PRELUDE TO PARADISE

The name from the beginning evoked curiosity in a mind habituated to watching Sunday movies at Spice Cinemas. I tend to ignore the sudden qualms about buying a seat in the Gold Class, although having it as a last resort for Sunday adventure. After all what do you do if a film (desired) doesn’t play in the general hall on its opening? So “3 Idiots” sounded scrumptious right at the beginning before its release on Christmas Day. I presumed it would be on the lines of “Dumb and Dumber”, the 1994 flick starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. Little did I know that the film was based on the novel “Five point Someone” by an eminent writer of our times, Chetan Bhagat. Unfortunately on Christmas Day I was out of town to a place where cinema halls are for animals and the like. No multiplexes rule the roost but that is yet another story which I intend to share in future offers. My brother was lucky enough to get tickets for the movie though he hardly watches movies. So after the movie I called him promptly and popped the question. “Oh my God, you must watch it” was his candid reply.
And I decided to watch the movie on the first day of the New Year and booked my tickets in the infamous Gold class, for reasons explained earlier. Also as a precursor I watched Aamir Khan promoting his movie by making an anonymous trip to Varanasi and other places that I might have missed for reasons most unclear to this day. We all know he is a brilliant actor/director/producer but sometimes certain actions of these stars don’t make any sense. I have always considered Aamir Khan to be an actor with a difference, a stand-out humane actor who’s movie are loved by one and all because they make lot of sense. Sorry! Aamir, masquerade in Varanasi, that doesn’t make any sense at all.
There I sat on the reclining chair with a bar tender standing hot and ready next to me with menu card on his finger tips. I make it a point, at movie theatres, to concentrate on the movie rather than fully grilled kebabs and softies. With no inkling of what the movie was all about, I expected something phenomenal. In today’s pop culture where do you get the time to read books and write letters when one is constantly running in and out of one’s desk at office?
Just like all films with Aamir Khan the beginning was quite humble and ordinary. Lovely. And then a sensible man reading a book on an airplane. He showed no idiocy of any sort.
I marked on my fingers, one gone two to go. Maybe the other two are blithering idiots. The second one was lying on his bed receiving a phone call as he sprang up and ran in his undies to catch up with his friend. Again not an idiot by any standard. Ah! Maybe the third one was a total idiot. At this point of time the film was running flashbacks to and fro. Well the third one turned out to be a revelation, a hero far from idiotic limits. Three sensible people fighting their way through life can never fall in the realm of ‘idiotic’ far from ‘Dumb and Dumber’.
By now I thought the title of the film should have been “Three Wise Men” instead of the given title. And an exceptional performance by Boman Irani dressed up as Albert Einstein though on a negative role (kind of). The entire movie pivots around his performance. Here’s the thought to ponder upon. And this is perhaps a strong message one can get from the film. There are so many murderers in this country of ours who go un- noticed and who never have to face the court or law or go to jail, far from any persecution of any kind. These are eminent professors be it of prized institutes like the IIT’s or psychiatrists or teachers of any kind. Instead of encouraging their students to higher standards they take out faults in them and damage them emotionally severely. In today’s milieu what does a student do if he is not good at mathematics or science; if a student likes music or songs or art and architecture? Well such people do make it to engineering schools but no one knows what happens to them after that. No one knows how many families have lost sons and daughters through suicides. Well in the movie it was really heart breaking to find a young man killing himself after not being allowed to graduate. I felt a tear with Aamir at the young man’s burial. How can the nation afford to lose even a single creative mind? It has been so rightly pointed out in the movie that today it’s a number game. One can do an American MBA and get settled there if and only if one has the numbers. Learning is fun no more and the more one crams the better the outcome. That in itself is the central theme of the movie and like always I wish cinemas could change the world. The only way out is to fight for what one likes to do and then maybe one can find ones way. But does that happen in real life. I guess not. Not all people are courageous enough or have the emotional backing to rebel and fight for their stand. The people who have survived have somehow hung on to life and all its colours.
The film is truly delightful with plenty to laugh about. Chatur Ramalingam brings uproarious laughter with his ‘Balatkar’ speech. The movie ends on a delightful note with Rancho(there are so many names floating about in the movie that I forget his other names, I was never good with names anyway; maybe I’ll watch the movie again.) flying a glider and meeting up with his sweetheart riding a scooter and other two idiots!
I guess I should stop calling them idiots but history has already been written!