The Silent Mumbai

There is a paradox in the tile of this blog itself. Mumbai a city that keeps buzzing can never really be silent. Even at night as the eye lids get heavy, you cant escape the energy in the air that resonates along with your morning alarm giving you another purpose to begin a new grind. Pu. La. Deshpande once described that, "Mumbai is the only city that knows that the clock has a minute's and a second's hand. This is a place where a watch is tied not just to a person's wrist, but also to his destiny." In this city of dreams, running is mandatory. If you are not connected with this essence of a Mumbaikar, you will certainly misunderstand a Mumbaikar's resilience towards terrorism as his/her apathy towards a subject of national grief.

I was buffering a clip where actor Siddharth was incorrectly canvassing Mumbaikar's inherent nature to work for himself as a stone cold heart that turns a blind eye towards a scar just cast on him.
I highly despise such insensitive comments. The actor sensing the lively energy in the city, concluded that the city has forgotten about its scars within a month's period. I have read and listened a lot of Mumbai bashing off-late. Critics have been heavy on this 'zindadili' attitude of Mumbai. I would want all of those guys to leave their comfort zones for once and get on field here when Mumbai is actually at seize.

When the terrorists were spraying their bullets across the city, there were stories of the common man on the road being brave enough to be at ground zero to help the injured. The city has never let the blood banks go dry in such times. Donations flood not just come in form of money, but also in form of volunteering. During every bomb blasts, it is the locals who have done the first aid even before the police or the paramedics arrive. When we are flood victims, the able cook food and pass it on to the needy. The next day we make a tally of our losses and make a new plan on how to run our lives bearing the catastrophe. Please don't blame a Mumbaikar of forgetting his/her scars.

I have friends who have taken months to recover from the trauma of 26/11 before mustering courage to take a glance at The Taj and The Trident. So Siddharth, if you think that people forgot about 26/11 a month later, then you are sadly mistaken. Do not expect an event of grief to be a piece of conversation on every dining table every single day. And talking about the issue over and over again is certainly not justified. You should make an attempt to give a vent to your grief and look towards the time ahead. As far as actions of Mumbaikars are concerned, you should have been there at the rally of 3rd December 2009. The anger of an average Mumbaikar was pretty evident in the posters, slogans their acts and voices. The aam junta this time was not blaming Pakistan, nor did it booed the terrorists. The protest constructively demanded justice and security from the government.

Yes I agree, the anguish did not reflect in the General Elections that arrived few months later. However I do not still attribute the low turnout as Mumbaikar's indifference towards emotional issues. I think that an average Mumbaikar does not consider politics as an answer to his/her questions a misconception that needs to be changed.

Overcoming yesterday's tragedy by setting out to work is a need in Mumbai. It is this need that drives its engines and makes Mumbai what it is. The resilience of the city begins its day 2 in remembrance of the tragedy, with high emotions, with fear but with a grit - a grit to work for myself, my family which in its own fraction adds some activity towards the nation. I see no reason to discourage this bounce back attitude of the city that in effect destroys the sole purpose of terrorism. I, a Mumbaikar, salute the spirit of the city.

Salaam Mumbai!!

Where Einstein Meets Hinduism ...

If someone asks you and me, “What time is it?” we would involuntarily check our wrist, or roll our head to the grandfather clock on our wall. But there was a man few decades back who would have snapped back, “You need time in relation to what?” That geeky German / American with innovative hairstyle and a thick moustache acknowledged as world’s most intellectual brain was none other than Albert Einstein. The old man in his”theory of relativity” went down to the pendulum of our grandfather’s clock and changed the definitions and the very foundations of the concept of time. He said that time is different for different people. “Well of course!” you might say “it is night in the USA right now while its day time here.” Please step back from that door in case your thinking is heading there. Do you think someone like Einstein would come up with a world renowned theory to prove that? What the genius meant was that what felt like 2 seconds to you might well be 2 days, 2 decades or maybe 200 years for someone else. “How can that be?” “Is he nuts to think something like that?”

