The dream for Utopia with Aamir

‘3 Idiots’ is a 2009 Bollywood comedy film directed by Rajkumar Hirani, with a screenplay by Abhijat Joshi, and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. It was loosely adapted from the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat. 3 Idiots is the highest grossing Bollywood movie of all time.
The sole responsibility for making a movie bang in box office or slide down the rungs of ladder has always been put mainly on the leading actors. It’s character of the lead actors that turns the face of a movie.
Let’s try to critically understand the role of Aamir Khan as Rancho in the recent movie “3 idiots”. The ordeal of Rancho as protagonist starts in the movie when the students are shown been ragged by the seniors. The long shot of Rancho Khan cutting to a close up showing his immediate mutiny in the facial expression gives an impression to the audience of exclusivity. The revolting nature of the protagonist is immediately reflective when he refuses to put his pants down and enters the room. This sequence of shots- from entering the college to electrocuting the senior marks him the real hero. His adamant behavior and remarkable queries asked to his professor leaves a sharp image on the mind of the audience. The two other characters as quick friends also play its role in making the protagonist an amicable human. The character of Raju (Sharman Joshi) that directs the audience about his dilemma of whether or not to be a friend of Rancho drives the audience into a state of bewilderment. On the other hand, Farhan (R. Madhavan) another friend trusts Rancho the very first day that ads to the overall confusion. Audience tries to understand the character of Rancho further to come to a conclusion. It is this panic that drives audience to glue to the movie.
Narrative plays another vital role that makes the character important. The first person narrative in the movie sets the plot quite perfectly and arranges every possibility to make the lead role laudable. In the opening scene the narrative (Farhan) describes how he came to the engineering college against his will and his meeting with Rancho. Throughout the movie the first person narrative of Farhan makes people believe how important and unique the character Rancho is. The narrative takes away the audience into a world of kindness and intelligence being dominated by Rancho.
Rancho was never shown in a negative way. However, he might have committed mischief like going to Professor’s house at night to meet his daughter , changing the welcome speech, stealing question papers from the office or. But the consequence was never burdened over him. He was kept ideal. Consequences of such conflicts never tainted his character. His friends were however made the scapegoats.
The undeveloped antagonist Chatur Ramalingam is also responsible to set the plot perfectly for the lead role. The rival who is not evil by nature takes a position very different from Rancho. The ideologies are different and the principles are not alike. This arena of indifferences between Rancho and his rival attracts audience. The audience is shown how the rival makes mistakes and Rancho snatches away the empathy of the masses. The shock was aptly thundered when Rancho comes first in the exam.
Professor Viru Sahastrebuddhe, another arch rival impacts the audience a lot. His annoyance and insensitive nature puts a pessimistic blow on the audience. Interestingly, it is this pessimistic character that makes Rancho look laudable and praiseworthy. The deep rooted rivalry among the two characters is a matter of great interest to the audience. It drives them to hate the professor and praise Rancho who proves right in every way.
Rancho’s intelligence, easy going nature, optimism, helpful, amicable, and humorous and god like figure portrayed in the film was a way to give message to the masses. His character highlighted through meaningful speeches about- stress on students, grade system and education system reminded audience to dream of Utopian society.
The emotion and moment of catharsis in form of tears with background music at regular intervals perfectly set Rancho as a hero. As a lover, the character performs his best. The deep rooted friendship tie between the three characters shown being tightly held by Rancho in good and bad times taught a lot. With climax and anticlimax by the end of the story, the culmination was however unrealistically shocking to the audience. All was well with Rancho despite shocking revelations of his background. However, it seemed that being an intellectual it was not hard for Rancho to become a scientist and create a utopian society in a distant place.’

By Jayant Bormudoi