I am not a movie buff. And with awesome movie halls in the city I live, the interest in watching movies goes down even more. Watched 3 Idiots recently, found it to be decent. I had read Chetan Bhagat’s novel Five Point Someone, and possibly it was one of the first books I had read in record time. I really loved the way he writes imagines and delivers and being an engineer, could relate a lot to it.
The movie 3 Idiots was liked by almost all the people I interacted with and the numbers substantiate it, Rs 175 crores in the first week. BUT the movie raises questions:
Is it an adaptation from Five Point Someone?
There’s been a lot of buzz in the media post the movie about Chetan Bhagat not getting the credit and the producers claiming the movie not based on his novel. What I feel is, the story has been changed a lot, but the basic idea or the backbone of the storyline has been from the book itself. And the worst part the actor, who is supposed to fight for righteous causes, doesn’t seem to be impressed by the author stance. Anyways, it is business and possibly a b-school grad isn’t as smart as the street smart people there.
There’s been a lot of buzz in the media post the movie about Chetan Bhagat not getting the credit and the producers claiming the movie not based on his novel. What I feel is, the story has been changed a lot, but the basic idea or the backbone of the storyline has been from the book itself. And the worst part the actor, who is supposed to fight for righteous causes, doesn’t seem to be impressed by the author stance. Anyways, it is business and possibly a b-school grad isn’t as smart as the street smart people there.
The Blog Discussion
I read Sagarika’s blog, a critical analysis of the movie which questions whether the message given by the movie. The question is important, but what if it is not the right message. Do we always worry about the message a movie delivers. At the end of the day it is a movie for entertaining people and doing business. 3 Idiots is doing well on both fronts.
About the message that the movie delivers, do we always question that?
Did we question the movie Fanaa or Gangster which ended up people sympathizing the unsocial elements of the society (a terrorist in the first case and a underworld gangster in the latter)? Yeah at the time of Fanaa, media was busy covering ban imposed on Aamir Khan’s movies in Gujarat and not about the story. After all media also looks for more masala content and chose public sentiments in Gujarat over the storyline.
In case of Gangster it wasn’t probably not as high profile (starcast) movie as 3 Idiots.
I read Sagarika’s blog, a critical analysis of the movie which questions whether the message given by the movie. The question is important, but what if it is not the right message. Do we always worry about the message a movie delivers. At the end of the day it is a movie for entertaining people and doing business. 3 Idiots is doing well on both fronts.
About the message that the movie delivers, do we always question that?
Did we question the movie Fanaa or Gangster which ended up people sympathizing the unsocial elements of the society (a terrorist in the first case and a underworld gangster in the latter)? Yeah at the time of Fanaa, media was busy covering ban imposed on Aamir Khan’s movies in Gujarat and not about the story. After all media also looks for more masala content and chose public sentiments in Gujarat over the storyline.
In case of Gangster it wasn’t probably not as high profile (starcast) movie as 3 Idiots.
OR
Did we question Rang De Basanti for what the guys did was actually taking the law in their hand?
The answer is neither we DIDN'T.
- Yes I agree to the fact that the movie had a few instances that were stretched and could have been done away with, for instance the delivery scene wasn’t probably required.
- As discussed in forum about the role of the professor, there can be a person inflexible when it comes to students but while making a humorous movie you need to add some stuff to make it attractive (referring to him taking power nap break of 7.5 minutes).
- Mockery of education system - the message is not far from correct; it gets reflected in the R&D happening in India. We are ultimately a backend office of the world. We know how to use JAVA but I believe any no Indian company has developed a programming language.
In today’s times thanks to the social media, GTalk Status messages, Facebook and Twitter a public opinion is created not through thinking and arguing on the subject matter but by virtue of majority thinking. A hundred status messages saying ‘3 Idiots – Awesome Movie’ or ‘3 Idiots – Must Watch’ curbs my ability of thinking against it. And if this is so, I think it is a major disadvantage of social media. Same happens when a journalists’ try to use the same channel to spread their views. I certainly believe that a collective opinion is not always the right opinion, it should always be questioned.
The Message
The movie gives a message that understanding is more important than scoring marks, and as a student, I agree to it that those who have the really good understanding of the subject are not always the toppers and the toppers don’t have the best understanding. Most of the time, toppers’ efforts go in scoring marks only. This is very typical in the Indian education system. And if we as a country need to improve our education system, we need to work on it.
Finally, the movie 3 Idiots will not even have a slight effect on the existing system, but will certainly provoke people to think about if changes are required.