I know, it is something difficult to imagine and understand, but needn’t be difficult to digest, after all even Joey the dumbest of all characters amongst the FRIENDS could assimilate the concept in one of his roles. Joey, acting as Victor on one of his stage performances in season 3 of FRIENDS gets on a spaceship to some BlogOn 7 planet in search of alternative fuels and is set to return back after 300 years. “And, when I return 300 years from now, you would have been long gone, but I wouldn’t have aged at all. So you tell your great, great granddaughter to look up to me. Because Adrian, baby, I would want to meet her.” This concept even decades after Einstein released his papers of “Time Dilation”, is found amongst comic series. People even today find it difficult to understand and easy to mock at. So guys, a standing ovation for the genius who could actually do an out of box thinking and come up with this theory. Come on, get up and applaud the man’s creativity and his efforts to prove that thinking.

But a Hindu would find a man in orange robes, with garland on his wrists and a pair of chaps in one of his hands that when stroked together add background music to his rhymes of, “Narayan, Narayan!” smiling at this discovery. Ladies and gentlemen meet Mr. Narad Muni, a divine sage in Hindu scriptures given the powers and the ability to travel between different planes and planets of the universe. If the Hindu mythology really exists then Narad Muni is the one who should know about this and the means to tackle with this kind of physics, mainly because the Hindu scriptures have professed this theory more than 5000 years back. “Now what was that?” Let me tell you a short story found in the epic of Mahabharata.

Once upon a time (isn’t this how a story should always start?) there was a kingdom beneath the oceans. It was ruled by a nice benevolent king called as Kakudmi who had an extremely beautiful daughter Revati. Kakudmi finding none amongst the earthlings as a capable life partner for his daughter, decided to consult Bramha the creator of the universe himself to find a capable groom for Revati. Since Lord Bramha was already engrossed in the music of the Gandharvas (yes, Gods rock too), Kakudmi decided to wait patiently for Gandharvas to finish their concert. After applauding their performance, Lord Bramha was amused to see King Kakudmi an earthling waiting at his door step with his daughter. Kakudmi sought consultations of the Lord Himself to find an appropriate groom for Revati. Bramha laughed at that moment and said, “O King, you have come to my door step. Here on this plane of the universe, time is different from what it is on earth. In the time that you were waiting here, 27 chaturyugs have passed by on earth. Your kingdom is long gone by and all of the grooms existing in your era on earth are now dead. All of your fore generations are already dead and an altogether different kind of human life is now growing itself on earth.”

Now let us dig deeper into this concept of Chaturyugs. 1 Chaturyug is actually 1 Mahayug made up of the 4 Yugs viz. the Satya Yug, Treta Yug, Dwapara Yug and the Kali Yug. 1 Yug equals to 432,000 human years. But the Hindu scriptures shaking hands with Einstein’s theory of relativity assert that these 432,000 human years are nothing but 0.01% of 1 day of Lord Bramha.




While 1 Maha Yug is 0.1% of Bramha’s day. So if you calculate backwards, 27 Chaturyugs (27 Maha Yugs) roughly turn out to be 78 minutes of Bramha’s day and that is the time King Kakudmi was waiting at Bramha’s doorstep with his daughter while the earth below spinning itself while revolving around the sun successfully completed 432,000*10*27 years of its life (1 Maha Yug = 10 Yugs). I am sure Einstein must have applauded this story. Now what happens later to King Kakudmi?

Lord Brahma assures him that the Lords themselves are now set to take an Avatar on the earth and thus you can marry this pure and pious Revati to one of them. King Kakudmi after setting back on earth finds a complete different picture from the time he left. Not just that the landscape and the places have changed, but the striking difference is the change in the human race itself. Instead of progressing, the human race has degraded itself. People now are that of lower intellectual and physical capabilities. But then comes Lord Balaram, the brother of Lord Krishna himself who is one capable person to marry Revati. So as per Brahma’s suggestions, Kakudmi marries Revati to Balaram.

