Zoobie Doobie

3 Idiots was one of the most awaited movies of its times. Amir Khan is one of the few actors whose films I look forward to, so I was also eager to see this one. It was all the more important for me, because 3 Idiots was filmed at my Alma mater. The filming was done when I was a student there and a few of my friends even got some screen time!

The movie went on to become a blockbuster. To me however, it was a disappointment. Not for the regular reasons. Of course I too pulled my hair when a still-born baby sucked out with a vacuum cleaner started kicking, and all wazz well that ended well. But this post is not about the farce it was.

Before moving on let me clarify that I did not hate the movie (for instance, the ‘balatakari’ speech rocked). All I am saying is that it was a disappointment. Here’s why.

The movie, in my opinion became such a huge hit, because there’s something (read masala) in it for all audiences. The entire theme “chase knowledge and not success, and success will follow” and “follow your heart” (some similar shit), the love story angle, etc. was something that people could appreciate. But the tools that were used to drive this career-dreams-knowledge theme painted a totally wrong picture of the well-known institutes of higher education in India. This is precisely where I could absolutely not relate to what the movie-makers tried to portray.

One of the important aspects which most people could identify with was the idea that students in higher education are not happy because they never wanted to do this in the first place, and have now ended up at a place where they have absolutely no clue about how to survive. To the extent that some of them are on the verge of killing themselves.

My take (based on observation and simple logic) is that the prime reason why college crowds have loved the movie is that they get a sadistic pleasure or happiness (out of envy maybe) when somebody tells them that the situation inside the elite institutes is that bad. For some it is kind of a sour grapes thing too. What could be better when you don’t have to convince yourself falsely; there is a movie to say that “Look! The grapes are sour after all. You are not in ICE (read IITX/BITS/BHU/NIT/XYZ) but at least you have your bachpan and jawani!”

Now what do you need to be in one of these ‘ICE’s, maybe top 2%ile. So when 98% people identify with an idea what do we get? A blockbuster! A song about “Ek pal to jeene do” becoming a nationwide college anthem!

I would like to spoil the fun to those who believed this nonsense. Having been to two of the ‘elite’ institutes of higher education (viz. IITB and IIMB), I want to highlight the following realities:

1. I don’t have an iota of feeling that my ‘bachpan’ was burnt with Concentrated Sulphuric Acid. Most of my colleagues at the above mentioned institutes have told me the same. The years I spent at IIT were definitely not the most hectic years of my life. My anxiety levels in those days were probably lower than when I was an infant.

2. Let’s just focus on IIT (which in my opinion is what the ICE tried to capture). None, and I mean none, of the IIT Profs inflict pain on anybody to the extent that they commit suicide. If you remotely look depressed the authorities at IIT will do everything to ensure that you do anything but suicide.

3. None, and again I mean none, of the profs in IIT will throw you out of the class/lab, if you define a machine/motor/appliance/whatever in your own words.

4. Not relevant to the topic, but instead of coming up with a spoon based electrocution mechanism for giving urine-conducted shocks, if you just let the authorities know about ragging, the involved people will be simply thrown out of the institute.

As I had mentioned earlier, there is something in the movie for everybody. So apart from the college crowd, the rest enjoyed the drama and the farce; liked the chase your dream blah blah; thought it was good time-pass entertainment and recommended it to others.

Then there are the people who genuinely liked the movie. They cried when the comatose guy woke up, and laughed like maniac killers when the age-old jokes about how a motor starts (vroooom) were made. These are people who lesser mortals like me can never understand. The lesser said about them the better. Lets not forget in India a movie called Koi Mil Gaya (sounds like SRK stuff... but its the Roshan family's Jadoo shit) was the biggest hit of 200X (whatever).

Coming back to 3 Idiots, before I close, I want to clarify an important point.I am not saying that this appeal to the college crowd etc. was deliberately done. At the same time, I am also not saying that that this was NOT done deliberately. I am just not saying anything on this. (However, if it was deliberately done... then my respect to the movie-makers! They have identified a public emotion and fully capitalized on it. Amazing business sense and well-deserved awards! ...all this if it was done deliberately!)

Super Important Disclaimer: Again, I have been talking about a particular (and a very large) section of the crowd, but I am NOT talking about everybody.