Week 2 - 3 Idiots

Just a warning that this post contains some details of a movie scene containing self-harm-

I wanted to start this series off with re-watching one of my Hindi childhood favorites. If you've ever watched Bollywood (Indian Hollywood), you've definitely seen this one. 3 Idiots takes us through the emotional coming-of-age story of 3 friends, Raju, Farhan, and Rancho, going through an Indian engineering school. The movie is composed of both flashbacks and present-day moments as Raju and Farhan search for their long-lost college best friend (Rancho) that seemingly disappeared after they graduated. 

For some backstory, Raju comes from an extremely poor background, wanting to become an engineer to improve his family's financial status. Farhan, though, was forced to go to Engineering school by his parents while secretly envying a career in wildlife photography. However, Rancho appeared to have come from an extremely wealthy family who only went to college for the joy of learning. Rancho was different from his classmates in many ways. While most students were only in university to get good grades and a degree to secure a high-paying job in the future, he was there simply because he had a passion for knowledge. He also tended to give creative and unorthodox answers to his professors, something that got him on pretty bad terms with his Dean. 

But after one of the students at their school commits suicide after failing to meet a big project deadline by a few days and being denied graduation by Virus, Rancho confronts him about the pressure on students these deadlines put on them. However, the dean wasn't convinced and stood firm in the school's policy. The story progresses as the three friends make their way through college, with Rancho always topping the class in grades and Raju and Farhan at dead last for every exam. 

The story resumes 10 years after graduation, when Raju and Farhan finally get news of where Rancho is. At this point, Raju is a business executive, and Farhan finally became a photographer after getting his father's blessings. I don't want to spoil the ending of the movie in case any of you want to watch it for yourself, but I can say it was one of the best movie endings I've ever watched. Rewatching the movie after all these years made me realize how much me and fellow students can relate to the movie. The style of teaching that Rancho despises so much is still prevalent in some colleges and even high schools. I wouldn't expect a movie with a title like "3 Idiots" to have such deep meanings, but this movie proved me wrong. 

I'll leave you guys with one of my favorite quotes from Rancho: "This is college. Not a pressure cooker. Even a circus lion learns to sit on a chair in fear of the whip. But you call such a lion 'well trained', not 'well educated'". I would rate this movie a solid 5/5 stars for anyone that's looking for a movie in a language you probably haven't heard before.

-Aryan