India is a country in South Asia, but I never expect that the pressure coming from the educational system is as huge as other Asian countries, such as Korea or Japan, until I watch 3 idiots.
Overall, the thing that makes this film special is Indian’s bias: going against what textbooks say means being an idiot. The bravery, as well as encouragement to break the rules, are the main factors that lead to a strong friendship and bring the new definition of success between Rancho, Farhan, and Raju.
Being different from Farhan and Raju, Rancho is a craving for learning new things and educating. Rancho’s smart, brave, creative and aware of what he is studying. He doesn’t care about money or price tag because, with him, these things are meaningless. Happiness is the most important thing that encourages Rancho to never stop learning. Rancho is also an optimist person, “all is well” becomes a quote for the audience to not forget after watching 3 idiots. With these powers in soul and a warm heart, Rancho saves Farhan and Raju, giving them the bravery to pursue what they are passionate about and enjoy their true happiness. Rancho, honestly, is a constant character. From the beginning to the end of the film, he keeps an attitude about life: happiness will follow you when you can do what you love. Therefore, Rancho lives with an open heart, no prejudice and is always ready to sacrifice for his friends.
Farhan, the character who is also a storyteller, changes his mind from being an engineer to be a photographer. The thing that is a challenge for Farhan is his father, who always hopes that his son will be a good engineer. Farhan doesn’t dare to tell his father that his dream is becoming a photographer. With the help of Rancho, Farhan faces his biggest fear, comes home and tells his parents that he will be a photographer. Farhan is honest about his dream, the bravery rises in his heart for him to tell the truth that other’s desires cannot buy his family an air-conditioner, but he can, as long as his father allows him to follow his dream career. Farhan gets the allowance, being a successful photographer, publishes three photo books.
Raju is the less lucky character in three main characters. His family is poor, therefore the burden on his shoulder is huge. He tries a lot to get a Bachelor of Engineering, but he is so worried about everything around himself and forgets to enjoy his own life. Everything changes when he jumps from the third floor and breaks six bones. He is near death if Rancho and Farhan as well as Mona don’t try to save him by all their efforts. Raju also realizes the meaning of friendship when Rancho saves his father, and after breaking the bones, Raju gains all his confidence to go to the interview. His honesty builds his reputation, and his confidence is the power of his own soul to get a job in that interview. He now knows how to enjoy life and no worries about the burden, which helps to solve all the issues of his family.
There are a lot of intercultural encounters in 3 Idiots, but the most outstanding intercultural encounter is going against what textbooks say means being an idiot. Another encounter is getting grades means getting a successful career, because companies will choose the students who do good at school and get good grades, not students who are creative. And the third intercultural encounter is the terrible affection of the rat race to society, to people’s dreams and their values in life.
The biggest conflict that occurs during these three intercultural encounters is the awareness of Rancho, Farhan and Raju about happiness goes against the social expectations. They find what they learn from around is more real and interesting than what textbooks say. They realize that getting good grades doesn’t mean that they will have a happy life. They also understand that the rat race is meaningless when friendship can save their life. Therefore, they choose to break the rules, follow their dreams and don’t mind about the social positions. They find meaningful friendship, which makes Raju decide to jump from the third floor instead of betraying Rancho. Because of the bravery of going against the textbooks, the grades, the rat race, they persuade their parents and the interviewers to choose them, to let them pursue what they are honestly passionate about. The price tag cannot exchange the true love, it is why Pia falls in love with Rancho and dares to escape from the wedding to find him. In conclusion, happiness cannot be built on money or social positions as well as grades, it is built on the dream, creativity, friendship, bravery, and love.
The misunderstanding in the movie is that people think getting good grades to compete in college will help them to get a successful career, but in fact, it pushes people into death because of the pressure, such as Viru’s son and Joy, and it also destroys their creativity. They don’t understand and act like a robot: repeat what textbooks and teachers say. They cancel and stop thinking about their dream and passion. All the things they care about are money and price tag, which pretend to help them to get their happiness but actually, these factors don’t. People have an illusion about the help of grades in defining their happiness, but they never have true happiness until they are creative, follow and live with their dream, their true values, their own freedom and build their own life by themselves, without the rat race and social expectations.
This movie makes me laugh a lot, but it also makes me cry so hard. The humorous thing in the movie is all the tricky things Rancho and Farhan, as well as Raju, do through their journey, from reediting the speech of Chatur “Silencer” to making their president Viru mad. However, 3 Idiots has a lot of scenes which make me cry. The first scene is when Rancho’s friend Joy commits suicide because of the pressure of college, when he cannot graduate and make his family proud. Viru makes him think that he is a loser, so death is his solution to rescue his soul. Another thing that is very emotional is Viru’ tears when he witnesses his grandson be alive and accepts him to do what he wants: “Do you want to be a football player?”. It is also the climax of the film, which implies that Viru changes for his family to have the true happiness, to follow what they want and let them define their own life, without being a doctor or an engineer. If before they live like robots, now they live as a human, with the fulfillment of happiness and the bravery to pursue what they are passionate about. The thing that I cherish the most in 3 Idiots is the friendship between Rancho, Farhan and Raju. There are a lot of scenes which are very emotional, such as when Farhan and Rancho do everything just for saving Raju; Raju chooses to jump from the third floor for not betraying his friends; Rancho still cares about Farhan and Raju although they haven’t met since their graduation day, etc. With me, their friendship is the most meaningful thing: true friendship never ends, and true friendship never stops caring about others, no matter where, when, and who they are.
Until the end of 3 Idiots, the thing I am most impressed by is a different definition of happiness. You will be happy as long as you cherish your friendship and evaluate your mental health, never stop being creative and never give up your dream. When you live for your passion, success will follow you, no matter how challenging life is.