3 Idiots (2009 Hindi) by Rajkumar Hirani

[cranefly]

What I look for in movies these days is a compelling DVD cover, and if it’s a comedy, the word “hilarious” somewhere among the blurbs on the back. Recently I hit the jackpot:

Actually, I picked this up because it was a blockbuster in India and it features Aamir Khan, an actor I’ve taken an interest in. DM has made mention of him. I first encountered him in the interminable Lagaan (4 hours), about an epic cricket match between naïve Indian villagers and Britain’s best players. But that was many moons ago, back when all Indians looked alike to me, and I cannot even picture who he was in that movie. Since then I’ve seen him in other vehicles.

Mumbai Diaries (Dhobi Ghat) is a quiet little movie with strong performances. Aamir Khan is an artist who has lost his inspiration. He is part of a love triangle with an upper-class Indian woman (with an American education) and a low caste Indian. Very little happens in the movie, but the performances are all great. Aamir is very convincing as an artist struggling at the canvas (a rarity to pull off).

More recently I saw Aamir in Dil Chahta Hai, about three immature buddies and their dealings with women. One falls in love with an older woman (which is a big taboo in India); another tends to fall in love with every woman he sees, with disastrous results; and the last -- played by Aamir -- refuses to believe in love, and pulls pranks on the others, often destroying their relationships. In fact, he doesn’t take anything seriously. The movie is over-long and meandering, but the final hour is riveting as the viewer tries to determine whether or not Aamir is softening towards a woman. He shows a wide acting range here, from goofy (at times reminding me of Rowan Atkinson) to serious to gloomy.

DM has mentioned Aamir Khan in the context of Dhoom 3. I really must check that out, only the library doesn’t have a copy yet.

Which brings me to 3 Idiots. Aamir is one of three marginal students at a hardcore engineering school. All three struggle with their grades for various reasons -- Aamir because he doesn’t believe in rote learning, and he has many clashes with the hardcore head professor. There’s lots of pranks throughout, and many of them are quite well thought out, and also lots of amusing engineering inventions . Ten minutes in, there’s puppies! A whole litter of them, very cute. But they’re ephemeral. There’s also a drone with camera that plays a significant early role. There's a long and bizarre childbirth scene -- which begs the question: how many engineers does it take to deliver a baby? With the corollary: What if they're idiots? Actually, they're not idiots, just treated that way by some. All in all, it’s a very uneven movie, clever and funny at times, at other times painfully overwrought (they need to dial back on their emotional scenes; it’s like pounding the viewer over the head with stone tablets etched with “Angst”). Aamir drifts between effective and excessive acting in this one, which I would blame on the director. I think there’s a very good movie in here somewhere, but it wasn’t entirely realized.

This movie was remade in Tamil as Nanban in 2012. And supposedly there will be a Chinese remake of the film produced by Stephen Chow! Also, there are plans for a Hollywood remake produced in the United States. There’s clearly potential in the storyline. Perhaps one of these will better realize it.

[Drunk Monk]

And the remakes are further testament. I got interested in it when Chow said he was involved in the Chinese remake. I had it in my Netflix queue for a long time, but it didn't look like there was going to be swordfights and that was prior to seeing Dhoom 3, so there it languished. When CF mentioned he rented this, I went back to look for it and it is no longer carried by NF. ad:

[Drunk Monk]

This reappeared in Netflix and it’s been sitting in my queue until tonight when I finally watched it. I enjoyed it. 

It had some odd moments, like an excessive amount of urinating - in fact that was a major running theme. Now I’m wondering if urine really does conduct electricity that well. There was a lot of dropping trou. There was also a running fart joke. 

Aamir is his bug-eyed self, a bit more raw than what I’m used to for him. It is, as cf observed 8 years ago, an exaggerated performance, more caricature, but given the role, I’ll allow. Karrena is gorgeous as usual but I didn’t feel they had that much chemistry. It was more about the three way bromance. 

The dance numbers were awful. The first one in the locker room with guys peeing in urinals, sitting in toilet stalls, then all getting hosed down and rolling in the pooling water was disgusting. And the zoobi doobi song bugged the crap out of me (although I did like how surreal the imagery was).

But I’ll be damned if this flick didn’t give me the feels on several totally sappy moments. It took some sharp turns from goofy college pranks to darkness and despair, shifting moods so suddenly and jarringly that they were deep gut punches. And all the tears of joy scenes, although completely predictable and overdone, were still moving. That birth scene cf mentions was absurd and didn’t work for me at all. But there were other scenes that stuck their point through the heart. I dunno, man. I’m getting soft in my old age - Bollywood gets me now more than it should. I’m gonna blame the meds I’m on now…

Not going to D00M rec this one. I think only cf and I would get 3 hours of entertainment out of it and we’ve both seen it now so why bother?