This Yug philisophy is very much in sync with the Greek mythology where the Greeks have divided the life of human race into 4 ages viz. the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze age and the Iron Age. The Greeks profess that humans have degraded way of life from the Golden Age to the Iron Age. Each of the ages can be related to each of the Yugs in the Hindu philosophy. So when the Greeks say that we are now living in the Iron Age, Hindus christen the current time as the Kali Yug. The definitions and the descriptions of each of these Yugs do go hand in hand with the Greek Ages.

The difference that I would notice in the philosophies is that Hinduism drags the concept further to a cycle of Maha Yugs that come and go every now and then. And all of these 432,000*10 human years are nothing but few minutes of Lord Brahma. As per the calculations made in the Hindu scriptures, we are currently living in the 51st year of Lord Brahma and Lord Brahma along with this materialistic Brahmanda or today what we call as the universe, is set to live and exist for another 49 years. Ah well, excuse me, ‘Ahem!!’ 49 Brahma’s years.

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Innocent Anxiety

She was a toddler that could only falter without grasping her mother's finger. Her mother helped her trek the stairs of the immobile bus to the top of which the girl saw me seated right at the first seat. One cute smile and she guided by her mother proceeded to take an adjacent window seat. Sooner the mother left to get down from the bus and worried toddler followed her mom. The mom said something in Tagalog, but there are times when communication doesn't need words and I could feel the lady's instructions, "Do not get down from the bus, wait right here. I will be back." The obedient little child stood right at the doorway clutching a side bar firmly while giving some space for the new passengers to usher in. The tumult for me dissolved into a picture taken about 22 years back when I as a kid was holding the bar at the doorway of the train with expressions calling out to someone while my mother right behind me, making sure that I don’t get out of the train held me tightly. I was trying to reaching my dad.

It was the narrow gauge train to Matheran that is often referred to as the "Toy Train". Built during the British imperial times, this train travels at the speed of a centipede thus lagging behind a strolling human. But the sheer size and the charm of this train has a tourist attraction to it even today. I was way too small back then to have a clear memory of the trip, but certain incidents stay vivid. I and my parents got into the train and then suddenly my dad left his seat to disembark from the train to take our picture. My anxiety about him coming back to his seat could not smile for that picture. The wheels of the train then yanked into the motion and the train at the top of the hill began its journey. Worried I ran at the doorway while the uvula at the back of my throat kept shouting in pleads for my dad to come back on the train. The incident remains afresh in my mind since it was accompanied by a pinch that pricked me with a feeling of losing a parent. The tender brain back then had little intelligence that it is less than a child's play to get back on that crawling train. So although the incident enriched me with the knowledge of speed and relativity, the worry that hovered upon me for certain time made a timeless space for itself in my mind. And today makes me realize about all the sleepless nights that I have given to my parents while they stood at the doorway waiting for me to come back home.

Here the girl obedient to her mom’s instructions didn’t step down from the bus and anxiously kept waiting at the doorway while grasping the bar tightly. She was patient with her actions yet anxious in her expressions. And with every pair of shoes entering the bus that didn’t resemble to the ones her mom wore, her anxiety took her to another level. Soon the bus got into motion and yet the girl stood there clutching the bar even tightly. Finally to her relief, her mom got into the bus set in motion with a glass of juice for her daughter. The child all happy then went back to her window seat and smiled happily at every passing car. With a complete and secured feeling she didn’t budge her mom once while enjoying the breeze from the window and sipping the lovely cold juice from her mom’s hands. I was appalled by the strength this girl had while waiting for her mom, there was trust in her actions that said her mom will fulfill her promise to come back, but it certainly accompanied the worry in her eyes that left her insecure. Perhaps this is love …

Nataranga

No, its not a movie for people who understand marathi, but a movie for anyone who can understand the language of passion. We are all passionate about some or the other thing at some or the other level. But what is the extent you can go to pursue it? The movie expands the horizon of the limitations of an entreprenuer and hence the ways to get over them.


