When a student who questions everything is considered a problem, while the one who memorises everything is celebrated as brilliant, so many things get to unfold.
3 Idiots take this turn and make it into a beautiful mix of comedy, friendship, romance, pressure and some uncomfortable truths about education and life and seriously I had to wait patiently to carefully and calmly review this film.
The Indian comedy-drama directed by Rajkumar Hirani and released in 2009, follows three engineering students whose friendship becomes one of the most memorable parts of their college experience. Years later, two of them set out to find their missing friend, and the journey brought back memories of the unusual experiences, funny incidents and difficult moments that shaped their lives.
At the centre of the story is Rancho, played by Aamir Khan. He is intelligent, curious and unapologetically different. He wants to understand what he is learning rather than simply memorizing it for examinations. His approach constantly challenges the rigid system around him where he found himself, where the system forgets what education is really about, especially the college director, Viru Sahastrabuddhe, popularly known as Virus, played brilliantly by Boman Irani.
R. Madhavan plays Farhan Qureshi, a young man caught between his personal passion for photography and the engineering expectations placed on him. Sharman Joshi plays Raju Rastogi, whose struggles reflect the fear of failure and the weight of family responsibilities. Together, the three actors create a believable friendship, with each character bringing a different struggle to the story.
The way these three friends support one another makes me question if such friendships still really exist in our world today. The part where Raju's dad had to be rushed to the hospital on Pia's scooter which nearly cause Raju to scold his friends until he heard the doctor say they could have lost the man if they had delayed a few minutes, or when Raju attempted suicide in Virus's office and was in a vegetable state. Even when Rancho and Farhan had to steal the question paper from Virus's office, set specifically to fail Raju and reflecting now, I think Raju had the sacrifices of the friendship more.
Kareena Kapoor plays Pia, a medical student whose relationship with Rancho adds romance and another perspective on the pressure young people. I love it most when she brought the bland to her father's (Virus) face to have murdered his only son when they were thinking he committed suicide all because he was forcing him to be an engineer. I think that was the start of the turning point for Virus's stoned heart.
Omi Vaidya also deserves to be mentioned, who acted as Chatur the competitive student whose obsession with academic success provided some of the film's funniest moments. His character was entertaining, but also reveals how the desire to outperform others can sometimes become more important than the actual understanding of success. I can't cease to laugh when the script he was was meant to read for the Teacher's Day function was changed.
The film's greatest strength is its storytelling. Hirani balances humour with serious subjects without making the movie feel like a classroom lecture. One moment, you're laughing at the students' antics; the next, you're thinking about parental expectations, academic competition, mental health, and how society measures success in various aspects of life. The emotional moments felt more powerful because the film gave the characters room to be funny, flawed and vulnerable.
The cinematography captures both the crowded energy of campus life and the beauty of the film's more expansive locations. The college setting feels structured and pressurised, while the later journey introduces refreshing landscapes and a sense of freedom. The editing connects the present-day search with memories from the past, keeping the mystery of the missing friend alive while gradually revealing the trio's history.
Shantanu Moitra's soundtrack is another great highlight of the movie of which I am very certain that it makes people love the film so much. Songs such as “All Is Well,” “Give Me Some Sunshine” and “Zoobi Doobi” serve different purposes, from comic relief to emotional expression and you find it moving lips while watching as if it was one special song. The background score, sound design, colourful campus scenes and lively performances all help the film move comfortably between comedy, drama and romance.
Of course, at nearly three hours, the film is long, and some of its dramatic moments are deliberately heightened. Its message can occasionally feel a little too neatly packaged, as though every complicated problem can be solved with the right attitude. Still, the film's emotional sincerity makes it easy to forgive much of that and loving to revisit.
What I appreciate most about 3 Idiots is that it doesn't simply tell students to follow their dreams. It asks why so many people are afraid to discover what they genuinely want in the first place.
3 Idiots is very funny, emotionally moving, thought-provoking and highly highly and highly rewatchable (I dont think I have the audacity to delete it from my download history, lol). Beneath the jokes and memorable characters is a film about friendship, identity, pressure and the courage to think differently. It reminds us that getting good grades and being truly educated are not always the same thing and that success means very little if you lose yourself trying to achieve it.
I'll be dropping my 🖊️ here on the movie review.
Thanks for reading through 🤗
All images are for the movie.
Rating: 99/100