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Unlike the original novel, the film Three Idiots received highly positive reviews upon its release in India. Subhash K. Jha (film critic and author of The Essential Guide to Bollywood) states: “It’s not that Three Idiots is a flawless work of art. But it is a vital, inspiring and life-revising work of contemporary art with some heart imbued into every part. In a country where students are driven to suicide by their impossible curriculum, Three Idiots provides hope. Maybe cinema can’t save lives. But cinema, sure as hell, can make you feel life is worth living. Three Idiots does just that, and much more. The director takes the definition of entertainment into directions of social comment without assuming that he knows best.” (Three Idiots) Nikhat Kazmi of the Times of India suggests that, “The film is a laugh riot, despite being high on fundas.” (Three Idiots) Mayank Shekhar of the Hindustan Times comments that “this is the sort of movie you’ll take home with a smile and a song on your lips.” (Three Idiots) Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama states: “On the whole, Three Idiots easily ranks amongst Aamir, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s finest films. Do yourself and your family a favor: Watch Three Idiots. It’s emotional, it’s entertaining, it’s enlightening. The film has tremendous youth appeal and feel-good factor to work in a big way.” (Three Idiots) Kaveree Bamzai of India Today argues that: “it’s a lovely story, of a man from nowhere who wanted to learn, told like a fairy tale, with the secret heart carrying its coded message of setting all of us free.” (Three Idiots) All of these scholars speak highly of the film. They consider it as a flawless work of art, entertaining, enlightening and inspiring.
In China, previous studies on this film usually lay emphasis on the enlightenments to Chinese education as well as to college students. For example, Chen Lei’s thesis, “Reflection on the Indian’s education system”, illustrates the problems in Indian society from the remaining stratum consciousness, the cramming system and the brain drain. Wang Haiyan’s thesis, “Challenging the traditional education system --- A report on Three Idiots”, first illustrates the importance of interests. Then the author analyzes the traditional education in India. The other social problems and their causes are rarely discussed.
Therefore, this paper will conduct a case study based on the film Three Idiots to make further discussions about the social problems from aspects of malpractices of India’s traditional education, hierarchy, high suicide rates and inferior social status of female, and explore the causes of those problems in Indian society.
3. Synopsis of Three Idiots
Three Idiots is loosely adapted from the novel Five Point Someone, the debut of Chetan Bhagat, a best-selling author in India. The film, a comedy directed by Rajkumar Hirani, has won Mumbai Film Exhibition Award for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Script and other four awards. Three Idiots is currently the 2nd highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time. It also becomes one of the few Indian films to become a major success in East Asian markets such as China, eventually bringing its overseas total to US$25 million --- the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time in overseas markets.
The story depicts the life of 3 students, Rancho (Aamir Khan), Farhan (Madhavan) and Raju (Sharman Joshi) in Imperial College of Engineering, one of the best colleges in India, where there are 42 exams every term, the competition is fierce and the rate of suicide stays at a high level. They come to the college for different reasons. Farhan studies engineering to pursue his father’s wishes, rather than his own passion for wildlife photography. Raju, from a poor family, is to get his family out of poverty. Different from them, Rancho studies for his simple passion for machines. Rancho believes that one should follow excellence, not success, as success will take care of itself if excellence is followed. He uses his own words and actions to affect people around him. He takes advantage of what he has learned to teach the college director, Dr. Virus, a lesson in order to question his teaching methods; he breaks traditional thinking with his wisdom; he not only encourages Farhan and Raju to pursue their dreams but also persuades Pia, Dr. Virus’s daughter, to break up with her money-oriented boyfriend, Suhas. However, Rancho’s behavior annoys Chatur Ramalingm, a student known by the ICE community as “Silencer”, who believes in mindless memorizing over understanding in order to reach his goals of corporate status. He swears retaliation and bets that he will become more successful with his methods than Rancho. At last, Rancho becomes a world-class scientist with hundreds of patents. He realizes his dream and he’s being on his own. Raju works as an engineer and Farhan convinces his parents to allow him to drop out of school and follow his wildlife photographer dream. Chatur finally finds out that Rancho is the partner he expects to meet. When he finds out that Rancho, whose real name is Phunsukh, is the very person he wants to establish business relationship with, he falls on his knees, accepts his defeat and pleads his case with Rancho again and again. At last, Pia and Rancho rekindle their love. The film ends with a happy ending.