The movie begins with the feet of an old man, faltering on the steps of the podium of "Zee Gaurav Puraskar" - a prestiguous award ceremony, and while he reaches the podium, the movie takes us to the flashback of how and what the man had to go through to pursue his dream. Guna Kagalkar (Atul Kulkarni), a man with a wrestler's physique, charming face and a typical masculine Indian moustache is a personality that all the men envy and all the women adore. Everything is perfect in his life, except for his passion for the Tamasha - the Marathi folk theatre. The man's addiction to tamasha forces him to drain down at least half of his earning, leaving behind his penniless wife and educationless kid.

With the machines greasing mankind's progress, Guna and his gang anticipating the sinking ship of their respective traditional livelihoods, resolute to disembark and make a ship out of their passion - the Tamasha. Being an entrepreur at determination and an artist at heart, Guna intrinsically carrying the traits to be the leader of the clan starts investing his money, time, vim, vigour to the extent of gambling his own dignity on the success of their new Tamasha.

The story of the movie revolves around the fact that Tamasha - the marathi folk theatre is incomplete without the presence of 'Nacha' - a panzy gay character. Here Guna has the entire pack ready with talent that garuntees entertainment. Even the female dancer that shall be taking the center stage stands alongside of these entreprenuers. But the only missing part is the presence of a panzy character. Days pass by with no hope and energy starts oqzing out of the chest swelled Tamasha. Guna's frustration is evident in one of his dialogues in the movie, "There's hunger right within, and a plate full of food right in front, but there are no hands to eat and no teeth to chew." Guna out of choice decides to play the panzy character himself. And thus begins an altogether new journey which eventually brings success.

The Indian film fraternity is sharpening itself towards perfectionism while following the likes of Tom Hanks and Renee Zelwegger. We had Aamir Khan flexing his muscles in Ghajani, just because he felt the role demanded that physique. Similarly, Atul Kulkarni, understanding the demand of the role, invested some good time in gym in sculpting a beefed up physique. Ajay - Atul as usual have been phenomenal in their music. But the most noteworthy aspects of the movie are exceptional direction from Ravi Jadhav and a remarkable acting by Atul Kulkarni. I wont be surprised if Atul wins the National award.

Rating: ****

PANAGBENGA 2010

Hi, the profilgacy of exhibiting pictures in this blog is evident because I have myself clicked all of these images. To view the rest of the images, click here

PANAGBENGA 2010

It fluttered by and then suddenly landed on his camera lens. The photographer and everyone of us around him were merrily surprised. "How often do you see a butterfly play with you?" It fluttered again and now landed on his orange T-Shirt. The papparazi that so far was busy capturing the biggest event of the day for Philippines, turned their cameras towards this photographer and his new playmate - the butterfly.

He and his buddies sitting on the top of a Pajero, with their cameras and their tripods posited on the roof of the car took some time out of the biggest attraction of the nation and spent some time on this noteworthy incident. Their Pajero was parked right next to the 2 feet high divider upon which me and 10 to 12 other budding photographers queued up securing our positions to shoot the best possible glimpses of the event. This entire set was amidst few 100 thousand visitors who thronged to Bagguio to witness the 15th Anniversary of Panagbenga - 'The Panagbenga 2010'.


I vividly remember Joel telling us "Believe me guys, this trip to Baggiuo is going to be way different than any of your previous trips." I have never really been to Baggiuo, but the vim and the vigour that filled the atmosphere on 28th Feb 2010 clearly concurred his words.
"The government decided to start this festival 15 years back in order to re-attract tourist to one of the best known hill stations of the Philippines." "Re-attract? Why?" "The Luzon killer earthquake destroyed the entire place back then. But tourism is expanding rapidly here now, courtesy - Panagbenga. And here we are to witness Panagbenga 2010." "So what does Panagbenga mean?" "It is basically a season when the flowers bloom." "You mean Spring?" "Yes. And that is why they have a butterfly as their logo." I was reminiscing my yesterday's conversation with Joel as we walked passed by the Burnham park at the early freezing morning, while smoking out the natural mist out of our mouths with every passing conversation, and I thought Philippines will be hot before I came here!

