I’m so glad I didn’t take Pratim Gupta seriously.
3 Idiots made me laugh heartily and unexpectedly cry the next moment. Maybe because am not an arty-farty type, thank God for that. But it wasn’t just me. After a long, long time, I saw an entire hall roaring with laughter and then fall suddenly silent.
Why indulge in rat races, let’s leave it to the rats, eh? The subject of Aamir’s movie has long begged representation. Every year, the moment after results of Class X or Class XII are announced, you can brace up for news of kids killing themselves. But, we’re all way too numbed up towards it.
I remember once participating in a seminar for teachers, where my teacher said that a child’s imagination should not be ‘corrected’, or tampered with. And, a teacher simply got up and asked, ‘What’s the main point?’
I have met some very different teachers in my life. One of them had a way of teaching through anecdotes and life experiences. I absolutely loved his classes and learned so much about human behaviour from him. But the last time I went to Bangalore, he said his current students had complained about his teaching methods. They didn’t like it that he went ‘off topic’!
I guess a movie has its limitations and it’s difficult to touch all aspects of an issue and, of course, the kind of teachers that I have met are really a minority, outcastes even. But the point is that by the time kids reach college, they have already become part of the system like Chatur, the Silencer. They may not be open to and indeed may find it very difficult to adapt to a system that encourages them to think rather than score.
Anyway, getting back to the movie, yes, there are the usual college scenes like ragging, a Hitler-type principal, but heck, this is a movie about college kids. What did you expect to see? Yogis standing on their heads? I guess not.
But I wouldn’t have defended the movie, if not for the lively, clean, and smart humour weaved into it. The balatkaar speech takes the cake, of course.
The 3 Idiots have done a good job and really can’t say who’s better than whom. All’s well with the songs, they’re very hummable. But I’m surprised that Kareena snuck in some bad acting, given so little time she had in the movie.
All in all, I vote for the movie and urge the janata to go see it. And, after you’re done laughing, don’t get to keeping up with the Joneses all over again.
Aargh, there's more I could write, but have to cook dinner :(
