A Dud, A Babe & A Latte Boy

3 Idiots – what a wonderful & beautiful movie :) Actually, its an Indian comedy-drama film starring the very talented Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor. The story begins with Farhan Qureshi (R. Madhavan), Raju Rastogi (Sharman Joshi) and Ranchoddas Shamaldas Chanchad "Rancho" (Aamir Khan) who are three engineering students who share a room in the residence of the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE). Farhan is studying engineering to pursue his father's wishes over his own wish — to become a wildlife photographer. Raju is studying to raise his family's fortunes and to get them out of poverty. On the other hand, Rancho studies for his simple passion in machines and devices. Rancho believes that success in studying is not achieved by solely memorizing definitions given by the textbooks or professors, but by understanding and applying the concepts. He believes that one should follow excellence, not success, as success will come itself if excellence is followed.

Of course, like any typical Bollywood movie, there is the romance element embedded into it. But this movie is about 80% of substance and 20% of romance. This movie explores the reality of today’s community attitude towards children, students and the education system. The parents (of course, not all of them) have been pushing their children to attend tuition classes or any additional classes, expecting them & pressuring them to do well in school in order to get good grades and deciding which career path that they should take in order to secure ones’ future of power and financial freedom. In between all that, did the parents ever once ask their children what they want to do? And at another end of the spectrum, the so-called intellectual establishments have been churning graduates like a machine production line. Getting their young charges to follow, obey and memorize facts & figures instead of understanding the process.

And it also reminds me of my country’s education system. We as a community must demand more from our education system. If our national schools eradicate their deficiencies and all were more like Victoria Institution or St. John’s, for instance, Malaysians of all races will be lining up to send their kids to national schools. There would then be no need to waste time on pointless debates about vernacular schools and such. Get the national schools right, let there be Mandarin & Tamil classes be made available and we will be on our way. It’s about providing the people with palatable choices. Have a one session school system. Get rid of the afternoon classes. How can we say in this day and age that we don't have enough schools with classrooms to accommodate pupils in the morning sessions? Afternoon should be saved for games and extracurricular activities. Games, sports and art & culture are crucial to all-round character building. It is on the sports field that we encounter with our first team & national-building and communications experiences. It’s in the drama classes that you get your first creative experience. We need creative people and team players if Malaysia is to prosper in this challenging era of globalization. It will be good if we can have fewer exams. Why do we need so many for? Yes, we must be prudent about this as examinations are a test of accumulated knowledge and lessons picked up throughout the whole year but we must also be wary not to get carried away by relying solely on test after test to evaluate our children. In the classroom, encouragement and fostering of creative thinking must take centre stage and not just memorizing a book. Rote learning will not cut it in this new digital era. We need to create an environment where the creative juices must be allowed to flow freely and experimentation is encouraged.

But this movie also teaches the viewers one thing – at the end of the day, it’s all about attitude. If you have the right attitude and the right values, you will be at the right path. I would not mind if my children didn’t score well in their exams, as long as they have the right attitude, they have good soft skills such as communication skills, are articulate in their ideas or views, initiative, have common sense, determination and people-oriented.

Overall, this movie is purely fantastic. Excellent music score, awesome dance choreography, colorful costumes and a great screenplay with a big heart. ALL IS WELL. I am even using this phrase to assure myself these days :)