It was early morning with lot of time to straggle along. I would generally wish to be in bed at this hour of a day and especially when its Sunday, but looking around at Bagiuo that morning all I saw was energy, anticipation and a verve to witness the festival of flowers. Looking at the tents where people stayed all night (presumably because all the hotels were overbooked), children playing around, people helping each other, I could feel warmth amidst that morning mist.Although, the Panagbenga parade was about to commence an hour later, we decided to secure ourselves in the best possible locations, before people began to congregate. But our assumptions were refuted by the general crowd. All of the places were already occupied and there began our struggle to position ourselves in the best possible location. Mervyn, Aaron and Mel found comfort along the road side while I, Joel and Cha pretended to be the officially appointed photographers while passing few clicks of the anxiously waiting crowd. But it wasnt really a matter of surprise that we were busted pretty soon and were pushed into the back layers of the waiting crowd by the strolling sentries. But luck found its own way to us. There was a road divider right behind the crowd that could give an altitude over the exact point where the road turns and the floats would halt for their performance. We werent really the first ones to think this, but being an early bird has its own advantages since I was now just 4th in the line, giving me a fairly decent view of the perfect angle to capture the event. And how I know that it was the best view, because right besides us was parked a Pajero, upon which a man with a dangling badge that boasted "Secraterait - Panagbenga 2010 Documentation Committee" was plumbing his tripod pipes to fix his camera on the car roof, while the rest of his team mates were busy securing their own positions at different corners of the car's roof. An hour passed away with no action, apart from the one when a garbage truck passed by on the parade track and the person
atop amused the crowd by flying celebrity kisses from the top. I was getting little fussy , even Joel and Cha had gone out for a drink and I, not in a mood to lose my position especially after kneering behind me at the ever extending queue, preferred to stand firm until the show begins. To kill some time, I perched my Sony Walkman on my ears to listen to Rahman making people dance on 'Fanaaa'. I never really understood what Gulzar had to say in this song with words like Ulfat, Darya and something that happens with Saaya and its Badan. But who cares, I enjoy Rahman in that song and the exhiliration of that song perfectly matched the zest of the exodus gathered at the Panagbenga 2010. The anxious faces soon started cheering the first float of the morning that begun an hour late. Well everyone in Philippines can understand that, it is Filipino time after all. I envied the mayor of Baguio that day when I saw angels dancing for him in front of his float that kick started the Panagbenga 2010. Looking on my right, I envied Cha since had secured herself atop a drinks van giving her best position and the comfort of her feet getting the due rest, in sitting position. while my legs shuffled their position taking turns to bear my body weight all the while. On my left, the camera men had suddenly turned their attention to the butterfly who had chosen to play with an Orange T-Shirt photographer belonging to the 'Documentation Committee'. "What is a butterfly doing here?" Was such a dumb question from someone behind me. Quite obvious, it is a festival of flowers, where we are about to witness one of the best floats entirely dressed and designed in flowers glide on the surface of the tar road.

With so much of fragrance in the air, the butterfly branding the logo of the festival decided to say 'hi' to everyone across the globe by conveniently choosing the officially appointed photographers to play with. And thus began the replendent ride of one float after another where there were performances, dressings, designs, art, culture, zest, enthusiasm, colours, music and all possible combinations that can make a festival successful mingled with each other. It all began with the leviathans of the retail industry in Philippines - the SM group showcasing their roaring tiger
entirely drenched in the yellow flower (I guess it is called as Marigold). Soon after floats from the likes of AMA, Metro Pacific, LBC, San Miguel, Aegis etc accompanied by school children, professional dancers together summed up the strength of 24 floats that paraded on the streets of Baguio for 2 whole hours entertaining and surprising the masses with every passing moment. "Do you have such festivals in your city back home?" Lego enquired. "Well we do have a republic day parade but it happens in New Delhi and I have never really seen one live anytime." However now I do promise myself to sit amidst that crowd sometime someday to witness the live performance of the Republic Day parade along the India gate. I enjoy watching the parade over the television, but watching it live is surely going to be one hell of an experience and Panagbenga 2010 just talked to me in the same language. I never realised that I have been standing (rahter struggling to stand) on that divider for as long as an average Bollywood movie would last and my legs are now complaining for the ire they had to undergo, but my mind and my heart knew that it was all worth it. Panagbenga 2010 was indeed an experience to remember.

