCESS TUMHARE PICHHE BHAGEGI" - "Don't chase success. Be capable. One day Success will chase you". He stood vindicated at the end.

The icing on the cake was this scene. When the Hindi speech writer told Chatur Ramalingam to understand the text of the speech before speaking in public, the later said "Don't worry, I will rote it". Then Aamir Khan as Rancho changed the word "CHAMATKAAR" to "VALATKKAR" and so on in the script. We all know what happened to Chatur who read it out loud on the stage without an idea of what he was talking about. That famous scene from the movie reminds us the perils of studying without understanding.

Chatur memorizes a SLOKA (hymn) by heart in Sanskrit meant to eulogize the Director and spits it out on the stage, without understanding a single word of it, not realizing that the original lines were altered by Aamir Khan. As Chatur on the stage was about to vomit out the Sloka, the later warns his friends to get ready to hear some sermons about Chatur's farting prowess. Chatur recites:

UTTAMAM GAD GADATA PADAM,
MADHYAM PADAM TUCHAK TUCHAK;
THUR THURIYA KANISTHAM PADAM,
SUR SURIYA PRANA GHATAKAM.

Roughly transliterated...

"Loud farts are majestically thundering;
Medium farts come along stuttering,
Small Farts arrive whisteling & sirening;
The silent ones are life threatening."

As the audience goes berserk, poor Chatur got kicked out of the stage. Rancho's dark humor teaches us another lesson in academics - Knowledge acquired through roting without understanding may earn you a degree and a job. "LEKIN AGLE 40 SAAL TERA VALATKAAR HI HOGA" (you will be screwed all the next 40 years of your life). The movie has left an indelible mark on me and I am sure on many. Even after dozen long years and watching it no less than a dozen times, I can still watch it once again.