Zeitgeist - The Spirit of the Times

"So what do you do for living?" is generally the one of our FAQs when we get introduced to someone for the first time. Well ponder a bit at the object of the preposition - "living". It is a concept accepted by the world that we do something for our living and then we do something for our liking. Which means that the activity that we do for our living needn't necessarily be same as the one we pursue as our hobby. Imagine a world where you just pursue your hobby where all of your living needs are being taken care of by technology. Imagine living in a world where technology is the driving force and you are greasing the wheels of human progress by just doing what you like to do.

What would you like to do say entertainment - love to act? So pursue it until you get bored of it. Who will pay you for that? No one. Sounds weird right? If no one is going to pay me, how the hell do you expect that I would be feeding myself? Well, the answer lies in technology. Just like you are passionate about stage performance, there are a bunch of geeks who are passionate about lab performance. They would be the ones inventing robots and machines and automating the world that would help you make your own food. So right from purchasing goods - well wait a minute, lets hit the backspace key; so right from procuring goods to processing them and then finally serving a delicious dish on your table, everything will be done by technology.

"Buddy, robots working for me? I don't have that kind of money." Again, why did we hit backspace? Because in the Lotus Project of the Zeitgeist movement, no one pays for anything. They intend to remove the concept of money from our system. So you do not pay for robots and the scientist working in the lab doesn't pay for your stage performance. Sounds like a barter system isn't it? Well it does to me to. So let us dive ourselves a little deeper into this concept.

"Why is air free and water so cheap?" asks the video documentary of the project. Well we all know the answer that it is available in abundance. No one would really be spending a rupee or a cent for a cubic meter of air, because it is available for free and in abundance. Now air is not available in water asking divers pay for the oxygen cylinders. So what do we do to make sure that the food we talked about short while ago, comes to my table for free? Well, that's right, you know the answer - make it available in abundance. How to do that? The scientists of the lotus project believe that technology has answers to all these questions. And honestly, this doesn't seem impossible from my perspective too.

Again, little difficult to digest right? Let us consider wikipedia's example. Remember the times when we used to spend thousands on the stack of world books occupying an entire wall of our living room! Wikipedia was kneering on you and it said "Ha!". Today we have the best of the knowledge about our world available on internet and that too free. How was it made possible? Well, technology did it, didnt it? Well I would like to rephrase the sentence, 'Effective use of technology did it.' People who are passionate about their own subjects scribble on this online forum where information is validated by people themselves. Who pays all these goons? No one. And yet they do it because they love doing it. There are millions of programmers publishing their codes online. Why do they make it all available for free? Because they love that work. So today, coding is not really a rocket science, because most of it is available online. Then programmers build something over this free code and erect another beauty on it. Together we create marvels in the computing world and device something like Java, Linux or Android. Zeitgeist movement's 'The Lotus Project' is basically transitioning these already achieved benefits in the online world onto the real life. And 'yes' they say, it is possible.

Now consider a nice house on the sea-shore where you can lay on a rocking chair reading your favorite book in the verandah while the sound of sea waves soothe your senses. Who would not like to live that life? So there are tens of thousands of people who would like to own that place. You cannot make such places available in abundance, can you? This is a place where demand will always succeed the supply and then you hit a barrier of economics where you need money to decide a price on the property. "Well I agree", explained Eric - an active member of 'The Lotus Project'. "I agree that our system is not foolproof. All we are saying that this is an initiative and there are good chances that we can come across a good way of living if all of us work in this direction. There are certain loopholes that we would want to plug. But we believe that technology has answers to all of these questions." So that means that the egg is still incubating. We cannot hatch it now.

"I want to cite another example. Talent is rare. You cannot have that in abundance. Everyone plays cricket, but Sachin Tendulkar comes once in a lifetime. Everyone works in science, but Einstein is born once in centuries. How do you encourage the talent if there are going to be no incentives? Today Sachin, a guy brought up from a middle class family would aspire to own a Ferrari and rightfully desire to have a plush bungalow in one of the most expensive places in Mumbai. How can you give him an incentive to play?"

"Well we think that talent doesn't need incentive. We believe that people would pour out their devotion towards their field without any of these incentives." Eric answered although not entirely convincing me. Even the zeitgeist videos about religion and the conspiracy theories are nothing but a mere entertainment they do not convince me.

But looking at the broader picture, I think its worthwhile to keep a tab on this movement so that the next time we meet, I can just ask "So, What do you do" - removing the "living" part from it.


(Image courtesy: BP.blogspot)

3 Idiots is not a five pointer film

3 Idiots



About 3 years back when Raju Hirani released his last film, I remember all the facebook and orkut statuses had been updated to "Bande Mein Tha Dam". It was the after-impact of the film. The story repeated this time with words being changed to "All izz well". Raju does make some impact on the audience everytime he makes a film and he has indeed done a good job in adapting Chetan Bhagat's "5 point someone" to his own "3 Idiots". The reason I am saying 'his own' is because 3 idiots is actually different from the original book.

Ranchordas Shyamaldas Chanchard aka Rancho (Amir Khan) a boy with a different outlook towards the concept of studying, a brain who thinks about applying science rather than merely learning it, got admitted amongst the geeky pundits of the Imperial College of Engineering aka IC where grades and marks determine how successful are you going to be in the road ahead. Veeru Sahasrabuddhe aka Virus (Boman Irani), the director of IC a man with constant wrinkles on his forehead and an ability to make anyone feel small is clueless of what is going to happen in his own college when his staff placed this guy Rancho and 2 more idiots Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi) and Farhaan Qureshi (R Madhavan) in one room of the hostel.



Rancho with a mentality of "Strive for excellance and then success will follow you" is least bothered about grades and results, and on the contrary, Raju and Farhaan however inspired are by Rancho's theory, have to focus on grades due to family pressure and the outcome is contrary. Rancho someone least bothered about grades stands first in the class while the other set of idiots come last and second last respectively. Rancho's answer behind this is the word 'passion'. He coaxes Farhaan to pursue his own passion of photography where he will stand way ahead of others. Raju on the other hand is lost in the race of grades and has long forgotten the word 'excellence'. Both the guys at the end rectify their flaws and follow what Rancho had to say for them. It is a happy graduation day picture, except that Rancho has disappeared from the set. The entire movie is in the search of this guy Rancho who disappeared from the graduation day 10 years back and the story above features in bit and pieces as the flashback scenes.


Raju has very well captured the student life, the race for grades, the student superstitions, the student pressure, the student suicides etc painting the education system very well on his canvass of 3 Idiots. It was a lively experience reminiscing the good old student days where we have lived parts of these lives in bit and pieces. Songs are very well made expect that I would say 'Zoobie Doobie' was a mistake.

C.K.Muraleedharan has done a wonderful job in his cinematography capturing Laddhak, Shimla, Manali and the IIM Bangalore campus as the IC at it's brilliance.

Now going back to my first expression, the movie is different from the original book - the reason being, it is a film. Raju has made it filmy with his typical melodramatic masala and obnoxious scenes where Amir Khan delivers a baby using a vacuum cleaner. The book I guess is Chetan's own story and hence much closer to reality. Ryan the hunk, Hari the guy with Prof Cherian's girl and Alok are 5 pointers and thus below average graders. None of them top the class. So to sum it up, Chetan has done a good job of bringing out an important real life topic while Raju has done a good job in putting it on the reels.

Rating: ***1/2